Several members of the Housing Services Committee and other members of the student body and some from the Student Government Association are currently in 333 Curry Student Center awaiting the beginning of a presentation to the student body about the GrandMarc proposed for St. Boltoph Street. I'll be updating every few minutes or so with what's going on.
7:09 PM Here to talk to us is Jason Reynolds from Dallas of Phoenix Property Company and also a member from Lincoln Property Company. Lincoln has about 3500 people nationally and they are in every major city in the country, including several buildings in Boston. They're going over some of the other development projects they do. They're going over some of the key facts and points about the building. They also are mentioning the students they are targeting: those who attend colleges in the Fenway area.
7:12 PM: In total, there are about ten students here along with a couple members of the University administration in the area of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs. The proponents of the project are mentioning how they are the first ones to try a private residence hall in Boston. They've done it elsewhere leasing directly to students, but in Boston they "modified the plan to go to leasing blocks of rooms" to institutions. Berklee is looking at 300-400 beds, and the Colleges of the Fenway including Wentworth, Emmanuel, and Simmons are also looking at buying beds.
7:12 PM: Part of their plan includes allowing Universities to put in their own RAs and also they surveyed and found that the idea of mixing students from different schools together would not be an issue, which gave them encouragement to leasing to individual students. However, a City of Boston concern was "where's the control and management" of the system since there wasn't a direct link back to a school. Also, a brief mention of how they are meeting issues from students related to feedback from the community. We have a 8 page document which we'll try to get scanned and made available or obtain from the GrandMarc proponents.
7:18 PM: The proponents claim that the issue of non-students in the building is a non-issue, because they now can limit the housing to full-time students. This is interesting, because at last month's community meeting community members seemed to believe otherwise. Also, students would not be totally stuck with someone if there were roommate conflicts because they can relocate or move people and if an institution leases a block they can choose where students go within that block. Reynolds mentioned how they have a community assistant program, where some residents act as an adviser and in return they get discounted (or free) rent. The community assistants aren't there to enforce rules strictly, but rather to help safety out. Reynolds gave the example that if someone was rolling a keg down the hall, a community assistant could notice it and let security know and put a stop to the activity for the good of others. Longwood Security was hired to create a plan, and Longwood Security has done other securing of buildings and has worked with institutions like Berklee. Also, students who get caught breaking the rules will have their school notified and parents notified.
7:26 PM: The issue of no dining facility was mentioned. There will be mostly apartment-style living with kitchens (85% of the facility, to be exact). The question was put forth to students "do students use kitchens" and there was some talk about the use of kitchens and it was mentioned how Northeastern upperclass residence halls all have kitchens. Additionally, elected city officials prefer to see no dining facility because students can go to local businesses and express their purchasing power there or even get a job at local businesses.
7:33 PM: I asked about how they would deal with the current residents at the YMCA during construction and where they would live. The answer is that they'll move them to the back of the building while the front is renovated and then they'll construct a fire wall and move the residents to the renovated area and then renovate the back side of the building. Some bad news -- individual residents won't be allowed to sublease their space out to others. They'll have to go through a program GrandMarc offers. Also, Reynolds said that they might be able to accommodate the cooperative education program at Northeastern which he believes is "integral" to the institution. A point was made that the move-in and move-out is pretty easy for students because everything is fully furnished. The proponents said that 796 beds wasn't much, and that there could be no ability for Northeastern students to live in the building if other schools buy up the space.
7:39 PM: The proponents asked about how Northeastern housing works for upperclassmen. Members of the Housing Services Committee informed them about the process and they said their target is those students who want to live near or on-campus, but can't because of a lack of housing. Another proponent here is Michael Vaughn, a community and government consultant. They also mentioned that they will bill people for using utilities such as electricity over a certain level and that a basic cable package would be provided and students would have the option to upgrade to premium packages. On the topic of security, they mentioned how guests must be signed in and leave an ID at the front desk and sign out.
7:47 PM: Christopher Brielman, a Housing Services Committee member asked about why the security seems to be so "draconian" and stricter than Northeastern. He raised the issue of community building and how it could be hard to develop a community and there might be 24 different communities. Vaughn responded that they erred on the side of more strict because of concerns over security. It was mentioned that schools would have a say, and if a school leased a block of rooms they could say their students can access all the floors the school leases. Vaughn stated that they did a lot of market research. Reynolds asked how students find apartments off-campus and asked if students wanted on-site management. I asked about the building and concerns that the company will sell the building off after a few years and that a new company may not have the same ideals and the building could go downhill. They said that it is important to them that students live living in the building because they want to have people live there year-after-year and keep revenue coming in to give them a return on their investment. Also, a benefit to the City of Boston is that nearby landlords will need to be more competitive and meet the standards the GrandMarc provides.
