Harvard Delays Crosstown Lease Plan

Harvard Medical School (HMS) will not lease office space in the immediate phase of a redevelopment plan for the Crosstown area of Roxbury in Boston, but HMS is considering Crosstown as a location for future development, said Eric P. Buehrens, associate dean of HMS.

In his inaugural address in January, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino had invited Harvard to expand its medical facilities into Crosstown as part of a redevelopment project to create a biomedical corridor in the economically struggling neighborhood.

But Harvard officials recently said they are not planning to develop in the Crosstown area in the immediate future.

The announcement that Harvard would not be leasing space in the Crosstown development project, first reported in the Boston Globe in mid-June, drew a negative response from Menino.

“It’s unfortunate that Harvard, which continues to buy up property in the city, doesn’t feel that it needs to make a commitment to the city,” Menino told the Globe last month.

Menino was informed of the decision by the media—not Harvard officials.

“It was basically a mistake, a miscommunication,” said Alan J. Stone, Harvard’s vice president for goverment, community and public affairs. “We thought we had let the mayor know, but it didn’t get through to him. It was an unfortunate mistake. We regret it.”

One Boston city councilor claimed racial prejudice may have been a factor in Harvard’s turning down the Crosstown site.

“Employers are unwilling to come into a neighborhood that is essentially black and Latin,” said councilor Charles Turner, who represents Roxbury. “Maybe Harvard is thinking that in five or 10 years, more people in the neighborhood will have been moved out and they would feel more comfortable bringing in what is essentially a white operation.”

Harvard officials denied race was a factor in their decision.

“That premise is way out of bounds and not even worthy of a response,” said Kevin A. McCluskey ’76, Harvard’s director of community relations for Boston.

Other Boston councilors also disagreed with Turner’s assessment of Harvard’s decision.

Councilor Michael Roache, who chairs Boston’s university relations committee, called Harvard a “champion of civil rights, a champion of people of color.”

Harvard officials emphasized that Harvard has been, and still is, interested in developing in the Crosstown area.

“We have always said that we are interested in Crosstown for more than two years, before the mayor’s speech,” Buehrens said.

But Boston’s current project in Crosstown is an office building—not a laboratory building—and HMS does not have any current demand for office space, Buehrens said.

“The vast majority of space [used by HMS] is lab space or classroom space,” Buehrens said. “Our consumption of office space is relatively small.”

According to Buehrens, HMS is currently constructing a large laboratory in the Longwood Medical Area that will open next year and will meet HMS laboratory needs for the next several years.

But because the biomedical and biotechnology fields have been areas of growth in recent years, and should continue to grow in the future, Harvard will continue to need more space.

In addition to looking at ways to grow in the Longwood Area—which along with Mass. General Hospital is the primary recipient of medical and non-medical federal funding for biomedical research— HMS is also exploring possibilities for growth in other areas of Boston, including Crosstown.

Other options include development of Harvard’s vast land holdings in Allston or building in east Cambridge, Buehrens said.

Buehrens said that Crosstown development was a longer-range possibility, with HMS development in the area most likely occuring in five to 10 years.

But while Boston city officials had hoped for immediate Harvard development in the Crosstown area, some residents are opposed to the any biotechnology development in the area.

Some residents close to the Crosstown development site have formed a group called Safety Net to oppose the mayor’s plans to develop the area for biotechnology.

“If you are going to make some sort of move like that, then you need to discuss that with the members of the community,” said Klare Allen, a Roxbury community organizer for Safety Net.

Boston officials have had similar concerns about Harvard’s current development, especially in Longwood—concerns that Harvard officials say they recognize.

“I understand the mayor’s concerns about the growth of this area and its impact on the surrounding community,” Buehrens said. “We have worked on mitigating our impact.”

And despite the negative response from some Boston city officials, McCluskey said the University and the city have visions for biotechnology in Boston that are “very strongly aligned.”

“Our inability to respond affirmatively to this particular request to rent office space in Crosstown does not diminish the fact that the long-term goals regarding advancing biomedical research and biotechnology in Boston are strongly shared by Harvard and the city,” McCluskey said.

—Staff writer Stephanie M. Skier can be reached at skier@fas.harvard.edu.