The Lease Among Us.
By Jim Conley • Sep 22nd, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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Here’s a copy of the lease between Children’s Hospital, developer Roger Cassin and the Brookline Selectmen. The lease will be* approved at the Selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday [click here to view the lease].
What’s with the 95-year term? Forty years suffices in most deals, both on the lending and securitization sides. Also, it seems to me that Children’s Hospital and Cassin are only on the hook to clean up the contamination at the site that we know about. Start digging for a five car garage and more nastiness could be found. Who’ll clean and dispose of that?
Ultimately, it looks to me like this a lot of bother to put up an office building, one that won’t come close to yielding the $1 million in tax revenue promised by the Selectmen when the parcel was re-zoned to allow a more massive structure.
* It is the policy of this site to use the future affirmative tense when writing of matters involving deals between developers and the Brookline Selectmen. It would be irresponsible to suggest that public input will have a bearing on the vote to approve the terms of this lease.
Update: The appendices and escrow agreement referenced in the draft agreement were not sent to me, only the ground lease. See, when you ask Town Administrator Ricahrd Kelliher for a copy of a ground lease, that’s exactly (and only) what you get. Some people will take the time, when asked for a document, to make sure the requester has all he or she needs to get the full picture. Not our Richard.
Update (2): I’ll note that the file notation on the draft lease would seem to indicate that the same law firm (Goulston & Storrs) which drafted the St. Aidan’s ZBA decision [see post] is the author of this draft lease. And we need a $1 million Town Counsel’s office to do what exactly?
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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Is Goulston & Storrs outhouse counsel for the Town of Brookline? If so, I guess a public records request might be in order to obtain billing information. John Bassett has faith in Town Counsel’s office regarding the B-2 sale leaseback transactions that Jim has posted on (see John’s comment) that Town Counsel’s office has got it right. (Is John suggesting I got it wrong?) Perhaps John will let us know if he also has faith in Goulston & Storrs. The response to the public records request might suggest whether Goulston & Storrs has been on the case since 2004 as has Town Counsel’s office. Sometimes faith can be misplaced. I’m prepared to trust … but cut the cards.