Boston looked quite different back in 2010. There was no Millennium Place or Millennium Tower, the Government Center T station overhaul was years away, and One Dalton had yet to scrape the sky. Northeastern University was different as well. Though it had recently finished its 22-story International Village dorm on the corner of Tremont and Ruggles in 2009, the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex didn’t tower over Columbus Avenue until 2017
The year 2010 is important because that’s when the city’s PILOT (or payment in lieu of taxes) program was launched. Many cities have PILOT programs, in which tax-exempt institutions make compensation for some or all of the property tax revenue lost due to tax exempt ownership. When Boston’s version was crafted, it included the following points: All non-profits should participate and the program should remain voluntary; Contributions should be based on the value of real estate; PILOT should include a credit
for community benefits.
For 2019, on a real estate value basis of $1,423,782,813, Northeastern’s requested PILOT contribution was $11,446,920. It paid $1.7 million and added $5.7 million in assorted “community benefits.” That leaves it a little over $4 million short.
But it’s one thing to merely shirk one’s civic duty to pay your fair share. It’s another to shirk that duty when you take as much as you give.
As the Boston Herald’s Sean Philip Cotter reported, Northeastern University plans another construction project, one that expands its footprint in Roxbury.
A 26-story, 975-bed dorm is proposed for the corner of Tremont Street and Melnea Cass Boulevard — and community leaders say the school is again ignoring the needs of the neighborhoods.
“Northeastern has been a bad actor,” said Tito Jackson, a community activist who represented the area on the City Council. “Northeastern has continued to try to run over the neighborhood and community with their building. … Northeastern communicates regularly that the voice of the people of Roxbury doesn’t matter.”
City Council President Kim Janey, who now represents the area, filed a letter to the Boston Planning and Development Agency in December opposing the proposed dorm, saying, “For those living in Northeastern’s shadow, those benefits they claim to bring to the community go unseen. From supporting affordable housing projects, to supporting local vendors, the University has consistently fallen short on its promises to be a strong community partner.”
John Tobin, Northeastern’s head of community affairs, pushed back on criticism, saying that the university isn’t displacing community members and puts a great deal of effort into its community task force.
As to the PILOT shortfall: “We continue to work with the administration on that,” Tobin said.
Jackson cited the university-touted renovation of Carter Park in Roxbury as another community mismatch: “They took out all the basketball courts and replaced them with tennis courts.”
Boston’s real estate scene was different in 2010 — the Seaport boom was in its early stages, housing prices were high, but yet to hit the stratosphere of today. The value of Tremont Street or Columbus Avenue real estate in 2020 would make 2010 assessors need to lie down. Northeastern’s footprint continues to grow and spread into Roxbury, a neighborhood in need of affordable housing. It’s time to rethink the “voluntary” status of the PILOT program.
