Time to tone things down?

After several years of conspicuous consumption, some yearn for a return to Boston's frugal roots

(GLOBE STAFF PHOTO ILLUSTRATION)

Every binge has a morning after.

As financiers, small business owners, and blue-collar workers wake up to volatile markets and an uncertain economy, some are casting a skeptical eye on the ostentatious wealth and conspicuous consumption that swept into Greater Boston in recent years.

The go-go era, a departure from a Yankee culture of restraint and frugality, produced such opulent monuments as the $21 million Weston mansion built by a hedge fund manager, the luxury Natick Collection shopping emporium, and the $300 million Mandarin Oriental hotel, which opened yesterday on Boylston Street.

It also left some Bostonians pining for the more austere habits and disciplined investing style of an earlier time.

"I think we'll need to go back to the old way of thinking," said Peter Brooke, the founder and chairman of the Boston private equity firm Advent International. "Some of the young guys who think that the last four years is the way it is are going to suffer more. If they don't get more conservative, they're out of their minds."

Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston College, said the gilded age looks incongruous in light of the financial crisis, though she said the hangover could be temporary.

"Boston has traditionally not been in the forefront of this over-the-top consumption, but there's a contagion effect and we're getting into the act," said Schor, who has studied wealth and spending patterns. "The timing is bad for some of these projects. You have new ones come on just as the bubble is bursting."

That juxtaposition can be seen in the wealthy suburb of Weston, dotted with expensive but tasteful Colonial homes. Hedge fund manager Jim Pallotta, a co-owner of the Boston Celtics basketball team, is building a 21,000-square-foot mansion on 27.5 wooded acres near Regis College. About a mile away, the Puopolo Hardware store is closing after 30 years in Weston Center.

Store owner Paul Puopolo said he's retiring. But he also complained his business has been hurt by big-box stores and a growing taste for lower prices, even among affluent Weston residents.

"You would think Weston would be insensitive to the price concerns, but that's not the case," Puopolo said, ringing up purchases from customers taking advantage of the store's closeout sale. "There's a 30 or 35 percent correction in home prices here. Instead of $10 million a year, some people will make $5 million a year, and that's a hell of a cut for them. People are going to have to tighten their belts."

Even at the Natick Collection, the sparkling, high-end shopping mecca where many store rents exceed those on Boston's trendy Newbury Street, some shoppers said they are scaling back. Jerry Gordon of Cambridge stood smoking a cigarette outside Nordstrom waiting for his girlfriend, who was inside shopping for shoes.

"It's very quiet everywhere," said Gordon, who owns an East Cambridge antique store that's also been hurt by the weak economy. "There's more help than customers in every store I've been in. Walk around. You don't see many people carrying shopping bags."

The market turmoil and the bursting of the real estate bubble may put a damper on what Barry Bluestone, dean of the school of social science at Northeastern University, called "the Hamptonization" creeping into what were once wealthy, but understated communities from suburban Weston to the Outer Cape.

Bluestone said proposals to cap executive compensation in the financial industry are a sign of discomfort with the new wealth.

"Income distribution has become vastly more unequal," Bluestone said. "It's been twisted so badly that some of these financial executives have had huge amounts of discretionary income to spend on $18,000 watches and $90,000 BMWs. But now that they're taking a hit, and it's rippling through the financial sector, it's hard to believe they're going to be able to sustain this wave of luxury spending."

In fact, the sellers of Boston area mansions and yachts said business has been "slow but not dead," in the words of Beth Dickerson, partner in Gibson Sotheby's International Realty in Boston. "There's no secret that the economy is in shambles," Dickerson said. "So a lot of people are just doing a wait and see."

Michael Myers, president and owner of Boston Yacht Sales Inc. in Weymouth, said he amassed multiple sales leads at three regional boat shows recently, but many would-be buyers got cold feet when the stock market plunged. "We're not bulletproof," he said. "We feel like this is finally catching up to us."

Few people are predicting the market for expensive goods will evaporate. "Even in the most challenging economic times, we are confident that our business model is a successful one," said Jennifer Kearney, general manager of the Natick Collection.

Mandarin Oriental general manager Susanne Hatje told the Globe travelers will be more price-sensitive for a while, but reservations at the hotel are going "very well" and will likely exceed the company's sales forecasts for rooms as well as events.

Pallotta, who built the mansion in Weston, declined to comment.

But among some who've lived through the aftermath of past economic busts, there is a sense Boston would do well do return to a more prudent and disciplined culture. Referring to the credit crunch and financial bailout, Advent's Brooke, who's often called the elder statesman of Boston venture capital, said, "This is a dose of salt. Things have gone a little too far and it will be a painful recovery, but we'll come through it."

John Caldwell, an out-of-work Dorchester house painter, leaned against a tree on Boylston Street in the Back Bay recently, flagging down passersby for spare change. Across the street, workers were putting the final touches on the Mandarin Oriental, where rooms are priced at more than $500 a night.

"Five hundred dollars a night?" Caldwell said, shaking his head. "People are barely making it right now."

Others nearby said they were amazed to learn condominiums at the Mandarin Oriental have sold for as much as $14 million.

"Whoever buys those condos, it will have to be cash," said Jeannette Zarbano of Medford, an employee of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. "You'd better have the money."

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.