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A big miss? Questions abound about the Hurley Building redevelopment plan
That would be the Charles F. Hurley Building, a grim, six-story concrete bunker that for decades has housed state agencies in downtown Boston.
Leggat McCall Properties recently won a preliminary nod from the outgoing Baker administration to build a 1-million-square-foot-plus development near Boston City Hall while essentially preserving the Hurley Building in all its Brutalist glory.
The Boston-based developer’s plan calls a pair of towers, one lab, the other residential, above a revamped Hurley Building, which would also have labs and some state government offices.
But while state officials are touting the deal, there are grounds to be skeptical as to whether the redevelopment plan is all that it is cracked up to be.
Our beef is not with the developer, Leggat McCall, which came up with a very creative plan under the circumstances.
Rather, it’s with the state Division of Capital Asset Management, which imposed conditions that effectively require preserving a hulking structure that, despite having been designed by architect Paul Rudolph, has been an eyesore since it opened in 1971.
The Hurley and the adjacent Lindemann Center constitute a lifeless, monolithic, and uninviting concrete superblock built over the rubble of the old West End, a poor but vibrant neighborhood bulldozed in the late 1950s in the name of urban renewal.
It’s architecture that repels life and street activity, as anyone who has walked the invariably deserted sidewalks by the Hurley know.
Preserving the Hurley will likely delight the small but very vocal Brutalist fan club in the architectural community.
But to do so requires one of the most expensive construction schemes possible, one that involves building a pair of towers over the Hurley, while also spending even more money to preserve and retrofit what is now a seriously ailing building.
In addition, the developers must also provide, for free, as much as 350,000 square feet of office space for state agencies, a significant amount of which probably won’t be needed.
Both requirements, in turn, will cap what Leggat McCall will ultimately be able to pay for the downtown site, limiting what should be a windfall for state taxpayers.
And there are other costs.
The expense of preserving the Hurley and building over it is likely driving the heavy reliance in the redevelopment plan on high-paying lab space, itself hardly a use that will enliven the neighborhood. More lab space, in turn, means less residential, with the potential for a lot more housing units on the site than the 200 that are currently planned.
All of which is a heavy price to pay in order to preserve an ugly concrete behemoth that has been a dead zone on Boston’s cityscape since it opened in 1971. And if you have a thing for concrete buildings, it’s not like they are all that hard to find in downtown Boston. After all, Boston City Hall, a prime example of the monolithic and long-controversial Brutalist style, is right around the corner.
And the last time we checked, City Hall wasn’t getting torn down anytime soon.
Gambling gold rush: From Boston Globe Media to the Sioux, dozens of players eye sports betting angles in wake of Mass. legalization
That was fast.
Barely a month after Beacon Hill gave a green light to sports betting, dozens of would-be sports gambling outfits are eyeing ways to grab a piece of the pie.
And one of the most unusual players to emerge is Boston Globe Media, the holding company for billionaire John Henry’s growing local media empire, from the Globe and Boston.com to newer ventures like STAT. That’s in addition to Henry’s sports empire, which is of particular relevance as well when it comes to sports betting, since he also owns the Red Sox.
Boston.com, the free online website, has inked a deal with Better Collective, a global sports betting media group, on a “soon to launch Boston.com/betting section,” according to an internal memo that was leaked to Dan Kennedy at Media Nation.
The Boston.com section will “provide readers with content, data, and statistics for sports coverage and sports betting,” though it’s not clear whether you could actually place a bet on the site.
If so, that would require a multimillion-dollar license from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, with dozens of potential sports betting operators now weighing whether to apply for one.
Forty-two different firms and other entities have signaled they interested in obtaining licenses to take sports wagers from Bay State gamblers.
It is a group that includes, FSST Interactive, LLC, owned by the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe. The Sioux tribe owns the Royal River Casino, located about a half hour drive north of Sioux Falls in South Dakota.
Mohegan Sun and Genting, the Malaysian casino giant that owns the Resorts World casino in Queens, are also eyeing the state’s sports betting market. Other typical suspects are also well represented, including the owners of the Bay State’s three casinos – Penn National, MGM and Wynn – and Boston-based Draft Kings.
