Two years ago, Roth, who had recently blown a giant crater in the center of Boston’s downtown shopping district, bragged to a roomful of Columbia students that if you let a development site rot for long enough, politicians will come running and tossing money in the air. That little episode of loose-lipped candor won Roth the eternal wrath of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, and it ended up costing him his permits to redevelop the Filene’s block.
The Columbia episode wasn’t Roth’s normal mode of operations, though. He’s much more comfortable avoiding the spotlight, and communicating by means of a letter he releases from on high every spring.
The annual letter to Vornado shareholders provides a rare glimpse into Roth’s mind. It is designed to make the case for Vornado’s alpha position among the ruthless pack of Manhattan developers. It’s Roth’s annual bid to put a shine on himself. As such, it’s noteworthy as much for what it covers as for what it leaves out.
The Filene’s project was to have been a $700 million hotel, condo, and office tower, but is now a seemingly permanent crater below Washington Street. It radiates blight. It’s the most discussed real estate project in Boston. Vornado controls the project through a 50-percent stake. And judging by Roth’s letters, the Filene’s project isn’t much on his mind.
Filene’s earned a footnoted mention in Roth’s spring 2009 letter, among a laundry list of construction projects the economy had claimed. He ignored it altogether last year, when the fallout from the Columbia speech was still fresh.
Roth devotes all of three sentences — in a 16-page letter — to Filene’s this year. He reflexively defends the Vornado-led partnership’s decision to halt construction on the development, and acknowledges that the site is for sale. The size of the section on Filene’s barely eclipses the size of the section where Roth cheerfully offers to help Vornado shareholders score tickets to his wife’s upcoming Broadway productions.
