In an effort to combat suburban flight, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced a plan today intended to keep corporate tenants with expiring leases from leaving the city.
The plan, outlined in Menino’s annual speech to the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, will direct the Boston Redevelopment Authority to "identify companies in Boston whose leases end in the next 24 months," and offer them "financial and technical assistance where appropriate" to stay in Boston.
"We’re going to be out visiting businesses, knocking on doors, asking how we can help," Menino said in the press scrum following his speech. He acknowledged that Boston is competing with cheaper suburban rents, but said, "We’re going to show the benefits of doing business in Boston."
Brenda McKenzie, the BRA’s director of economic development, said the agency would partner with private commercial real estate firms to identify and target businesses that might be candidates for suburban flight. She could not yet identify which brokerage firms the city would be working with. However, she said the outreach effort would be wide-ranging, targeting industrial, office and lab users, large and small.
"One of the reasons companies say they leave is often that no one asked them to stay," McKenzie said. "We’re going to ask them to stay."
Asked whether the city would be targeting tax breaks, tenant improvement funds or some other incentive, McKenzie replied, "We’ll see what their needs are. This will really be customized to their needs."
The mayor also addressed stalled construction in the city, labeling himself "concerned about a few key construction projects that have stalled," while urging the room full of business leaders not to "overlook the fact that Boston has $5 billion worth of projects under construction right now."
"In the weeks ahead," Menino added, "We will expand that activity by adding federal stimulus money to work to kick-start capital projects."
The administration is preparing to deploy roughly $150 million in federal stimulus funds, including $33 million in Boston Housing Authority capital funds, $21 million for street repaving, $12.9 million for Dorchester Avenue renovations, $5 million in transportation technology upgrades, and $57 million in education funds.
