Boston Mayor Blasts Vornado’s Roth Over ‘Blight’ Speech
- Nancy Lane/Boston Herald
Frank comments from Vornado Realty Trust Chairman Steven Roth have sparked a political uproar in Boston over the stalled redevelopment of the Filene’s Basement site.
In an unscripted lecture at Columbia University last week, Mr. Roth implied that allowing a construction site to become an eyesore can be a successful business strategy because the government is likely to offer more generous incentives.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino read the comments and fired off a letter to Mr. Roth blasting his “outrageous” remarks. “Admitting that you embraced a deliberate policy of long-term blight, at a major commercial location in New York City, exhibits a callous disregard for the well-being of the city and its people.”
Mr. Menino continued: “Inflicting pain on people, business, and communities to inflate the return to your enormously profitable company is reprehensible.”
Last week, Mr. Roth recounted how in the mid-90s he deliberately let the hulking Alexander’s department store sit vacant for more than three years. “Why did I do nothing?” Mr. Roth said, according to an article on the lecture in The New York Observer. “Because I was thinking in my own awkward way, that the more the building was a blight, the more the governments would want this to be redeveloped; the more help they would give us when the time came.
Vornado didn’t respond to a request for comment.
In an unscripted lecture at Columbia University last week, Mr. Roth implied that allowing a construction site to become an eyesore can be a successful business strategy because the government is likely to offer more generous incentives.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino read the comments and fired off a letter [attached] to Mr. Roth blasting his “outrageous” remarks. “Admitting that you embraced a deliberate policy of long-term blight, at a major commercial location in New York City, exhibits a callous disregard for the well-being of the city and its people.”
Mr. Menino continues.
“Inflicting pain on people, business, and communities to inflate the return to your enormously profitable company is reprehensible.”
Vornado did not respond to a request for comment.
You can read the rest of Mr. Menino’s scathing letter (which is address, incorrectly to “Steven Roth) here:
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