If I had bet years ago which of Boston’s two daily papers was most likely to get involved with sports betting, it would have been my old employer, the Boston Herald, not Boston Globe Media.
Strange times indeed.
Year of the underdog? Candidates in state races make their final primary pitches
Contrary to what you may have read, primary season hasn’t all been stuck in the doldrums.
A wave of insurgent candidates is making waves as we head towards the Sept. 6 state primary, which will determine which candidates from the two major parties will move on to the general election in November.
Wrentham businessman Chris Doughty has been chipping away at Trumpie Geoff Diehl’s commanding in the Republican gubernatorial primary. And, if nothing else, he is making the former state lawmaker – and senior campaign advisor Corey Lewandowski – sweat it out.
In the Democratic primary for attorney general, labor lawyer and self-made multi-millionaire Shannon Liss-Riordan is closing on Andrea Campbell, a former Boston city councilor and mayoral candidate who for months enjoyed a sizable lead in the polls.
Given Liss-Riordan’s formidable litigation skills, it will be fascinating to see what she does as AG if she manages to overtake Campbell.
As for the Democratic primary for state auditor, it would probably not be fair to call former state transportation official and Boston Olympics killer Chris Dempsey an underdog. That said, the race between Dempsey and state Sen. Diana DiZoglio is also headed for a tight finish.
Sure, with Attorney General Maura Healey having been on cruise control since her opponent, state Sen. Sonia Rosa Chang-Díaz, dropped out, there is not that much excitement in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
But for anyone paying the slightest bit of attention, there has been plenty of drama – and high stakes – this primary season.
Baker T apartment plan watered down? Not so fast, says top housing advocate
The Baker administration recently scaled back the amount of housing local cities, towns and suburbs would have to make room for near T stations.
The final rules of the governor’s sweeping MBTA Communities initiative shrinks the program by 18 percent, nixing requirements for roughly 60,000 units, mainly in smaller towns and ‘burbs, according to the Globe.
But Clark Ziegler, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, has taken to Twitter to argue the new law is actually stronger now.
“First, the zoning requirement is now stronger & better focused, not weaker,” Ziegler tweets. “A larger share of multifamily zoning obligation now falls on communities w/ the greatest development potential near rail stations. Community categories now more accurately reflect that potential.”
Ziegler also argues the local media gets it wrong in assuming suburban communities that aren’t thrilled with the idea of lots of new apartments can essentially thumb their noses at the new law and go their own way.
“The law is more consequential than the press might have you believe. It’s a statutory mandate & any communities that thumb their nose at the law do so at legal risk,” Ziegler tweets. “The consequences of non-compliance will almost certainly extend beyond loss of a few state grants.”
Quick Hits:
What a muddle: “Unsealed court documents say 2005 sexual assault allegations against Arroyo were ‘unfounded’” Boston Globe
Makes sense. But how to actually get it done is the billion-dollar question: “Representative Seth Moulton calling for ‘top-to-bottom changes’ and ‘a wholesale culture shift’ at the MBTA” Boston Globe
Shocker! “New CCC chair consulted for cannabis companies” CommonWealth Magazine
Well, that’s a revelation: “Barr says no ‘legitimate reason’ for Trump to have classified documents” Washington Post
What is Contrarian Boston?
I have fielded emails over the past couple of months asking what Contrarian Boston is about.
Here’s a link to our mission statement – you can find it in the “about” section.
For a more prosaic, nuts-and-bolts description, read on.
An online newsletter, Contrarian Boston publishes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In Contrarian Boston you’ll find analysis of the day’s news, and original reporting as well.
Our focus is:
· Politics and all levels of governance, good and bad, with an emphasis on state and local, with some national mixed in;
· Economic growth and business, especially real estate, housing and new development projects;
· The media and why it does what it does;
· Education, from school board spats to the doings of multibillion-dollar university endowments;
· And whatever else catches our fancy.