Will mainstream media swallow up The Free Press? | Emily Rooney on the Copley Square redesign muddle | Fenway tower flop bad news for Wu | Boston rental market gets even tougher |
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Coming Monday: Emily Rooney takes on the controversial redesign of Copley Square
A new and not-necessarily-improved look for Copley Square is in the works, with the Boston landmark now a major construction site.
Emily Rooney has the scoop on Copley Square’s nearly $17 million, and highly controversial, revamp in Monday’s edition of Contrarian Boston.
And if you missed it, you may want to check out Emily’s last piece for us - you’ll never look at bike lanes the same way again.
Wu administration dream project turns nightmare: Developer of proposed green-friendly Fenway apartment tower faces foreclosure auction
The proposal boasted an all-electric tower that exceeds Boston’s strict new greenhouse gas emissions regs.
The developer also agreed to fork over millions of dollars to City Hall for Bluebikes stations in the neighborhood and to help spruce up city parks.
The cherry on top? Sixty-eight affordable apartments to be rented out at below-market rates.
The proposed Fenway rental tower at 2 Charlesgate West was all but a poster child for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s uber progressive development agenda, which has featured a ramping up of costly energy and affordable housing mandates amid one of the biggest construction slumps since the Great Recession.
But now the proposal threatens to become a major embarrassment for Wu amid a heated reelection campaign. British developer Scape either can’t afford or simply no longer wants to build the project now, having lost control of the prime Fenway building site to its lender, Banker & Tradesman’s Steve Adams reported on Friday.
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