They don't have to worry; he won't be in office much longer:
"Menino irate over Partners move to Assembly Row" by Robert Weisman | Globe Staff, December 05, 2013
Partners HealthCare System, in a move that has infuriated Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said Thursday it will merge administrative operations in the Boston area, relocating 4,500 nonhospital employees into a giant office complex opening at Somerville’s Assembly Row in late 2016.
Menino said he had urged Partners executives for the past four months to consolidate on a parcel in Roxbury.
“I’m very disappointed,” Menino said. “Partners has an obligation to this city, where they have acres and acres of tax-exempt property. This could have been their opportunity to help revitalize Roxbury. Every time they had a problem, they called me and I was there for them. The social conscience has gone out of Partners. This is all about their bottom line.”
He's just finding that out?
The mayor said he was told by Partners chief executive Gary L. Gottlieb Wednesday that the health care group had not made a final decision, only to learn a day later it had settled on Somerville. Menino, who will step down from office in January, said he intends to appeal the move to the Partners board.
Partners vice president Rich Copp would not comment specifically on Gottlieb’s conversation with Menino, but he acknowledged Partners — the state’s largest hospital and physician organization — had worked with city officials to explore potential sites in Boston.
“The decision was based on creating a more effective and efficient work environment for our employees and reducing costs,” Copp said. He said the consolidation of 14 sites is expected to shave Partners’s costs by about $10 million a year.
Partners began searching for a central administrative site because most of its leases at nonhospital locations are set to expire between 2016 and 2018. While the health care system will move out of sites in Charlestown, Wellesley, Needham, and elsewhere, its corporate headquarters, now in the Prudential Center, will remain in Boston, said Copp.
The shift to Somerville will reduce Partners’ overall space in Boston by only about 7 percent, he said.
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Boston’s loss will be Somerville’s gain.
Related: A game-changer for Somerville
Also see: Death in Danvers
There is a Somerville connection.
Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone of Somerville said the thousands of arriving Partners employees would be a catalyst for Assembly Row, creating traffic for the stores and restaurants opening there. Partners expects to occupy 650,000 to 700,000 square feet at the site.
“We’re really excited because this is exactly the type of tenant we hoped for,” Curtatone said. “When you have a renowned organization like Partners, it opens the door for many things. We’re hoping to get research and development in there, and this will shine a bright light on this project. That’s a conversation we want to have with Partners.”
Curtatone said about $130 million in city, state, and federal funds have been invested over the past five or six years in Assembly Row, one of the largest mixed-use developments in Massachusetts. He said Somerville hopes to attract “spillover” from the high-tech and life sciences cluster in Cambridge’s Kendall Square, about 2 miles way.
In an e-mail to employees Thursday afternoon, Partners chief financial officer Peter Markell said the move “will help us unite the organization around our mission . . . Equally important, it will remove one of the most common obstacles to getting our work done — geography. We can waste a lot of time and effort trying to track down and communicate with our co-workers.”
Why would that be a lot of time and effort in this digital age?
Many details about Partners’s new space on Assembly Row are still being negotiated, including the ownership structure of the office complex and whether it will include shops and restaurants, said Don Briggs, senior vice president at Federal Realty Investment Trust. The firm is developing Assembly Row as a $1.2 billion project on 45 acres of former industrial property along the Mystic River that once housed a Ford Motor Co. factory....
The development will also include outlet stores, restaurants, hundreds of residences, a revitalized riverfront park, and a new Orange Line MBTA station. Developers already have lined up several high-profile retail tenants, including the Legoland Discovery Center, Nike, Brooks Brothers, French cookware maker Le Creuset, women’s clothier Chico’s, and the ice cream shop J.P. Licks. AMC Theaters is also opening a 12-screen cinema on the property.
They are building up in Boston!
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UPDATE: Menino asks Partners to nix Somerville move
Related:
Inaugural should be joyful, accessible — not a big-money affair
Walsh Leaves Labor Off Inaugural Guest List
Not even in office yet and he is captive to corporate money.
"Cultural leaders happy with Martin Walsh’s rhetoric" by Geoff Edgers | Globe Staff, December 05, 2013
The president of Berklee College of Music wants a Boston version of South By Southwest, the sprawling music festival that draws thousands of people to Austin, Texas. A Boston University film professor wishes City Hall would answer phone calls from students applying for shooting permits. The Museum of Fine Arts director just wants to meet for coffee. He’s fine with Dunkin Donuts.
Martin J. Walsh won’t take office as Boston’s mayor until Jan. 6, but cultural leaders are eager to get started on a vision he outlined during the campaign, one in which “artists will have a true partner and advocate in City Hall.”
In a recent interview, Walsh confirmed two key promises that form the cornerstone for his arts vision. The first: to create a Cabinet-level commissioner for arts and culture. The second: to devote a set percentage of city revenue to the arts — something done in other cities, but never in Boston.
Not that I'm against the arts per se, but should scarce tax dollars be set aside to help an indu$try that is having record funds raised while citizens of the city deal with austerity and sequestration?
Another reason I'm not fond of the arts is they are promoted by my agenda-pushing mouthpiece of monied media. Art museums are the playground of the elite. That's why the Globe has such a focus on them.
A third reason I'm not fond of the arts is because it is often a cover for Mossad spies, aided and abetted by the Zionist-controlled AmeriKan media.
Josiah Spaulding Jr., chief executive of the Citi Performing Arts Center, has been particularly encouraged by that second promise. He’s been pushing for a dedicated revenue stream for years.
See: Slow Saturday Special: Peabody Procrastination
“I don’t know where the money is going to come from, I don’t know what it’s going to be, but we need to have that, and he’s agreed to make that a big push,” said Spaulding. “I think Marty’s heart is absolutely in the right place, and he wants to build upon what Mayor Menino has done.”
Related: Boston Globe Knee-$lapper
Can't come from there?
Other cultural leaders are impressed by Walsh’s commitment....
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Also see:
Over the years, a deepening appreciation for the arts from Marty Walsh
Arts, culture add $504b to nation’s GDP, report says
Rockwell art sells for record $46M at NY auction
Now I'm pissed off.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
Mayor-elect Walsh seeks hefty inaugural donations
Walsh learning the tricks of flipping the switch
Didn't take him long to turn on his supporters.
