Follow-up

Building plans set for Two Financial Place

by Laura A. Siegel

COMPROMISE: residents and Rose Associates have agreed on new plans.

Rose Associates and a group of Leather District residents have finally agreed on a plan for a building at Two Financial Place (see "Size Matters," News and Features, April 7). After a year of wrangling over the height -- 10 stories, as the zoning allows, or 20, as the developer wants? -- they've settled on 12 stories, with a setback and cornice after nine.

But residents still aren't completely satisfied. "There are people who believe that the thing should have been limited to the zoning," says neighborhood activist Phil Golden. "There are others who believe we accomplished a great deal, and got this building down from a monstrosity to something that is just too big."

A few weeks ago, Rose had agreed to design the setback and cornice so that the top three floors would be invisible to someone standing directly across South Street. But that would have required a 10-foot cornice -- what residents jeeringly refer to as an "awning." Instead, the cornice will be five feet on South Street, with a five-foot setback -- meaning that the top floors will be visible after all.

But developers point out that they've come down eight stories from their original proposal. "I think [the compromise plan] answers the majority of the concerns put forth," says Michael Vaughan, a spokesperson for Rose Associates.

And no one wanted to keep the parking lot that's there now. "We do want a building on the site, and if we had continued to push, it could have ended up with no building on the site or a building long delayed," says long-time Leather District resident Larry Rosenblum.

Few people are discussing the special tax status Rose will get for this building. Mainly used to build housing, 121A status -- which Rose applied for and received -- gives developers tax certainty. It establishes what their taxes will be for 40 years, explains Herb Gleason, the former lawyer for the City of Boston who helped write Boston's 121A statute. It also lets developers deviate from zoning codes. "The purpose [of 121A] was to get construction going in places that needed it -- blighted open areas and so forth," Gleason says.

"Our board felt that given what currently exists [at Two Financial], it meets the requirements of 121A being a blighted area," says BRA spokesperson Susan Elsbree. Rose has owned the land for more than 20 years, so if it's blighted, it's no one's fault but theirs. But Rose Associates will get the tax benefits nonetheless. "Now they're eradicating the situation," Elsbree explains.

The BRA board adopted the final compromise at an April 25 meeting, and the Boston Civic Design Commission approved it May 2. The BRA staff and Rose's designers will continue with the design review, "to make sure that the cornices look good and that the façade is to the community's liking," says Elsbree.

Now that the formal processes are wrapped up, Rose is in a hurry to build. "We have tenants who need the space desperately," Vaughan says. Rose hopes to break ground in June.