Starwood has still not arranged all its financing for the project, but according to Dean Stratouly, development chairman of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, "they are optimistic that they can get financing." FleetBoston Financial Corp. offered to provide a loan of $150 million, and Starwood "is in the process of structuring the balance on its own," Stratouly tells Globest.com.

A tighter financial market and the notorious difficulty developers typically have in funding hotels led both sides to make financial concessions. Starwood gave up $30 million in a combination of management and development fees while the MCCA agreed to reduce its rental income to $421 million over 50 years, which, emphasizes Gloria Larson, chairwoman of the MCCA, is still higher than runner-up Marriot International's bid. In addition, infrastructure costs will be shared, with the MCCA considering picking up parking and utilities costs as well as costs relating to the central plaza and the connection tunnels between the center and the hotel.

The sticking point, though, was the tax abatements Starwood was seeking under Section 121A of state law. The city would not provide Starwood with any tax relief under that statute and at one point the company said it would not go forward without receiving some help from the city. But according to Stratouly, "the city was able to demonstrate how tax assessment would work and those projections resulted in significant tax savings over what was being projected by Starwood."