Key Columbia Point property owners caught off guard by Olympic Village plans

The Bayside Office Center, one of several properties owned by Corcoran Jennison Companies on Columbia Point. A Boston 2024 plan would eliminate this structure— and several others— to make room for an Olympic Athletes' Village.

The owners of some of the key Dorchester properties that would be displaced by a plan to construct a massive 170-acre Athletes Village for the Olympics have not yet been contacted by Boston 2024 organizers, despite the fact that a document released by Olympics boosters yesterday claims that they have “engaged all owners regarding the access and use of this land.”

In a document that was submitted to United States Olympic Committee (USOC) officials last month— and made public on Wednesday— the organizers of Boston 2024 detailed plans to construct a 170 acre Athletes’ Village that will house some 16,500 people during the event.

According to the document, Boston 2024 intends to “lease the property from the University of Massachusetts and would expect that the remaining properties would be acquired by public authority or alternatively financed with a private developer for the planned student housing and residential development post Olympic Games.”

The Boston 2024 submission to the USOC notes that “land control” on Columbia Point could pose a “significant risk to delivery.”

"We are working closely with the owners to reach a mutually beneficial arrangement," the document says.

However, the Dorchester Reporter has found that — in fact— a number of major stakeholders whose properties would be impacted have not heard anything from the Boston 2024 committee.

The exception seems to be UMass Boston— which only controls the 30 acre Bayside Expo property and has been acting in concert with Boston 2024. UMass Boston Chancellor Keith Motley has been a major supporter of the Boston 2024 big process and traveled to California last month to make a pitch to the pivotal USOC committee. Motley has said that the Athlete Village could be “a public private partnership that will allow us to benefit as a campus.”

Boston 2024 Map of Existing Businesses Impacted by Athletes' Village ProposalBoston 2024 Map of Existing Businesses Impacted by Athletes' Village ProposalBut there are several other major stakeholders on the peninsula who own land that would be needed for the Village under the current plan. And they are seeing the Olympic plans in a different light.

Chief among them is Corcoran Jennison Companies, which owns the Bayside Office Center property and the nearby Bayside Doubletree Hotel. (The Dorchester Reporter is a tenant in the Bayside Office Center.) Corcoran Jennison is a development and real estate firm that owns and manages the adjacent Harbor Point residential development, which is not part of the Athletes’ Village footprint.

However, the Bayside Office Center and the Doubletree Hotel — which the Corcoran Jennison firm plans to expand in a $28 million project that was approved by the BRA last month— would both be displaced by the Village. In addition, a new Corcoran Jennison residential property called “University Place Residences” at 150 Mt. Vernon Street that would be built as soon as this year would also be impacted by the Olympic plan.

Michael Corcoran, the president of Corcoran Jennison Companies, said today that no one from Boston 2024 has ever reached out to discuss the idea of buying, leasing or otherwise acquiring their properties.

“It’s the first we’ve seen of it. We’re caught completely off guard that someone would suggest that they tear down two buildings— one of which is an approved 184 unit apartment complex approved in a city that desperately needs new apartments,” said Corcoran. “We have approved plans here and we intend to build our buildings out per those approvals.”

Corcoran continued: “The second building— the expansion to the hotel –is happening in a city that desperately needs new hotel rooms. We intend to go forward with our plans and would anticipate that the city wouldn't be in favor of us stopping and waiting two years to see if Boston gets designated or ten years more for something to be built.”

Another Columbia Point property owner — the Boston Teachers Union (BTU) on Mt. Vernon Street — would be consumed by the Athletes’ Village.

BTU President Richard Stutman told the Reporter on Thursday that he had not been contacted by Boston 2024.

In fact, Stutman says, the Boston Teachers Union (BTU) filed a proposal with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) last week to demolish its existing Columbia Point building adjacent to the Bayside Expo Center to create a building twice its size, as reported by Universal Hub.

Stutman said his organization’s project will go ahead regardless of any Olympic plans for the parcel.

“We have plans filed to do whatever we have to do on our own facility,” Stutman said Thursday. “I don’t think the two are in conflict. I think they’re independent actions.”

[Editor's note: An earlier version of this story indicated that the Boston 2024 plan "came as a shock" to Stutman and the BTU. In fact, while Stutman says he was not personally aware of the contents of the 2024 proposal until this week, he says he was not "shocked" by the plan and is "not concerned about it or worried." Stutman maintains that the BTU plans to move ahead with their own building plans and considers them independent from the 2024 effort.- Bill Forry]

The plans, however, do appear to be in conflict, as the Boston 2024 proposal — as outlined this week —would raze the newly built building, if built at all, to make way for a secure compound for the village.

Columbia Point Olympic Athletes' Village MapColumbia Point Olympic Athletes' Village MapThe lynchpin of the so-called Waterfront Cluster would include a residential zone for the athletes, and an Olympic Village Plaza including a gift shop and hair salon directly off of Kosciuszko Circle, a parking lot occupying the current Shaws and Residences on Morrissey development, and operational zone in the current Santander Bank building on Mt. Vernon Street.

A fence will surround the “secure” development, with the sole access point at Kosciuszko Circle. Boston College High School will lie within the fence’s boundaries but remain largely unaffected by Boston 2024’s plans, according to the plan. The high school campus, it says, would be used for “practice fields.”

The plan leaves the current Boston Globe parcel — which is expected to be sold to new owners in the coming months— untouched.

“Following the Games, private developers would redevelop the parts of the Village not used by UMass for student housing as market rate multifamily and for-sale condominiums,” according to the bid documents.

The Columbia Point property owners are not the only ones disaffected by the Boston 2024 proposal at this stage. Businesses that currently own and occupy space at Widett Circle on the South Boston-Dorchester border also say that they have not been consulted about plans to build a 60,000 seat stadium on their site.

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