development

The Globe reports on their refusal to pay into a "business improvement district" to market and spruce up the area. Bad neighbors, Tom Menino says.

The Daily Free Press reports on the university's 208-room med dorm, on Albany Street.

Ken Reeves tucks it to MIT, specifically, the guy in charge of development of MIT property in Kendall Square, in an op-ed piece in the MIT student paper.

Paul McMorrow examines what's happening on the South Boston waterfront as new developments replace all those parking lots:

Patterns of living, and travel, have evolved. Residents now work and shop in closer proximity to their homes. The city is no longer at the automobile's mercy. But zoning hasn’t caught up to this new reality. Until now.

Fenway News reports on a ceremoy to announce the 16-story, 720-bed building on St. Botolph St. on which construction could start next year. The project still needs city approvals, but the News notes Tom Menino was at this morning's event.

It's the same location where a developer once proposed building a sort of multi-college dorm building.

The BRA informs us of the official ceremony at the site of the $300-million complex at Berkeley Street and Columbus Avenue.

The Globe tells us which developers are interested in buying the Filene's Negative Space - at a discount, of course.

The Herald reports on the possibility the school could move en masse to a "continguous campus" fronted on Tremont Street, which would let it increase enrollment without worrying about outraged howls of anger from Beacon Hill residents. But would they be butting heads with Emerson?

The Phoenix reports on a meeting this week about "the broken brick skeleton" in Dudley Square, otherwise known as the Ferdinand building:

Behind the original five-story structure, on a 33,000-square-foot lot between Washington and Warren streets, is a ditch to rival the universally scorned crater abutting Filene's.

"We hear a lot about the hole in downtown Boston," said City Councilor-At-Large Ayanna Pressley. "But we need to hear more about the hole in downtown Dudley."

The Outraged Liberal gets outraged about clueless comments from some New York real-estate agent on why the Filene's Hole project finally collapsed, something about the lead developer not shmoozing local pols enough and the mayor needing a Xanax and failing to let Vornado be Vornado. No word on the size of the hat Faith Hope Consolo was talking through, since she missed how Vornado's partner in the deal was John Hynes, about as shmoozy with Boston nobs as you can get (Faith, you might want to look up who his father was), not to mention the way the city kinda bent over backwards to let Vornado put up their homage to Christo.

The Globe reports the owners of the Filene's Memorial Hole plan to put the negative space up for sale, as city officials prepare to revoke its building permits after two years of being nothingness.

The BRA details the Seaport Square project on the South Boston waterfront, which will create 20 new city blocks on what is now largely a set of parking lots.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled today owners of some Fenway condos have the right to sue to block a proposed building on an adjacent lot because any idiot could tell the new building would block their views and air.

The Herald reports (bottom of article) that Boston Development Group of Newton wants to replace the vacant movie complex with a 150-room hotel and retail space. No word if guests will be required to watch a short video with blinking arrows showing the best way to exit onto Beacon Street.

The US Attorney's office reports on federal charges against Martin Raffol, an executive at the company that sought millions in state subsidies for its now failed $800-million Columbus Center project.

John Keith runs down the projects approved by the BRA yesterday.

It'd be pretty laughable, except it turns out other city agencies and non-profit groups have been using the maps for years for planning purposes, the Jamaica Plain Gazette reports:

"Jamaica Plain" on the BRA map includes almost all of Mission Hill, but not the Forest Hills, Woodbourne, Parkside, Brookside and Egleston Square areas. According to the map, the local E-13 Police Station and the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation are not in JP, but Mission Hill's Mission Church is.

The Herald reports MBTA GM Richard Davey's wife, Jane Willis, is a lawyer who is suing over a project the MBTA wants built: The Yawkey Way multi-use development that will include a large new commuter-rail station.

As Harry Mattison explains, there's nothing wrong, per se, with a McDonald's, except that it goes in the area where Harvard kept insisting it needed to build multi-story buildings to achieve the sort of density required by great projects. Think of it as the reverse of Boylston Street in the Fenway, where the McDonald's is giving way to something a lot taller.

Indoors, though, not in the Filene's Memorial Hole.

Boston Urban Mini-Golf Project (the G is silent).

The Herald reports on the proposal for two 15-story apartment and office towers by Samuels & Associates, which also built the Trilogy and 1330 Boylston projects.

The Herald reports that Mayor Menino rejected an idea from developer John Hynes to rebuild Filene's Basement - and add a parking garage - on the crater off Washington Street, but that Menino said that wasn't good enough.

As the Herald almost comes out and says, Hynes's scaled-back plan was half-baked - it assumed the state would kick in $25 million - but Menino wants a tax-generating tower there, not just a discount store and a garage.

In a ruling that could affect some projects along the state's coasts, the Supreme Judicial Court said today the state Attorney General made a dumb mistake giving a property owner rights to land on Nantucket Harbor. No, not Martha Coakley: J. Weston Allen, back in 1922.

Joseph Arno, who now owns the land, had sued to get rid of state waterfront-development requirements for his proposed multi-use development, arguing Allen signed away the state's interests in what was actually part of the harbor until the late 1890s and that the state therefore could not tell him what to do with his land. Among the requirements: That he maintain an existing boardwalk accessible to the public.

But the court ruled the public's interest in tidelands, which dates back to the Magna Carta, can only be waived by an act of the legislature. The court said Arno was free to do what he wanted with the piece of land that was never submerged, and that he could maintain title to the former tidelands - but subject to state laws on coastal development.

Complete ruling.

The BRA fires back at Don Chiofaro over his proposal to tear down that garage near the Aquarium (the one with the weird red ribbon thing) and replace it with a skyscraper:

... We are fully supportive of the redevelopment of this site as it is not living up to its full potential. And the guidelines are not anti-development, rather they recommend lower heights along the water's edge with taller heights along the city side of the Greenway. The $16 billion in public investment makes the public a shareholder in the value that we have created for the private landowners along the Greenway - we don't want to devalue our asset by putting another barrier along the waterfront.

The BRA reports that developers have filed their detailed project notification form for the proposed conversion of the Boston Renaissance Charter School into roughly 128 rental units.

The school is selling the 13-story building at Arlington and Stuart streets to finance the conversion of an old factory on Hyde Park Avenue in Hyde Park into a new school - expected to open this fall.

Developers say the new residential building will have no parking for residents, but that they have negotiated to make 200 spaces at the 200 Stuart St. garage made available to residents. They add they will work with the city to encourage residents to take advantage of the nearby Back Bay and Arlington subway stops or to get around by walking and bicycling.