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Low Assessment May Doom Hynes Center

BOSTON-Word from the executive branch of the Commonwealth is that the Hynes Convention Center, soon to be dwarfed by the new convention center here, isn't worth nearly as much as the Massachusetts legislature claimed last year. The broader question is what to do with the site if the Hynes closes.

By Dees Stribling | Updated on April 14, 2004

BOSTON-The question of what to with the 193,000-sf Hynes Convention Center took a new twist yesterday, when word leaked to the local press that a Commonwealth of Massachusetts study, requested by state treasurer Tim Cahill, pegged the assessed value of the facility at far less than previously estimated. The study put the value of the publicly owned John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center at $35 million. When combined with its adjacent Boston Common Garage, the two facilities are worth an estimated of $99 million, far less than a previous total estimate of $145 million ($85 million for the convention center alone).

The discrepancy matters because in 2003, state lawmakers, relying on the higher estimate for the two structures, ordered the transfer of the Hynes and the garage to the state pension fund, which needed an asset infusion, from the Massachusetts Convention Authority. Reportedly, the pension board was never happy about the arrangement, and has resisted actually taking title to the properties, since historically the Hynes facilities haven’t returned enough revenue to offset the expenses associated with their operation. The lower assessment figure ought to give the board the leverage it needs to avoid owning the properties. Treasurer Cahill did not return calls from GlobeSt.com.

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