Image courtesy of Stantec Architecture
Accordia Partners’ proposed 5.9 million-square-foot Dorchester Bay City development is rekindling a dispute between the University of Massachusetts Building Authority and a developer that owns 50 acres just south of the site.
Dorchester-based Corcoran Jennison Cos. says the University of Massachusetts-Boston’s failure to remove the 100-foot-tall Bayside Expo Center sign and resolve a tangle of easements is preventing it from building a 184-unit apartment building at 150 Mount Vernon St. that was approved in 2013. Corcoran Jennison wants Accordia Partners to commit to removing the 100-foot-tall sign for the since-demolished exhibition hall before it gains approval for the Dorchester Bay City project, which includes the Expo Center property.
“This old and poorly maintained sign endangers pedestrians walking underneath and nearby it. Rusted pieces of the structure have been observed falling off on windy days,” Corcoran Jennison General Counsel John Mostyn wote in a comment letter to the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
The university acquired the 20-acre Bayside Expo Center property, which was previously owned by Corcoran Jennison and controlled by a lender following foreclosure, in 2009.
In 2017, the UMass Building Authority sought proposals from private developers for the Expo Center site and signed a 99-year ground lease with Accordia Partners and its financial partner Ares Management in 2019. Accordia proposes 4 million square feet of commercial space and 1,740 housing units on the former Expo Center property and a 12-acre site occupied by Santander Bank offices on Morrissey Boulevard.
Corcoran Jennison and UMass share easements for utilities and roadways, along with parking agreements on each others’ properties, complicating attempts to develop the former Expo Center property.
In a comment letter, Corcoran Jennison consultants Fort Point Associates said the base of the sign is contaminated by hydrocarbons, and that Accordia Partners should commit to removing the sign and completing the environmental clean-up.
Accordia also failed to include details about shared utilities on the Dorchester Bay City site in their project notification form to the BPDA, the consultants stated.
In a prepared statement issued Monday, Accordia Partners said it’s reviewing the various comment letters from the community.
“Given the project’s scale and location, we agree that economic development, resiliency and transportation are important issues that require both a neighborhood-wide approach and parcel specific solutions. We appreciate Corcoran Jennison’s longstanding and historic leadership as a commercial and residential property owner and developer in this area, and look forward to working with them to make DBC a success for the peninsula and all of Boston,” the developers stated.
In a brief comment letter to BPDA, UMass Boston Assistant Chancellor Matthew Fenlon said the school is encouraged with the development proposal, including Accordia’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. UMass Building Authority did not immediately return a request for comment.
