Harbor reflections

By adamg on Mon, 08/26/2013 - 10:10pm

Myron Freeman shows us Lovejoy Wharf at night, after all the workers busy turning it into the Converse headquarters near the Garden go home for the day.

Copyright Myron Freeman. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

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Comments

Converse

By cybah on Tue, 08/27/2013 - 6:23am.

I ride by this construction site every day on my way to work. It's nice to finally see something done with this dilapidated property but I can't help but think one thing.

The Converse Corporation and it's developer got a 50 Million dollar tax break over 10 years to build here. I'm all for spurring development but in today's economy and tax revenues are down, BUT is it wise to give someone that kind of money to beg them to develop here?

Would Converse still be willing to build here if there was no tax break? I doubt that. Sad to day when we nee to bribe companies to move/build in our city. *shakes head*

We need to look no further than Fidelity to see how this works out. Fidelity stopped getting tax breaks and they closed up operations in MA and moved to RI and NH. How'd that tax break work for us in the end? Not well..

Fidelity never added the jobs

By anon on Tue, 08/27/2013 - 10:39am.

Fidelity never added the jobs they promised for the huge tax breaks they got.

Sure they did. They kept our

By anon on Tue, 08/27/2013 - 1:08pm.

Sure they did. They kept our local machine politicians and their cronies employed.

Property Taxes

By Not Logged In from Roslindale... on Tue, 08/27/2013 - 1:34pm.

If there is one thing for certain that the BRA can be credited with, it is doing the economic analysis on these deals. This building will be put back into the City's tax base in its improved state and will boost the property taxes paid on that building for years to come. Although Converse gets 10 years for free, even if they leave, whomever owns that building will continue to pay taxes on it at its improved rate absent its demolition (unlikely to happen). They also got the developer to rehabilitate the wharf outside of the building, which will be turned into a publicly accesible park. Thus, a free park has been thrown into the tax deal as well. It too will remain an asset even if Converse leaves. There is also a value placed on retaining employees in the area, or bringing new employees to the area, that affects tax revenue in some way, but I am not sure how.

10 years is a long time

By cybah on Tue, 08/27/2013 - 4:58pm.

10 years is a long time to pay no taxes.. sorry. Current state of affairs just do not allow this, not when my taxes and 'fees' are going up.

I don't care how you spin it, if they wanted to build their they would regardless of a tax break or not.

We need to stop corporate welfare today. Not tomorrow.

Hate to see this building get torn down

By Alex_Toth on Sun, 09/01/2013 - 2:53pm.

I used to love looking at all the interesting facets of the building when I was driving by and thinking how it would make a great office. I'm really disappointing it's getting turned into another "glass facade" kind of ugly modern building with a slight nod to it's history.