Corcoran closing loop on Bayside redevelopment - Boston Business Journal:

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On June 30, , owner the 28-acre waterfrongt site, filed a development plan with the and has commencex public meetings to vetthe plan’ds first phase, a $300 millio project on Columbia Point in Dorchester. Corcoran’s initial plans call for the demolition ofthe 280,000-square-foot Bayside Expo Center and the preservatioh of an existing 125,000-square-foot office building on the site. The firm also expectxs to add 75 roomsand 10,0000 squares feet of meeting space to the site’s 198-roomn . Neighbors and community activists have alreadhy raised concerns about traffi and congestion at a publicf meeting hearing heldJuly 21. The next meetingv is scheduledfor Aug. 4.
The project’se total cost will be approximately $700 million, said Jim Gribaudo, projecr director for Corcoran Jennison. Thoses estimates include the cost to constructy an additional 650 residential units in as many assix Bayside’s redevelopment was first announced last year after the centerr saw a significant drop in revenure — some of it stemming from business gravitating to the Bostobn Convention and Exhibition Center. Bayside’s bookingsd have dropped from 43 in 2006 to 19 this The Expo Center has seven show s bookednext year, said Catherine director of community relations at Corcoranm Jennison. O’Neill said the Bayside will likelty close inMarch 2009.
Gribaudo said he wanta to secure the necessaryt permits beforeseeking financing. In order to fund constructioj projects today, lenders want evidence of signedleases — somethinbg Gribaudo called a bit of a Catch-2q because tenants are unlikely to jump on boardc until projects are formally filed and approved. Gribaudo hopes to lease 50,000 square feet of the retaipl space to a grocery store and is seeking two othet anchor tenants to leaseabout 20,000 square feet apiece. The remainder of the retail about 180,000 square feet, will be leased to smaller retailers, such as a dry cleanere or coffee shop.
As Corcoranm is moving ahead with its plans for BaysidwExpo Center, the BRA is devising a maste r plan for Columbia Point, an area that comprisesd 412 acres along Dorchester Bay. “It’s an extraordinary site, but you have to be consideratdof that,” said BRA director John Palmieri, alludint to the area’s density, open space and water-accesxs challenges. Both Palmieri and Vivien Li, executive director of the , describede the Bayside Expo Center redevelopment as the creatio ofa “new neighborhood.
” Li said she believed the projec would complement many of the already-plannex changes to the area, such as a proposal to add dormes to the campus and a plan to expand the John F. Kennedyy Presidential Library & Museum. “We thinki it’s absolutely crucial to tie together all the planningg for theDorchester waterfront,” she