Time may be finally running out for veteran Hub tower builder John Hynes and his deep-pocketed New York development partner to make things right with Boston’s Filene’s fiasco.

After another round of angry rhetoric from Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, City Hall is making clear that Hynes and Vornado Realty Trust need to come up with a viable plan for redeveloping the now-gutted block in the heart of Downtown Crossing and swing into action.

And if they can’t get it done, John Palmieri, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, is hinting pretty clearly that regime change may be needed.

As far as laying out a timetable for action, Palmieri, in a recent interview, declined to throw out a date or specific time period. But it was also pretty clear that we are talking about months, not years.

While Hynes is given generally good marks for hustle by the BRA chief, there are some big questions about the commitment of Vornado, which is sitting on a huge cash stockpile – $2.6 billion, according to their most recent SEC filing – even as the Filene’s site languishes.

“If they can’t do it, it stands to reason they will need to find someone else who can,” Palmieri said.

Drawing A Line

In a first step, Palmieri is pushing for a summit within the next month with the erstwhile Filene’s developers. The aim will be to lay it all out on the table and make it clear that jumpstarting the Filene’s project needs to be a top priority for development team, especially Vornado.

“We can make it clear that this is a site that is a focus area, and we can demand attention and that the developer do everything in his power to pay attention to this site,” Palmieri told me.

City Hall’s goal is to get the developers to focus on a plan that will work for the site in the current economy. That might mean building an office complex for financial services firms, one that would display cutting-edge green building technology, and a rethinking of the luxury residential tower/retail concept.

Palmieri credits the Filene’s development team with “pushing hard” in a bid to line up financing to start work, despite a tough economy. But Vornado’s cash-rich balance sheet – and its decision to push ahead with other projects around the world – is clearly not going over well at City Hall.

In its original form, the plan to renovate Filene’s and build a tower next to it was slated to cost $700 million. A revamped, less ambitious plan would surely cost significantly less.

Still, some contend that City Hall would be better off letting Hynes and Vornado, considered some of the best in the business, do their jobs.

The Filene’s mess is a market problem that won’t be solved by switching development teams, said David Begelfer, chief executive of NAIOP Massachusetts, which represents the local development industry.

“No one today could finance that project,” Begelfer said. “This is not because they are incompetent – they are highly qualified professionals. It’s the market.”

Nor is everyone convinced that City Hall has the leverage at this point to prod action at the Filene’s site.

The demolition of the modern half of the Filene’s complex was done more than a year ago. The time to prevent such a fiasco was before the bulldozers and wrecking crews moved in. Some argue (in hindsight) that a pre-construction bonding requirement, similar to what San Francisco now has, may have helped mitigate some of the damage, and it’s a point well taken.

Eminent Domain Imminent?

But I am just as convinced that once the mayor decides it is time for the Filene’s developers to go, they will be scrambling for the exits. Menino is a master of wielding power, especially when it comes to development in Boston, and he has a lot of weapons in his arsenal.

Sure, Vornado could choose to thumb its nose at City Hall and sit on the Filene’s site for years until the economy comes back. But the price would be steep. It’s a simple rule all developers who build in Boston understand full well – without the mayor’s backing, your project is going nowhere fast.

But if that threat is not enough, city officials have the equivalent of an A-bomb ready for use – eminent domain.

Palmieri argued such an approach would be prohibitively costly, with the city having to reimburse the developers for potentially hundreds of millions in costs. But it has been a “tool” that City Hall has not shied away from over the years. City officials have gotten flak over the years, arguing, in one case, that a large swath of the neighborhood around Fenway Park was “blighted,” a key condition for an eminent domain taking.

It’s hard to see anyone arguing the battered Filene’s site is anything but that.

Still, like the bomb, just having those eminent domain powers at the ready can be power enough when dealing with a balky developer.

We are not at that point yet with Filene’s. But I can hear the clock ticking.

“There is a real immediacy,” Palmieri said. “The mayor has been clear – the signal is clear.”