News
30 Billion Reasons to Learn About South Korea
October 7, 2010
| It's a good place to be when your $700M project has issues, but your $30B and $3B ones are just fine. Boston Global Investors?Charles Reid and John Hynes updated NEWiRE members on the $30B New Songdo City, International Business District in South Korea, the $3B Seaport Square here, and the unfortunate hole at Downtown Crossing where a stalled $700M One Franklin was supposed to rise. |
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| During lunch at the Boston Harbor Hotel Tuesday, we snapped the pair explaining that in South Korea, about 45% of New Songdo City's 100M SF has been built on the 1,500-acre site since they launched the project in ?01. There's five or six years of construction to go. The mixed-use community will be about 50% residential, 40% office and retail, and 10% schools, government buildings, and a convention center. The project is a partnership between POSCO E&C and Gale International with Morgan Stanley. While finishing up New Songdo, John recently announced that he has started a new firm, Boston Global Investors which will focus mainly on domestic venues while completing New Songdo. |
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| John posed with NEWiRE hosts TRO Jung | Brannen's Karen Van Winkle and Riemer & Braunstein?s Joan Parsons, also this year?s NEWiRE president. Later, John and Charles told us that Seaport Square design work will start next month with construction to follow late next year on the first blocks of the 23-block, 6.3M SF mixed-use community. Morgan Stanley is the senior partner. Together, they will act as the master developer for most of the residential and office space. WS will do the retail. BGI is confident that Seaport Square will move ahead. BGI is also in the planning stages of an approximately 6.5M SF mixed-use community in LA. |
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| Later, John faced the cameras for the more difficult discussion: What's happening with the stalled $700M One Franklin? Partners Vornado and JPMorgan hired Cushman & Wakefield to find a buyer or investor. When the project is restarted, John says the mix of uses will probably skew more residential, and the project may be smaller with retail and underground parking. He thinks it will attract a buyer or investor and added, ?I'm confident we'll find a solution in the next 12 months.? For 18 months, he says, ?I couldn't get people to talk to us; now entries are calling in. The Hancock selling is a good sign.? Charles tells us they have and will try every avenue. "We will solve this, and the city will have a beautiful complex there." |
