A joint venture between National Development and Boston Herald owner Patrick Purcell has been dropped from the hunt to build a new, custom-built regional headquarters for the FBI, two sources have told Banker & Tradesman.
That leaves just two developers – South Boston developer Tim Pappas and Chelsea-based ACS Development Corp. – left to vie for the contract.
According to sources with knowledge of the search, the Herald site ultimately didn’t work for the FBI from a security standpoint: it sits next to the elevated Southeast Expressway, which means the site carries a much wider bomb blast radius than the Pappas and ACS sites.
The Herald’s exit of the race sets the stage for an intriguing political tug-of-war between the two remaining development sites. Boston Mayor Tom Menino has courted the FBI for his city – at one point, pitching Joe Fallon’s Fan Pier – while MassPort, the politically wired authority that controls the Pappas site, is said to believe that placing an FBI office on its land would enable it to jack up Pappas’s rent.
Meanwhile, Congressman Michael Capuano has been pulling equally hard for ACS’s 5-acre Chelsea site.
HQ Hunt Continues
The FBI has been seeking a new home, in fits and starts, for more than two years now. The agency is leaving its current home in Equity Office’s Center Plaza at the end of July 2011, and is seeking between 230,000 and 270,000 square feet of build-to-suit office space.
In May, Banker & Tradesman reported that Purcell and National Development had unexpectedly jumped into the FBI sweepstakes. According to sources, the FBI’s landlord, the General Services Administration, temporarily threw the brakes on the headquarters search to let the Herald site team catch up to Pappas and ACS. Purcell and National Development had the benefit of cheap land costs. The move was seen as a bid to reposition a site that had no other immediate development prospects.
Two years ago, Purcell sold the Herald’s headquarters to a joint partnership between himself and National Development. Under the deal, the Herald would vacate its 6.6-acre parcel at the edge of the South End and Chinatown. Purcell and National Development would then raze the newspaper’s former home, replacing it with residential and office space. The partnership agreement between Purcell and National Development envisioned redeveloping the Herald site within a six-year window.
The FBI and GSA have barred the FBI’s suitors from speaking about the hunt.
