Watchdog: City's property sale leaves question of where money will go
The nearly $153 million sale of the Winthrop Square garage is moving forward, though a watchdog says questions remain about where the money will end up in city coffers.
The city’s Public Facilities Committee transferred the garage to the Boston Planning and Development Authority yesterday, clearing the way for the BPDA to sell the property to Millennium Partners, which is planning to build a 750-foot tower with 300 condos and multiple floors of office space.
Millennium won the rights to $1 billion project this spring.
According to a memorandum of agreement between the city and the agency, Millennium will pay a fixed purchase price of $102 million to BPDA, and then make “Project Participation Purchase Price Payments” of $100-per-square-foot of each condo sold as they go on the market.
The agreement estimates the payments will bring in an estimated $51 million of revenue.
But city officials say they have not yet determined whether the money would go to the general fund or another area of the city’s budget.
“It is not designated to any particular place at this time,” Commissioner of Assessing Ron Rakow told the Herald. “I just don’t think we’ve thought that far ahead.”
Rakow said he thought the money would go into the city’s surplus property fund, but the MOA’s language only says it will be paid to “the city.”
Boston Municipal Research Bureau president Sam Tyler said state law requires proceeds from the sale of surplus property to go into that surplus fund.
“There’s no wiggle room, that’s the only option the city has,” Tyler said, adding that officials should make clear where the money from the sale will go.
“One-time revenue should not be used for ongoing expenses,” he said.