FBI Eyeing Fort Point Again

The Banker and Tradesman is reporting that the FBI is looking at building a complex in Fort Point:

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Developer, FBI Reportedly Want 5-Acre Post Office Parcel
By Paul McMorrow
Banker & Tradesman Staff Writer
http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/news131503.html


Two development sources have said that Commonwealth Ventures president Dick Galvin and mayoral confidante Bob Walsh are preparing to make a play for the U.S. Postal Service's parking lot on A Street in South Boston - a move that would enable them to build a new home for one of the region's most coveted tenants, the FBI.

The sources say that Galvin and Walsh took a run at the site last spring, when the Postal Service first put the 5-acre A Street lot on the market. They were unable to come to an agreement on price, but since that time, the Postal Service's finances have been seriously tested, and they may be more willing to compromise, the sources speculated.

USPS parking lot on A Street in South BostonGalvin, who developed neighboring Channel Center and whose firm has offices in the A Street complex, would be well-positioned to leverage the Postal Service plot into significant new construction. Channel Center Holdings, a firm he controls, owns the two vacant lots between the Postal Service lot and Channel Center.

Boston Mayor Tom Menino has long sought to keep the FBI's regional offices in the city. That search has centered on the Seaport. The agency reportedly took a long, hard look at Joe Fallon's Fan Pier before deciding that price and security concerns made the development unacceptable. The FBI, said to be eyeing 270,000 square feet, would have been Fan Pier's anchor tenant. Instead, Fallon's first office tower is now rising without one. And now it appears that it'll be another friend of the mayor's - Walsh, not Fallon - who brings the feds to the neighborhood.

USPS parking lot on A Street in South BostonCB Richard Ellis is marketing the lot for the Postal Service. CBRE declined comment.