What the Heck Is Going On With That Ugly Garage Near the Aquarium?
Bulldog developer Don Chiofaro has been fighting with the city to put two towers over 550 feet in the place of the Harbor Garage.
The hideous Harbor Garage is one of the biggest eyesores left in downtown Boston. To add insult to injury, the unsightly concrete block squats on one of most valuable tracts of waterfront in Boston, just down Atlantic Avenue from Rowes Wharf and right on the new Greenway.
However, while everyone agrees that getting rid of the bunker-like garage next to the New England Aquarium would be a plus, what to put in its place has devolved into a classic, years-long, knock-down, drag out, thoroughly petty but thoroughly Boston development spat.
Don Chiofaro, developer of the distinctive tan, twin tower International Place office tower, first rolled out plans back in 2009 to level the garage and build a pair of skyline-topping towers on the 1.3 acre site.
And it has been a dog fight ever since. In one corner is Chiofaro, a sixty-something bulldog of a developer who likes to tell tales of his glory days playing football at Harvard. In the other are the wealthy residents of the neighboring Harbor Towers condos, who have responded with their own, towering stack of objections.
After being stalled for years, Chiofaro’s proposal is now moving through the regulatory process again, with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh signaling his interest in taking a fresh look.
The developer received a boost just this week from the conservancy that manages the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. The group urged that Chiofaro’s beloved towers, which would rise over the parkway, be allowed to move ahead in the city permitting process.
But it comes after years of animosity – and public exchanges – between Chiofaro and the blunt-spoken former Mayor Thomas M. Menino. No fan of Chiofaro, Menino told The Boston Herald back in 2010 that the developer’s chances of getting approval from the city “as likely as an 80-degree day in January.’’
Not one to take things sitting down, Chiofaro held a press conference to blast the mayor for not giving his proposal a chance. After that, his plans were dead on arrival over at City Hall until Walsh’s election last year.
Confused? Here’s what the heck is going on with that concrete block by the aquarium.
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What Chiofaro Wants to Build
Chiofaro so far has followed the classic developer’s playbook to a letter. He rolled out a gigantic proposal that couldn’t possibly get approved, then demonstrated his ability to be a statesman and ‘compromise’ by trimming it down.
When Chiofaro first unveiled his proposal, it totaled 1.5 million square feet. One tower would have soared well over 700 feet, making it one of the tallest in Boston.
Five years later, Chiofaro has cut the total size of the project down to 1.3 million square feet, with the tallest tower knocked down to 600 feet. That sleek, tan, 55-story spire will be topped with 120 multimillion-dollar condos with 300, five-star hotel rooms below. A silver, 550-foot office tower will be packed with 700,000 square feet of high-priced offices.
But while height can be a lightning rod, how Chiofaro’s twin tower complex meshes with the Greenway on one side and Boston Harbor on the other is being looked at closely by city officials and waterfront activists.
A pair of glass and steel towers that wall off the waterfront just won’t cut it.
So Chiofaro and his architectural team have spun out some creative ideas in hopes of creating a showcase public space, one that will draw crowds throughout the year with a mix of shops, restaurants and waterfront views.
Harborside Square will bridge the space between the two towers, with a retractable roof to make it a year-round attraction. Passersby will be able to see – and walk through – to the waterfront beyond. Along with shops and restaurants, Chiofaro is looking at the possibility of a grocery store as well, an amenity that is hard to find right now in downtown Boston.
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There are also plans for special attractions throughout the year, with ideas including a Rockefeller-style skating rink, a farmer’s market, and a lawn party in spring.
“The site can be the centerpiece of the Greenway – a new place on the waterfront which would activate the entire Financial District waterfront,’’ Chiofaro said.
What the Neighbors Say
But Chiofaro and his big plans have met with a mixed reception, to say the least, over at the neighboring Harbor Towers.
Chiofaro claims to have supporters among the more than 1,000 residents of twin tower waterfront condo complex, first built back in the 1970s.
But the trustees of the condo development have not been so generous, firing objection after objection and waging a fierce publication relations war against Chiofaro and his tower plans.
Chiofaro’s project would flood Atlantic Avenue with traffic, cast long shadows over the neighboring Greenway, and would make the waterfront even windier, they contend.
While Harbor Towers trustees have not laid out their preferred height, they’ve suggested Chiofaro’s plans are an affront to state waterfront regulations, which, in theory, cap waterfront heights at 200 feet.
Left unsaid, though, is another telling detail: Chiofaro towers are also likely to be a view killer for more than a few Harbor Towers residents. For that matter, the Harbor Towers’ mechanical systems and its parking are also tied up in the garage.
But the debate is not about views but rather about what’s best for both the garage site and the city, contends Tom Palmer, a spokesman for Harbor Towers trustees.
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To that end, the board recently hired noted architect and Northeastern University professor George Thrush to analyze Chiofaro’s latest proposal.
Even at 1.3 million square feet, the project is simply too big for the relatively post-stamp-sized lot that Chiofaro wants to build this twin-tower complex on. If he’s allowed to move forward, it could set a precedent that could see other huge development shoehorned onto Boston’s waterfront, warns Lee Kozol, Chair, Harbor Towers Garage Committee.
“We and others strongly believe that two towers over 500 feet are inappropriate and overwhelming for a small block between Boston’s Waterfront and Rose Kennedy Greenway,’’ said Kozol in a statement. “Our primary concern is for this entire neighborhood and the rest of Boston – we do not want a precedent for erasing the state’s law protecting public access to the water, clearing the way for skyscrapers all along our Harbor.’’
Chiofaro’s rebuttal
After cutting down the size of his project, Chiofaro now says he is drawing the line at 1.3 million square feet. Any smaller, and his proposed waterfront towers simply won’t work financially.
Just to replace the garage with an underground parking structure will cost $180 million. That means he will have sunk $30 million into the ground even before he starts construction of the towers above.
“What we build on top of that has to be economically feasible – it has to be big in order to make sense,’’ he said.
Chiofaro also contends his twin towers will be a big benefit – not a negative – to its neighbors at Harbor Towers, raising property values all around.
In fact, he says he has support from more than a few residents at the neighboring condo development, with letters of support from some of these Harbor Towers supporters to prove it. How widespread such sentiment is at the towers is hard to measure, though.
Chiofaro has gathered more than 150 letters of support from residents across the city, including more than a dozen from residents in the Harbor Towers.
The alternative is simply keeping what’s there now, which, even if it is an eyesore, actually turns a tidy profit each year, he notes.
Chiofaro now hopes to complete the initial, waterfront planning process by the end of the year, after which he can start City Hall review process in earnest.
That could take several months, followed by a 24-30 month construction period – all provided, of course, that the Walsh Administration eventually gives Chiofaro a green light to build.
To make that happen, Chiofaro insists he’s ready to make changes that would reduce wind tunnel effects, though shadows can be tougher to corral.
“You can mitigate wind,’’ he said. “We haven’t figured out how to build a building without shadows.’’
The last word?
But the shadows are nothing to scoff at. Chiofaro’s project is so big that it would block out the sun for more than an hour in the morning along the Greenway, consultants recently told a city harbor development committee.
Harbor Towers trustees aren’t buying Chiofaro’s financial arguments that he needs at least 1.3 million square feet.
The board of the condo complex has hired Colliers International, a top commercial real estat ef to look at other, more modestly scaled alternative that would also be financially feasible to build.
“We absolutely don’t believe you need 1.3 million square feet to replace that garage with something better,’’ said Tom Palmer, a spokesman for the trustees.
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