STEVEN ROTH, the chairman of the realty partnership that owns the Filene’s site in Downtown Crossing, has a lot of explaining to do. Last week, Roth reportedly boasted to an audience at Columbia University about how he purposely let a similar department-store site in New York City decline to the point where local government had to kick in more money to curb the blight. It’s reasonable to wonder if he’s playing the same game in Boston.
Mayor Menino, in one of his finest moments, shot back with a letter threatening to use the city’s eminent domain power to seize the semi-demolished Filene’s site from Roth. If Roth and his partners don’t come to the table with an acceptable plan to improve the site, even an interim one, Menino should follow through on his threat.
Downtown Crossing, in the heart of the city’s business district, is a crucial retail corridor for Bostonians and hundreds of thousands of workers. Its appeal as a shopping destination carries widespread implications for local businesses, companies looking to locate here, and visiting tourists. Its look and feel are part of the fabric of Boston. And lately, mostly because of the unsightly hole in the ground owned by Roth’s
Vornado, which is co-developer of the site with John Hynes’ Gale International, blames the economy for its inability to follow through on longstanding plans to build a 39-story mixed-use development featuring office, retail, and housing. But it’s been a bad neighbor nonetheless. Menino had to prod the owners to drape tarps over the ugly, half-demolished department store. As deeply unappealing as it is for developers who happily rake in millions in the good times to totally turn their backs on communities in bad times, there’s at least a reasonable explanation for such behavior. But to deliberately create an eyesore with the under-handed objective of squeezing money out of the government is totally unacceptable.
Perhaps Roth believed he was teaching Columbia students a hardball truth about his profession. If so, Menino’s lesson in hardball politics is welcome retaliation.
Taking property by eminent domain is not easy. It’s unsettling to the development community. It can be costly to the city, which is obliged to pay a court-approved market price. But buying a prime piece of real estate in a low market is not a bad investment, and could pay off for taxpayers down the line. So it should remain an option.
Roth’s attitude toward the forced sale is unknown. He hasn’t returned calls from a Globe reporter seeking a response to his Columbia comments, which were reported in the New York Observer. Maybe he’d welcome a sale. Maybe he’s prepared finally to put a shovel in the ground. If not, the mayor deserves the support of most Bostonians in doing what’s necessary to get this vulture out of town.
