Walz said Patrick’s top trans portation aide, Jeffrey B. Mullan, told her during a recent phone conversation that the administration was under pressure to sign the lease from Menino, who backs expanding Copley Place.
The lease gives Simon Property Group air rights over the Massachusetts Turnpike, where it wants to build a complex that would include 318 condominiums, a larger Neiman Marcus store, and a glass-enclosed garden with restaurants and shops.
In one section of the lease, the Massachusetts Transportation Department, acting as landlord, appears to sign off on the details of the developer’s plan for the tower: “Landlord has herewith given its approval to the proposed development plan for the project which is attached hereto as Exhibit H, which provides a clear and detailed written and, to the extent applicable, graphic description’’ of the size and design of the project, as well as saying how to mitigate its impact on the surrounding area.
Simon’s tower would sit across from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Back Bay Station, at the intersection of the Back Bay and South End. Residents of those neighborhoods have raised concerns about the wind and shadows thrown off by the skyscrapers in the area.
A transportation executive said the lease, by itself, does not grant the right to build, because the project still needs approvals from state environmental regulators and the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
“The lease amendments we made do not interfere in any way with the review process that’s in place,’’ said Peter O’Connor, head of real estate for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. “All we are saying in the lease is that if you get permits from the city and [environmental regulators] we will not object, as landlord, if you build it on this land.’’
Walz and Rushing, however, said the administration’s action makes such approvals a fait accompli and appears to violate the 1997 city-state agreement concerning air rights projects over the turnpike. They cited a provision that the state “shall not lease any air rights for a project except in accordance with the BRA’s certification.’’
