Harvard's Purchase of Arsenal Faces Local Opposition

WATERTOWN, MA-Harvard University’s recent purchase of the Arsenal office project here has ignited a heated debate. Local opponents fear that the site’s new tax-exempt status will cause the town to lose millions of dollars in tax revenues.

Harvard purchased the 30-acre site two months ago for $160 million from O’Neill Properties, which had developed the historic US army base into a business complex in 1998. Harvard Business School Publishing leases 112,000 sf on the site and in its contract, the university was given first rights of refusal on the property.

According to Mark Boyle, director of community development and planning for the town, tax revenues on the Arsenal site–which was only 50% completed–was $2.7 million. Expected tax revenues on the completed site would jump to $4.8 million next year. If Harvard maintained the commercial leases on the site it would be obligated to pay taxes but the university is slowly replacing the commercial leases as they expire with university space.