| 
MCCA officials say the Hynes Convention Center requires up to $500 million in renovations and upgrades to meet the needs of modern trade shows. Back Bay business leaders say a redevelopment wouldn’t replicate the Hynes’ economic impact on neighborhood hospitality and retail properties. Photo courtesy of Ed Uthman / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
As legislators debate the proposed sale of the Hynes Convention Center, Back Bay business leaders portray their neighborhood as teetering on the brink of a decline that would accelerate without the Boylston Street facility’s annual infusion of 500,000 visitors.
The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority is seeking to sell the Back Bay meeting hall, saying it’s on the verge of obsolescence, and reinvest the proceeds in a $500 million expansion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The project including a second ballroom would let the Seaport District facility host two major conventions simultaneously.
Both sides have commissioned ongoing economic impact studies to back up their rhetoric. But lawmakers indicated neighborhood support will factor strongly into whether they authorize the Hynes sale, something that was largely absent at last week’s Statehouse hearing.
Back Bay hotel owners, nightclub operators and even the organizers of the Boston Marathon spoke of the 800,000-square-foot Hynes’s integral role in the neighborhood’s economy.
“It’s a very bad urban planning idea,” said Richard Friedman, CEO of One Dalton luxury hotel and condo tower developer Carpenter & Co. “Back Bay is fragile. Amazon is killing retail all over the place. If you take the Hynes out of the Back Bay and put in an office building or something else, it will not have the impact the Hynes has.”
Designed by architects Populous, the expansion would move the BCEC up into sixth place among the nation’s largest exhibit halls, enabling it to compete for 97 percent of the major convention market, MCCA officials say.
And the imminent redevelopment of Fidelity Investments’ Commonwealth Pier property – which would remove the Seaport Boulevard complex’s 132,000-square-foot exhibition hall – could push more trade shows to the Hynes in the future, Back Bay Association President Meg Mainzer-Cohen said.
The Fidelity property hosts approximately 60 events annually that attract 300,000 visitors, spokesman Michael Ialto said in response to an inquiry from Banker & Tradesman.
BCEC Needs Expansion, State Says
MCCA officials say the Hynes has outlived its usefulness, and needs at least $200 million in renovations and up to $500 million in overall upgrades to provide the large meeting and exhibition spaces that modern conventions require.
At the same time, the 16-year-old BCEC has outgrown its capacity and has been operating at the limits of its practical occupancy since 2013, according to the MCCA. The additional business generated by the BCEC expansion would outweigh the negative effects of the Hynes’ sale, according to the MCCA.
Designed by architects Populous, the expansion would move the BCEC up into sixth place among the nation’s largest exhibit halls, enabling it to compete for 97 percent of the major convention market, MCCA officials say. That would translate into 545,000 annual attendees at MCCA facilities, up from the current average of 495,000. Annual hotel night bookings would rise from 789,000 to 855,000. MCCA estimates the project would create 1,230 permanent jobs, including off-site businesses that cater to conventioneers.
In remarks to the Joint Committee on State Administration last week, MCCA Executive Director David Gibbons said the Hynes sale is expected to fetch less than $500 million, according to real estate studies provided by consultants. He declined to give specific estimates, saying it would amount to “bidding against myself.” The difference would be paid by the $269 million Massachusetts Convention Center Fund, according to the MCCA, which delivered a 98-page report to lawmakers on the project.
Gov. Charlie Baker halted an earlier planned expansion in 2015, citing the need for the state to borrow $1 billion to pay for it and skepticism about the benefits.
Opponents of a push to sell the Hynes Convention Center for redevelopment say the site’s challenges, which include building over the busy Massachusetts Turnpike, could drag down Back Bay much as the vacant Filene’s parcel dragged down Downtown Crossing.
Photo courtesy of Charlene McBride / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
‘Lack of Convincing Consensus’
Representatives of Back Bay business and resident groups have raised red flags about the continuing confusion over the future of the property and what could be built there under Boston zoning. And neighborhood residents say an economic downturn could delay redevelopment similar to the Filene’s site at Downtown Crossing during the recession.
“There is no convincing consensus vision for the future of the site,” said Martyn Roetter, chair of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay. “There is a material risk. The sale of the Hynes would be more harmful to Back Bay and Boston than any benefits the expansion of the BCEC might generate.”
Three legislators who represent Back Bay want the Hynes sale to be considered separately from the BCEC expansion, citing unanswered questions about the Hynes property’s future and its effects on the neighborhood’s retail, restaurants and hotels. State Rep. Jay Livingstone said he’s looking for a more complete economic analysis than administration officials have offered so far.
The Boston Planning & Development Agency has not publicly released any information about how much could be built on the Hynes site, which sits on the border of two zoning districts.
Despite the lack of clarity over future density, brokerage Colliers International has already received inquiries indicating global interest in the site, Managing Director Frank Petz told lawmakers.
The Hynes generates approximately 240,000 hotel room night bookings annually, according to data by Boston-based hotel industry consultants Pinnacle Advisory Group. The Back Bay Association has requested that any redevelopment be required to include 150,000 square feet of meeting space.
Steve Adams
After hearing two hours of testimony, the committee co-chairs said they were troubled by the seeming lack of support in Back Bay. Sen. Marc Pacheco noted the Senate has just five months left in formal session and any member can block the bill from coming to a vote.
“It’s very important to make sure that there’s legitimate discussion that’s going on and see everybody brought to the table,” he said.
Rep. Danielle Gregoire took it a step further.
“I can’t stress strongly enough that those conversations have to happen, or it’s going to be dead in the water as far as I’m concerned,” she said.
