Developer Don Briggs addresses aldermen this week about the tenuous future of Assembly Square. - Photo by Andrew Firestone

City plan to fund Assembly Square development questioned

By Andrew Firestone

Mayor Joe Curtatone is pushing aldermen to make a final decision on a plan to fund Assembly Square development but one alderman is saying the rushed process is like “a gun against our heads.”

The measure is an effort to close a $23 million funding gap for Assembly Square development. U.S. Rep. Mike Capuano had touted $25 million in federal funding since 2005 but the city will receive only $2 million for a project that has stalled for years in legal and political disputes during decades of unrealized potential.

The plan, known as District Improvement Financing, sets up a bond, proposed to be overseen by the mayor and aldermen, which allows the district’s tax revenues to be used on infrastructure. The bond sets up a base with which to borrow for new developments in the district, such as the second two phases of the proposed Assembly Square project.

The project hinges upon two separate projects: the Assembly Square development itself, including office-space, retail and condominium buildings, and the proposed Orange line stop.

FRIT’s Senior Vice President of Development, Don Briggs, reminded aldermen of the stakes and why a speedy process is necessary. “If there is no T-stop, and there is no infrastructure, there is no project,” said Briggs. “We can’t wait until 2011,12,13 for the T funding to get here while we sit standing still.  We’ve invested too much money at this point, we can’t stop.”

White asked about the consequences if the funding for the T station came through without approving the DIF, which would cost the city at least $2.5 million in interest payments.

“In your scenario, you’re assuming the federal government will fund a T stop without a project at Assembly Square, which is not going to happen,” said Briggs. “You’re assuming that we all stand and wait until whenever the market gets here. When that happens, you’re three years away from delivering a product if we’re not here. So you will have missed the next [economic] cycle.”

Briggs said that the best choice would be to invest at the bottom of the economic cycle, which Curtatone said is now. “I wish that I could give you six more months to digest that model. I don’t have that, none of us of have that,” Curtatone said. 

Curtatone urged the aldermen to approve the plan, and capitalize on the investments “we have already made.” “For years we’ve been chasing that economic train. We’ll be driving that train; we won’t be chasing it anymore.”

“This infrastructure must be in place,” said Curtatone. “If the T doesn’t happen, we know the consequences of that.”

Mystic View Task Force organizer Wig Zamore, who has worked with the developer in planning the project, was adamant that development in Assembly Square maximize tax revenues for the city.

“The heart of the matter is that we really have to put our shoulder behind economic development that pays off for the full community. The DIF could, but it depends specifically on getting to that research and development and office space,” he said.

The Assembly Square project has yet to break ground, but would possibly start by the end of 2011 if the measure passes.