7:50 PM: Reynolds spoke to us about amenities that they will have to target students. Northeastern's Senior Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, Philomena Mantella, asked the proponents if they could give us a price in today's dollars. Reynolds didn't give an exact price, but said that an average is around $1,100. He said that a unit could be $2000 a month, or $800 a month, depending on the size, and that 15% of the area will be a traditional dormitory style building with a price that could be around $600 to $700. Also, all the pricing is single-occupancy rooms.
7:55 PM: The proponents said that the building will eventually be sold, as it is a for-profit venture, but that their equity partner does not want to be seen as "flipping" properties. They also talked about how they look at making the lease options for institutions flexible for balance sheet reasons.
7:57 PM: Michael Raphael, who is the SGA Representative for the Resident Student Association, asked why this is so close to northeastern if they want to reach so many schools. They said they want to have Northeastern lease space. The reason the site is so near Northeastern is because that was where the land was available. Also, the YMCA will be upgraded through the process. Vaughn also mentioned how brand new YMCAs will be built in West Roxbury, Hyde Park, and the North End from this project.
7:59 PM: Representative Raphael asked another question, about how the turnaround could lead to more traffic on St. Boltoph Street. The proponents said that the turnaround was added because Northeastern had concerns, and that the turnaround was a change from the original PNF due to community concern.
8:04 PM: Christopher Brielman asked how the GrandMarc could help Northeastern phase out its Master Leased Properties Program faster. The proponents said that Northeastern can do this by building housing on campus and transferring students out of the leased properties. I asked how this is phasing out the MLPP, as it would be leasing space in a new facility. There was also a point raised by Senior Vice President Mantella up that the City of Boston could see Northeastern replacing one lease with another if Northeastern replaced current leased properties with the GrandMarc.
8:05 PM: SGA President Ranley asked about conduct of students and relation to Codes of Conduct. The response was that the rules are very similar to University codes of conduct and laws (eg. felonies are not allowed, you can't give underage people alcohol).
8:11 PM: The proponents brought up how parents can be informed if students violate rules because they co-sign on leases. They said all students have to have parents co-sign, but that there are some cases where an income test is used and usually students alone cannot qualify. Also, Reynolds said that parents can have their credit reports damaged if a student commits "three strikes" and is evicted. I asked them if in their market research they looked at whether or not students wanted to have their parents required to co-sign and how students wanted accountability to work. Reynolds said they did not, but they may put that topic on a future survey. A question came up about graduate students and it was said that graduate students could be housed with University blocks. Reynolds said graduate student housing is a huge issue nationwide, and they want to accommodate the demand.
8:16 PM: Vice President Ryan Fox raised the issue of concern to Northeastern about the GrandMarc limiting Northeastern's ability to expand housing for its own students and goals of bringing students back to campus. A "loaded question" came from a Housing Services Committee member about what benefit would Northeastern see if none of its students live in the building. The response from Vaughn was that we should ask our administrators, because they expected Northeastern to try to buy the land but they did not. Vaughn said they would "love to lease this building to Northeastern," and that they will "be a good neighbor." Reynolds reiterated "we'd love to fill it [the GrandMarc] with Northeastern students."
8:20 PM: Senior Vice President Mantella said for the building to be a high-quality residential facility, they might need to look at many conditions and look at the interests of the students, the University, and the politics. Reynolds said that they don't need master leases, and that they build the building and make beds available to Northeastern students outside of a master lease. Vaughn said that they respect Northeastern's work to build good relationships with the neighborhood, and understood Northeastern's hesitance to supporting the project and making known a desire to lease a block of space.
8:22 PM: I asked about pedestrian traffic and how 800 more people will impact the Green Line. Vaughn said that the students are already here in the community, which is what the community members at last month's public meeting already rejected as a statement based on assumptions that were untrue. The proponents pointed to traffic analysis in the Draft Project Impact Report and offered to make their traffic consultant available.
8:25 PM: I asked about gender neutral housing in the GrandMarc and if they had plans for it. They said they didn't have plans, but then Vaughn said that the housing would be "market driven," and a University leasing a block could offer it. Additionally, we were told that ADA compliance would exist for disabled individuals.
8:26 PM: I missed the name of the person from Lincoln Property Company -- he is John Cappellano, the Senior Vice President for Development and Construction.
8:27 PM: The meeting is now over. I gave one of the proponents my RSA business card asking for a copy of the documents they gave out so we can make those available.
This concludes the live blog coverage of the meeting. We'll have more for you in the next week as we approach July 24th -- the date of our next committee meeting.
