WBZ's Allston site focus of talks with Harvard University

Harvard University is in ongoing talks with WBZ to purchase the television and radio station's nine-acre property in Allston as part of its continuing campus expansion in Boston.

An agreement is still a long way off, a WBZ executive said yesterday, but talks have intensified recently, as Harvard officials propose alternative locations for the station that has been at its Soldiers Field Road location since 1948.

"There's no question Harvard has designs on this acreage. They have had for quite some time," said Ed Piette, the president and general manager of WBZ-TV. "It does make sense for their long-range planning, but for us it has to be a good, sound business decision."

Piette said the talks involve Harvard rounding out the northwestern edge of its Allston campus, near Herter Park on the Charles, by including the WBZ land - and finding a new location for the media operation, perhaps on other land Harvard owns.

Harvard officials declined to comment yesterday, as did Robert L. Beal, the president of The Beal Cos., which represents the school in real estate matters.

The university previously bought the WGBH-TV and radio facilities along Western Avenue, and the public broadcasting station relocated to a modern facility in Brighton on the other side of the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Harvard owns about 250 acres of land in Boston - nearly half of North Allston - and significantly more than it has in its home in Cambridge.

Athletic facilities, the business school, and a new student housing complex are in Allston, and Harvard has plans to concentrate its life sciences programs there.

The new campus's first building complex, a science center, has been approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

The City of Boston has been working with Harvard as the campus increasingly spills across the Charles River into Allston, and a planning map of the area by the BRA five years ago showed new buildings and playing fields on the WBZ land.

BRA director John Palmieri said the map was "illustrative and not to be taken literally." But, he added, "I wouldn't respond adversely" to the sale of the WBZ property. "We of course want them to stay in the city and will do all we can to help," he said.

Palmieri said the city will be refining its own five-year-old plan as Harvard's institutional master plan for Allston, which it filed with the city last year, is completed over the next seven or eight months.

WBZ's Piette noted Harvard's habit of moving slowly, planning ahead, and the complexity of negotiating a sale and a move for his company.

"It's like watching slow molten lava move down a mountain," Piette said of the negotiating process.

Nevertheless, he said, talks "run hotter and colder. They seem to be heating up a bit right now." The building includes the CBS-owned and operated stations WBZ-TV, WBZ-AM 1030 radio, and TV38 (WSBK-TV).

Any sale would have to be approved by CBS executives in New York, Piette said.

He said station officials generally react to proposals from the university, studying whether any suggested new location would work for WBZ and its employees.

"If we should get married, we'll get married," Piette said. "Any deal we do with Harvard must benefit this business, because we're very happy here."

In early 2007, Harvard rolled out a sweeping, 50-year plan to transform the Allston area into a modern expanse of academic facilities and student housing, combined with a new public square including stores, theaters, and an art museum.

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.