City Hall Offers Compromise Proposal on Fan Pier Plan

BOSTON-The Boston Redevelopment Authority offered a compromise plan for the Fan Pier Project on the city’s waterfront after the state’s Office Of Environmental Affairs insisted on radical changes to the original proposal. Developer Nicholas Pritzker of Chicago accepted the changes weeks after insisting that he would back out of the project rather than reduce its size.

The city’s proposal involves reducing the size of Building H, one of Fan Pier’s main waterfront buildings, making it residential and adding civic space in two of the buildings. The proposal falls short of state Secretary of Environmental Affairs Robert Durand’s demand to eliminate Building H altogether.

“We wanted a greater view corridor of the water,” says Doug Pizzi, press secretary for the Office of Environmental Affairs. “We thought getting rid of building H was the easiest way to do that. What they came back with was not another way to do that.” Pizzi tells GlobeSt.com that his office has not signed off on the compromise plan yet. “We want more details on what this entails in terms of density of the project,” he notes. “We’re still going through negotiations.”