School’s out. One week after proposing a controversial K-12 private school as part of a $3 billion project in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood, the developer has changed his mind. The story was first reported last week on Banker & Tradesman’s Web site.
“We’ve put the idea on hold,” said John B. Hynes III, managing partner of Gale International, the Boston-based company that has proposed an 800,000-square-foot cultural and education center at Seaport Square, a planned community on 23 acres of parking lots in South Boston. “We are rethinking it because Mayor [Thomas] Menino wants us to rethink it.”
Hynes backed away from the idea after his comments about families fleeing Boston in favor of suburban schools became public and angered Menino.
“The K-12 school is part of the Seaport Cultural Center project we have proposed and would have multiple pieces to the puzzle: a hotel, conference center and a performing-arts facility,” Hynes said. “This private, international school is one idea that I floated. Do all the pieces have to be there for the overall project to be successful? No. Have we decided which pieces will stay or go? No.”
In an interview Thursday with Banker & Tradesman, Menino said if Hynes wants to build a school in the Seaport District , it should be part of the Boston Public Schools.
“John Hynes’ plan was not well thought out; it was a concept,” said Menino. “If he wants to build a public or a pilot school accessible to Boston students and he’s willing to put up the money, I would work with him on that. I could get excited about that.”
Asked about the idea of building a public school as part of the 6.5 million-square-foot development that would be built adjacent to the John Joseph Moakley U.S Courthouse, Hynes was uncertain.
“How many private companies build public schools? he asked. “I don’t even know if we can. How would we do that? I don’t know. We’ll figure something out. Maybe Seaport Square will include a public school. Look, we’re two years away from going through the public process. It could be a public school, a park, a hotel or it could be nothing. Who knows? We proposed a cultural center that includes a private school and that became a lightening rod. The whole thing will require further discussion.”
Hynes, a Milton resident who also owns a condominium in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, detailed his plans for Seaport Square at a meeting of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties’ Boston chapter last month. If approved, the project would include 1.5 million square feet of office space, 1.5 million square feet of retail and up to 2,500 condominiums.
During his speech, Hynes said 200 to 300 young families leave the city annually because they “don’t want to send their kids to private school, can’t get into the public school of choice or don’t want their 7-year-old spending two hours traveling to a private school, so they move to the suburbs.”
Paul McCann, the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s acting director, said the private school idea is dead. “It would never get permitted without the city’s approval,” he said.
