Cruise terminal plan runs aground
April 26th, 2008 | by admin |A $300 million-plus plan to modernize and expand the Black Falcon Cruise Terminal for waterborne visitors to Boston has run aground at City Hall.
Although the City of Boston stands to gain $40 million to $50 million over a decade from Cargo Ventures LLC’s plan to revitalize the facility, the Menino administration opposes the company’s proposed redevelopment of an adjacent warehouse building, which was supposed to finance construction of the new terminal.
Cargo Ventures disclosed its plan late last year to redevelop the parallel structures: the deteriorating Black Falcon Cruise Terminal and the Bronstein Center warehouse space, which is in the same blocks-long building as the Boston Design Center.
At the time, officials at the Massachusetts Port Authority, which owns Black Falcon, were enthusiastic about getting a new $75 million terminal that would receive cruise ship passengers.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino himself was enthusiastic in November, saying, “The combined revitalization of the Bronstein Center and Black Falcon cruise terminal will give Boston the best passenger port of entry on the East Coast.”
But now differences between Boston Redevelopment Authority officials and the developer have delayed work so much that the project can’t be completed by fall 2009, the beginning of that cruise season - if it ever gets done.
Failing to improve the terminal, tourism executives say, would limit the growth in port traffic and the economic benefits to the city.
Specifically, the city objects to Cargo Venture’s plan to turn the 800,000-square-foot Bronstein Center into office space.
“Our obligation for the city is to maintain the maritime-related principal uses that ought to exist there,” said John Palmieri, the BRA’s director. “Industrial and obviously blue-collar jobs.”
The Bronstein Center makes up half of a hulking former Army building that also houses the Design Center, a wholesale home furnishings mart. And the Bronstein Center itself is half vacant.
Cargo Ventures would not comment, but others say the seven-story space is unsuitable for industrial users, who prefer ground-level space. “Low ceiling, no parking, columns, elevators - that’s not an industrial footprint,” said John Winston, whose partnership sold the building to Cargo Ventures in 2007 for $36 million. “Our argument was there weren’t blue-collar jobs to protect, and don’t insist on a use for which there is no demand.”
Jacob Citrin, chief executive of New York-based Cargo Ventures, which developed and operates other industrial facilities in Boston, proposed converting Bronstein into office space. The rental proceeds from the renovated space - $30 or more a square foot - would be used to fund the new cruise terminal.
A bill that would allow the Cargo Ventures plan to convert space to office use in a designated industrial port area has been introduced in the Legislature but is stalled until the parties can agree on details.
City officials worry that office space could take over the area, once it’s allowed. So, Palmieri said, the BRA has made it clear to Cargo Ventures and Massport that “We didn’t want to find ourselves on a slippery slope.”
Nor do city officials like Cargo Ventures’ plan for parking for about 1,000 cars in the cruise terminal building, which is next to the Reserved Channel. A garage would make the office space more desirable, but, “We’re not quite sure that’s a place parking should be located,” Palmieri said.
State Senator Jack Hart, a South Boston Democrat, said he is optimistic a compromise can be reached, perhaps allowing a mix of office and industrial uses in the Bronstein Center. Hart said he has spoken with Menino.
“The mayor suggested and I would suggest that he’s going to bring the BRA, Massport, and interested parties together and hopefully work something out,” Hart said.
Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association, had a similar hope. “The mayor has been quite successful in broadening the definition of industrial,” she said, citing banking and food operations that have taken space in the industrial park. “You’re not manufacturing widgets anymore.”
John Cremmen, senior vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, said finding industrial users for the Bronstein Center will be a tough task. “I’m one that preserves the industrial base as best I can in my daily efforts,” he said. “But most of the industrial you see doesn’t want to be on multiple floors.”
In an earlier time, the Menino administration itself argued that the building wasn’t right for industrial use.
In 1996, Menino proposed selling the entire Boston Marine Industrial Park. Linda Haar, the BRA’s planning director at the time, said the string of buildings, including the Bronstein Center, should be sold and the area no longer considered part of a marine district because the buildings were unsuitable for maritime operations and contained little of those uses, anyway.
Menino backed off when South Boston politicians and their constituents complained he wasn’t protecting their blue-collar jobs. Menino has promoted his Back Streets policy, protecting and encouraging blue-collar jobs, in several neighborhoods.
Cargo Ventures’ proposal, which appears to be on hold, included a 120,000-square-foot cruise terminal with modern customs, baggage-handling, and security systems, and amenities like shops and restaurants. It would be a new front door for visitors arriving by ship, who now are greeted by rundown warehouse space.
Cargo Ventures also proposed to rent out the rehabilitated Bronstein Center space to biotech and life-sciences companies, among others, which city officials initially seemed enthusiastic about.
Palmieri pledged officials would entertain a compromise on uses for the Bronstein Center.
Port officials declined to comment.
Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.
