Hyatt Buys … a Hyatt
Hyatt Corp. closed on its $110 million acquisition of the Hyatt Regency in downtown Boston last week.
The seller, Maryland-based Host Hotels, is trying to raise cash and increase liquidity in the midst of an especially nasty period for hospitality firms. The REIT recently announced fourth-quarter revenue down more than 29 percent from a year ago, and it expects a brutal 2009.
Hyatt has managed the hotel since 2003, when it took the property over from Swissotel.
Host Hotels had owned the property since 1999, when it acquired the downtown tower from Blackstone as part of a $1.2-billion, 13-hotel portfolio deal. The last sale of the property as a unit came in 1997, when Swissotel unloaded it to Blackstone for $60.4 million.
An Education You Can Bank On
It’s too late to teach certain corporations about financial responsibility (cough, AIG, cough), but Mt. Washington Bank is taking a crack at teaching families and children about smart money concepts. The South Boston bank announced last week that it’s joined with the state treasurer’s office to promote financial education. Mt. Washington will work with local schools to teach kids about things like opening savings accounts and basic budgeting in the Savings Makes "Cents" program (see what they did there, with the quote marks? Ah, puns) out of the treasurer’s financial education department.
The program kicked off earlier this month at an event in the Smith Leadership Academy, a Charter School in Dorchester, where the bank and representatives from Treasurer Tim Cahill‘s office answered questions from parents interested in opening bank accounts for their children. The treasurer’s "Cents" program has a curriculum taught by teachers and bankers in about 400 schools across the state.
"It is never too early to start learning about the importance of saving money and responsible spending," said Edward J. Merritt, president and CEO of Mt. Washington Bank. "Helping children develop a sound understanding of basic financial principles will help our children become responsible consumers in the future."
So Which One Is It Going To Be, Ray?
Raymond Property Co. finally filed its long-awaited Project Notification Form (PNF) for its massive Government Center Garage project last week. As expected, Raymond’s PNF sketched out two development scenarios – one leveraging the garage and roughly 75,000 square feet of adjacent parcels owned by the city of Boston, the Boston Redevelopment Authority and NStar, and a second scenario that would cram nearly 3.6 million square feet of new development onto the garage’s current footprint.
It’s no surprise Raymond filed a two-tiered PNF, given the garage’s sudden status as a flashpoint in Boston’s mayoral race. (Upon the plans’ filing, mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty blasted Raymond and the BRA in both dailies.) But what is surprising, is that in seeking to expand the project’s development footprint, Raymond’s PNF seems to lean much more heavily on sticks than it does on carrots.
The PNF talks a lot about improving the streetscape around the garage, reconnecting long-severed neighborhoods, pushing redevelopment in the broader Government Center area, and minimizing canyonization and crowding around the Rose Kennedy Greenway. It also promises to rebuild the Boston Police station the developers want to build over.
However, there’s no mention of the carrot several Beacon Hill and West End residents had been begging Raymond to dangle in front of them: a new elementary school on the site. Instead, Raymond appears to be betting that the sheer monstrosity of what they’re planning to cram onto their garage site will elicit enough horror that residents and city officials will be begging them to buy, and build on, the public parcels they’re eyeing.
The garage-only scenario chops 75,000 square feet off of the project site, and if forced to build only on its own land, Raymond would cut less than 20,000 square feet of total development. Heights for the residential buildings adjacent to the Greenway would grow from 125 and 175 feet to 150 and 250 feet. The smaller of Raymond’s two office towers would rise by 66 feet, to 611, despite losing 300,000 square feet of office space to parking. The taller, 700-foot tower would loom much closer to the Greenway. The project’s FAR would be a staggering 20.3.
