"It's time to set reasonable milestones so these projects can have the assistance they need from their boards and fundraisers to move forward," Brennan says. "If that support from the community is not forthcoming, we can start to look for other world class ideas."
Last year the YMCA, which planned to build a major recreational facility in the North End, announced that spiraling construction costs had forced it to withdraw its proposal. A second project, planned by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, is also threatened.
In a meeting this week with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which is in charge of the Greenway, the conservancy recommended the horticultural society be removed from the list of site developers because it does not have the funding to build the planned 'Garden Under Glass' complex on the site.
Thomas Herrera-Mishler, the society's executive director, tells GlobeSt.com he was stunned by the recommendation and said the group plans to meet with turnpike officials next week to present specific construction and financial timeframes with the expectation that the society will be awarded the project.
"It doesn't make any sense at all," says Herrera-Mishler, who believes the recommendation is a chance for the conservancy to take control of the project. "Its just nasty downtown Boston politics at work and not good for achieving a long term solution," Herrera-Mishler says. "We owe it to our members and the people of Boston to pursue this project the best we can."
Plans for the Greenway also call for the construction of a New Center for Arts and Culture, the Boston Museum Project and the Harbor Island Pavilion.
In May the Boston Planning Institute in Cambridge terminated their contract with Garden Under Glass, saying they could not continue without 'a clear designation' from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority giving them the right to plan, design and build on the land, and noting that the firm is owed $476,793 in salary and expenses. The turnpike authority has final control over what is constructed on the site. The planning institute also noted that $240,000 in start-up funding has not been raised for the project.
Herrera-Mishler tells GlobeSt.com the horticultural society raised $800,000 last year to finance its endeavor and has received a $3-million commitment from the turnpike authority to pay for the $7-million project.
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