From Harvard’s Allston mess to the Filene’s fiasco in downtown Boston, we have the misfortune to be living in the era of the hole-in-the-ground developer.

So why in the world have a private club and a boutique hotel been forced to go to the mat to stop yet another potential development fiasco, with little if any help from City Hall?

That’s the question after the Harvard Club and the Eliot Hotel successfully fought to a draw a developer with ties to a gaping, nearly decade-old development hole over on Lower Washington Street.

Fearing they would wind up with another Filene’s disaster on their front steps, the Harvard Club and the Eliot went to court last fall to stop plans by Kensington Investment Co. to transform a modest strip of Massachusetts Avenue building into an outsized commercial complex.

After all, it was Kensington Investment Co. which back in 2003 tore down the historic Gaiety Theater on Lower Washington Street to make way for a luxury apartment and rental tower that has yet to be built.

The Sound Of Silence

But city development officials have remained strangely silent about Kensington, saying nothing about the mess the firm left on Washington Street or its latest, worrisome endeavors.

And the silence stands in stark contrast to City Hall’s aggressive campaign against the erstwhile developers of the stalled Filene’s project, who, unlike Kensington, also happen to have the additional misfortune of not being very well liked by Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

Richard Bluestein, the high-powered Hub real estate attorney who represented the Harvard Club and the Eliot in their suit against Kensington’s plans, credits city officials for eventually rolling up their sleeves and trying to understand his clients’ concerns.

But he acknowledges it took a while to get there.

“We were well into the process before the city engaged with us,” Bluestein said.

Kensington’s Massachusetts Avenue proposal itself was much too large, Bluestein and his clients argued, running right up to the Eliot, casting the Harvard Club into a deep shadow, and obstructing views from rooms at the club and the hotel.

But as much of a concern, Bluestein said, was Kensington’s development track record – or lack thereof – and what it might lead to at a time when projects stalling in midstream have become the norm, Bluestein made clear last fall when the suit was filed.

“We could end up with a shell of a building or something of that vein and that would be very bad for the neighborhood and for the Harvard Club and for the businesses next door,” he said.

Now, after months of legal skirmishing, Kensington has turned in permits that had authorized the firm to build a 50,000-square-foot office and retail complex right on the doorsteps of the Harvard Club and Eliot.

Still, it’s not quite over yet, with Kensington having just submitted to city officials revised plans for a dramatically smaller project, one that would add just a few thousand square feet.

Bluestein and his clients are now reviewing that proposal, likely looking for a potential Trojan Horse that might spoil their victory party.

But the fact Kensington even got that far with its plans – even winning the blessing of the Boston Redevelopment Authority for its Massachusetts Avenue project – does not reflect well on City Hall.

A giant hole remains at the former Gaiety Theater, just a short walk through Downtown Crossing near the much better known Filene’s development fiasco.

Playing Favorites?

But for some mysterious reason, Kensington has managed to evade City Hall’s wrath altogether for years now, while the developers behind the erstwhile Filene’s project have had to endure a stream of angry rhetoric from the mayor and his minions.

The contrast is certainly enlightening, to say the least.

Veteran Hub tower developer John Hynes saw his dreams of renovating the turn-of-the-century Filene’s building and putting up a tower next door vanish overnight after the global financial meltdown of September 2008.

Stuck with a half-demolished building and a big hole in the ground, Hynes and development partner, Big Apple retail giant Vornado, have since found themselves on the receiving end of a two-year-long mayoral tirade.

But you will have to search long and hard to find an angry word or even a frustrated comment or two from the mayor or from his development agency about Kensington and its own tower debacle.

John Palmieri, the BRA’s director, argued the difference in City Hall’s approach can be explained by the difference in importance between the two projects.

The $700 million Filene’s proposal left a hole in the heart of the city’s main shopping district.

The project and its problems attracted widespread media attention, with the city’s response heavily covered, Palmieri noted.

While seemingly close by, Kensington’s misfire on its plans for a 30-story apartment and condo tower on Lower Washington Street, a less high-profile location, has attracted little if any media attention, he pointed out.

That said, Palmieri said city officials have been keeping close tabs on Kensington’s efforts to revive its Washington Street tower plan, with a key meeting coming up with the developers next week.

“Each project needs to be considered separately,” Palmieri said.

Fair enough.

And who knows, with the rental market finally perking up and developers rolling out apartment tower plans right and left, maybe Kensington will finally find a way to connect with the ball here after years of strikeouts.

Still, this tale of two developers who left behind big messes in downtown Boston – one to suffer big consequences while the other seemingly skates free – raises more questions than it answers.