Five months after developers halted construction at the Filene's site in Downtown Crossing and left two historic buildings torn apart and a gaping hole in the city's center, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino directed the builders to secure the remaining structures.
Menino sent a letter yesterday to the developers, New York-based Gale International and
"The current condition of the buildings requires attention to avoid deterioration of the structures and escalated rehabilitation costs," he wrote.
A spokeswoman for Gale declined to comment on the letter yesterday, as did a spokeswoman for Vornado.
Menino's demands come one week after the Globe reported that Menino's administration skirted requirements in the city's zoning code to fast-track the project in 2007 and 2008, including overlooking the absence of a financial interests statement from the developers. The developers told city officials a lack of financing forced them to stop construction last fall.
Administration officials still have not asked the developers to deal with a number of other requirements skipped in the review process, including filing the financial statement. Menino did not mention those in his letter.
The mayor focused instead on the physical state of the site. After the city issued demolition and construction permits, the developers last spring cut one historic building in half, stripped away the wall of another (the Filene's building), and last summer dug a deep hole between the two that looks like a crater left by a bomb explosion. It has been that way since.
"I am very concerned that Vornado and Gale have failed to secure the two building envelopes against the elements," Menino wrote, noting that both buildings have historical significance and ordering the developers to follow up with the Boston Landmarks Commission.
The Filene's building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Landmarks Commission had asked the developers in a letter Jan. 28 to submit an engineer's report on the open building conditions and weather protection, particularly for the terra cotta and brick cladding on the highly decorative facade. The developers have not complied.
"I have directed the BLC to take action to enforce the required work as necessary to protect the buildings," Menino wrote.
The developers first proposed the $700 million project in November 2006, outlining plans for a sparkling tower of condominiums and office space flanked by a hotel and shops in the Filene's building. The department store
The Boston Redevelopment Authority board of directors gave preliminary approval to the project in August 2007, as the nation's credit markets were already beginning to deteriorate. BRA officials then signed off on demolition and construction permits over the next eight months, allowing the work to proceed despite zoning code requirements that the developers follow several more steps and obtain final approval, a certification of compliance, before construction was allowed to begin on such a large project.
Menino had maintained last week that he had nothing to do with fast-tracking the project. However, yesterday he acknowledged that he did meet with Gale and Vornado executives early in the city's project approval process, and they told him they wanted construction permits quickly. Still, the mayor said he did not help them with that.
"They told me what their plans were, and I supported it," Menino said yesterday. "I told them they had to go through a process at the Redevelopment Authority. I never told them that I would fast-track the project at all."
The mayor said he is now taking action to force the developers to fix up the site because he is "frustrated by their inaction."
"This is ridiculous," he said. "It already went through one winter; it can't take any more. The buildings will be destroyed."
Casey Ross of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com. 
