Cheering A Cash Incentive

How much joy can $8,000 bring? For Realtors across the state, the answer is: tons. Every single Realtor that Banker & Tradesman has spoken to in the last three weeks has said something about President Barack Obama‘s housing plan and the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit.

Those comments have ranged from, "Hey, 8,000 bucks is 8,000 bucks," to a wordless, Howard Dean-esque screech of ecstasy and relief. 

"[Realtors are] probably feeling some relief that someone is finally doing something about housing," said Gary Rogers, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. "We’ll take anything we can get right now."

What they got was something to market to new homebuyers: cold hard cash. Unlike the provision passed last summer by the Bush administration, a $7,500, no-interest, 15-year loan, Americans buying a home for the first time get to keep their $8,000 and spend it any way they want.

Rogers said those first-time homebuyers would need appliances, furniture and household goods to furnish their houses, and that would stimulate retail stores.

Rogers was also thrilled to point out that with jumbo loan limits permanently increased to $729,750 – up from $417,000 – current homeowners also have a chance to move into a bigger space and take advantage of conforming loans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"I think it’s probably about the same impact," Rogers said. "The $8,000 credit gets people in the market, and the increase in loan limits allows [the sellers] to move up to the larger homes. People can save a couple hundred dollars a month [by having a conforming mortgage], and that’s sizable. It’s a huge plus."

The Sound of Silence

Is the clock running out on John Hynes‘ hole in the ground?

Back in January, One Franklin developer Gale International came to the Boston Redevelopment Authority begging for the city to sign off on plans to cut residential units out of its troubled Filene‘s redevelopment project.

At that meeting, Gale predicted it would be able to resume construction activity by March. "Hopefully by then, we’ll have some construction activity and some complaints about noise," ventured a company official.

Now, March is here, and the only ruckus around Gale and Vornado‘s pit in the ground is the chatter about the project’s imminent death. (The normally talkative Hynes was unavailable for comment. Maybe he’s hiding … in a certain hole he dug?)

Meanwhile, rumors swirled last week that Fish & Richardson, the tower’s commercial anchor, had finally decided to ditch Hynes for a building that, you know, actually exists. (Fan Pier would be a nice fit.) That would certainly be a death blow for a project that’s on life support as it is, even with significant commercial and retail commitments and strong hotel interest.

And while the law firm still has a still-current letter of intent to move into One Franklin in January 2011, the project’s continued delays could make it nearly impossible for the firm to execute a lease.

"One Franklin is still Fish & Richardson’s first choice, and the only building with which the firm has a letter of intent," said Kelly Largey, the firm’s chief marketing officer. "Fish has not backed away from this deal, though the firm has concerns about whether the building can be completed in time, and is weighing its options." 

At a January BRA hearing on the building’s change of use application, Gale’s Len Conlin described his firm as being "between a rock and a hard place" with its financing. He also made a funny joke about not wanting the project to "run out of duct tape." And he conceded that, if construction restarted in March, Gale and Vornado would be chasing an exceedingly aggressive timetable – 18 months – to get One Franklin vertical and ready for occupancy by the time Fish’s lease expires, in December 2010. Every week that passes makes this construction schedule more and more unlikely.

Complicating matters further is the fact that the BRA’s board still hasn’t approved One Franklin’s change of use. That’s the developers’ own doing. The comment period on their office-and-residential to office-only switch expired in mid-February, but Gale and Vornado have resisted seeking board approval of the switch because they don’t want to settle on a plan without securing financing for it first.

The hitch there is that if the developers wind up landing financing for a plan that’s substantially different than the new 33-story office they’ve already pitched to the BRA, they’ll still have to endure another hearing, and another 30-day comment period, and then wait for a board vote – easily a two-month process.

Cran-Land: Bog Co. Largest Private Mass. Landowner

Cranberry farmers A.D. Makepeace became the state’s largest private landowner when the Wareham-based firm purchased more than 1,000 acres of bogs in Carver earlier this month.

A.D. Makepeace, which already owned more than 12,500 acres in southeastern Massachusetts, closed on a $6.1-million deal for the bogs two weeks ago. The seller was Ellis D. Atwood Inc., the firm that owns the Edaville USA railroad park. The bogs surround the main amusement park, which Atwood will continue to own and operate.

A.D. Makepeace has been consolidating its operations, selling off some far-flung bogs in Norton and Easton, developing others for housing, and growing its core farming operations around Wareham and Carver, said Linda Burke, the firm’s communications director. It bills itself as the world’s largest single cranberry grower. Ocean Spray, the juicer that buys its berries, has been growing, and as a result, has been leaning on its farmers to increase their production and yield per acre. "Last year was our best ever," Burke said.