Centre Street Hotel Prologue?
By Jim Conley • Jul 17th, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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Can’t wait for the day - if it ever comes - when the Brookline Selectmen and their flunkies on the Town’s Economic Advisory Board announce plans to put a hotel, or other such monstrosity, where the Brookline Farmer’s Market currently operates.
This week’s flare up over a fee increase will seem like a barn raising should that ever come to pass.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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Jim,
Amy Schectman’s Memo to the BOS dated November 2, 1998, that you linked to in a prior post, is a must read for Town residents to understand the orchestration involved with “selling” a project in Brookline. The Webster Street hotel project ended up as a sweetheart deal for the developer, as you have pointed out on many occasions. But the Town was in a dual role as owner of the site and as the provider of municipal services. The Town failed as owner in obtaining a decent ground lease rental arrangement for this long term lease on a site it long owned. Yes, the Town benefits from property taxes and hotel room taxes; but that would have resulted even if the Town had not owned the site. The Town failed in its fiduciary duty as owner of the site to get a fair rental arrangement. Town Counsel’s office has on several occasions pointed to the ground lease as the model for the B-2 parcel if and when the lab is developed. You would think the Town would have learned a lesson. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on ….
The various attachments to this Memo should be read with care. Perhaps then voters can probe the dark depths of the manuevering in Town Hall as it sets up the electorate for the kill. Between the Preservationists and the PR people running this Town, voters will end up with the wool pulled over their eyes UNLESS THEY PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT IS GOING ON. Look at the attachment headed “Strategy Session for Hotel Proposal” to get an idea of how the game is being played. Today such a strategy would have to face the Internet and Blogs such as yours, with the light of day shining brightly on any wheelings and dealings by the “usual suspects.”