No BCEC boondoggle
We’re on guard whenever the phrase “convention center expansion” gets tossed around. But, at least for now, the effort announced this week by the agency that runs the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center doesn’t much resemble the $1 billion, rigged buildout that was on the drawing board a few years ago.
Gov. Charlie Baker shelved that plan — which would have added 1.3 million square feet of new space and called for a publicly-subsidized, 1,200-room hotel — over very real concerns about whether there was an actual need for it, and of course its enormous price tag.
The BCEC hadn’t even been open 10 years when the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, under its previous leadership, pitched plans for the expansion. An advisory group stacked with officials who favored the project was convened and, with the exception of a few dissenters, concluded the all-in expansion was simply a must-do. The Legislature gave it the green light and away they all went.
Current MCCA executive director David Gibbons and the agency’s board, mostly appointed by Baker, understand the worry about sinking huge sums of taxpayer funds into anything that might resemble a convention boondoggle. The agency’s new plan is to seek bids for the creation of a master plan for the 70-acre Seaport campus, which would include an analysis of the market and any need for more convention space. The neighborhood has undergone a transformation in recent years, with the biggest recent change coming with the announcement that a 1,000-room hotel will open across the street from the BCEC on property owned by Massport.
A hotel that won’t require a public subsidy, by the way.
That hotel will be factored into the MCCA’s new analysis. And the request for proposals makes clear that any building program would be “financially self-sufficient” — which ought to be a prerequisite.
Rep. Nick Collins (D-South Boston) told The Boston Globe there ought to be a special public commission, rather than a private bidder, conducting the analysis of the BCEC’s needs. Collins, of course, was one of the biggest cheerleaders for the earlier expansion plan that would have left taxpayers in hock up to their eyeballs. We’ll take our chances with some outside input.