04.07.2025
Former Globe great Steve Bailey tearing things up in South Carolina | Another story you saw here first | Massport a sitting duck amid Trump’s anti-DEI drive? | Horace who? Franklin officials goof in taking name off of school | Financial impact of controversial voke admissions revamp unknown, state officials acknowledge |
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Trouble ahead? Massport could face Trump administration backlash over lauded diversity initiative
When plans for the $550 million Omni Seaport hotel were unveiled in 2018, the Massachusetts Port Authority won accolades.
Massport, which controls a large swath of real estate in the Boston waterfront neighborhood, required the project’s developer to include women and minority investors as part of the deal.
The agreement became known as the “Massport model,” and was used by both the state authority and other city and state agencies as a template for future development deals.
But could a program that won Massport plaudits six years ago make it a sitting duck today, as the Trump administration takes aim at an array of diversity programs?
That’s certainly an open question, and one that could have ramifications well beyond Massport’s ongoing efforts to develop its prime Seaport acreage.
Jitters over Trump’s DEI purge are being felt across the corporate world, including among developers, with a number of publicly-traded real estate firms having jettisoned diversity language from their websites, The Real Deal has reported.
A spokesperson for Massport said the state authority has heard nothing from the Trump administration on this issue, and that it does not receive federal funds for its real estate operations.
However, Massport has relied on tens of millions in federal grants to do all sorts of infrastructure work and upgrades at Logan International Airport, which it runs.
And as we’ve seen, Trump is not shy about using federal money as leverage.
Another great one the Globe fumbled away: Once a star Globe biz columnist, Steve Bailey now shaking things up in South Carolina
Steve Bailey, the former Globe business editor and columnist, is stirring the pot these days down in sunny Charleston, S.C., where he pens a column for The Post and Courier.
Back in 2008, when The New York Times was threatening to shut the Globe down, Bailey took a buyout and went to Bloomberg’s London bureau.
It was a loss both for the Globe and for anyone interested in hard-hitting local journalism.
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