so let me get this straight - Alexandria and Arlington will be on the hook for some traffic improvements, police, and fire, but they do not get any additional revenue from income, sales, or property taxes? This will accelerate development, perhaps massively, but there's no question this property would be developed, perhaps Amazon and VA Tech spin offs. Had the development proceeded naturally, the revenue to pay for police and fire, etc... would have gone to the cities.
This forecloses the natural development, which in recent years attracted Boeing's HQ, Amazon HQ2, and I think another major contractor. Just how hurting is this area for business that we have to squeeze out the natural growth? Does anyone think an open parcel this close to a major downtown would have gone undeveloped?
Being a Mass-hole originally, I kind of love the deals that were struck / not struck in eastern Mass for stadiums. The reason there's still a Fenway is the Mass legislature struck such a state-favorable deal that the banks would not finance the new park. For Gillette, they only ended up putting up some Route 1 improvements and Kraft (and Drew Bledsoe) paid for the rest. Kraft got to keep the profits. I don't think there's any public money in TD Garden, either. I'm good with Leonsis and JBG Smith or whoever cutting a deal on the real estate and making money, but I don't want them to be hogs about it.
