Station plan faces financing delay
The struggle to obtain financing in a weak economy has pushed back groundbreaking on the $1.5 billion Westwood Station project until the fall.
While developers and Westwood officials last week rebuffed reports that the project has been put on hold, they backed off of earlier estimates that construction on the 4.5 million-square-foot development would begin in the spring.
"The project is moving ahead," Jay Doherty, president of developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, said in an interview. "Yes, we do need a construction loan. But right now, we don't know if there is a United States banking industry. And if there is, we don't know if it can loan money."
Doherty said he hopes to get tens of millions of state and federal stimulus dollars for infrastructure and road costs. When coupled with construction funding, groundbreaking could begin in September.
Late last year, when the project was stalled by a political squabble with Canton, Doherty said he expected to get permits by Jan. 1 and begin construction in the spring.
Doherty's latest comments came amid a flurry of reports that painted an uncertain outlook for Westwood Station.
On Thursday, a posting on the town of Westwood's website said that additional local reviews of Westwood Station have been put on hold "until economic conditions improve," and that site work "has been curtailed."
"While economic conditions deem this a prudent decision, it was driven more by the desire to ensure that all of the infrastructure design is completed so that the work is 'shovel ready' when federal stimulus funds are distributed," the notice said.
That was news to Selectwoman Nancy Hyde, who heard about it Thursday morning from a reporter and demanded the notice's removal.
By Thursday afternoon, the posting was off the site.
The notice appeared at about the time an article in the Boston Business Journal said work on the Westwood Station project had been suspended. Doherty denied the story and said he was misquoted.
His denial was amplified by project spokesman Michael Goldman, who said, "the idea that the developers of Westwood Station are in any way halting the project is belied by the reality of its continued expenditure of funds."
While "minimal" winter site work has been suspended until the spring, Goldman said, "the project continues to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a month" on such things as planning, permitting, and taxes.
"If such a massive monthly expenditure of dollars can lead one to conclude a project is being halted," he said, "what does one have to spend to show that a project is moving forward?"
Hyde, a primary project liaison, said she remains optimistic.
"I feel confident that these developers and the project have positioned themselves well so when infrastructure and construction financing is available, they will get it," she said.
