Feb. 14—In an email to the students, staff, and faculty of the University of Massachusetts Boston, Interim Chancellor Katherine Newman informed UMass Boston that the UMass Board of Trustees have voted to lease Bayside to Accordia Partners. Accordia Partners’ website states their mission as a company is “the intent of pursuing large, complex, urban real estate development projects within Boston.” President of the University of Massachusetts system, Martin “Marty” Meehan, kick-started the 18-month effort in 2017 and though it took major controversy, from Boston’s failed bid at the 2024 Olympics to businessman and owner of the New England Patriots, Robert Kraft’s, idea for a Dorchester soccer stadium, the actual plan to sell—or lease out—the former Bayside Exposition Center was put into planning after the UMass Building Authority (UMBA) hired commercial real estate broker Newmark Knight Frank. The Boston Globe reported UMBA hiring Newmark Knight Frank back in January of 2018. In 2010 UMass Boston bought the foreclosing 19.94-acre Bayside property from LNR Partners, Inc. for $18.7 million.

A 2017 article by Jennifer Smith of the Dorchester Reporter states, “The UMass Building Authority has received 16 responses to its Request For Information (RFI) regarding the prominent Bayside parcel on Columbia Point, university officials said Friday.” The RFI was sent out in Aug. of 2017 with an Oct. 6, 2017 deadline seeking ideas for how to renovate the Bayside property. One of these respondents was Accordia Partners. Globe reporter, Tim Logan, said in an article from Jan. 24, 2018 that, “In its initial request for interest, UMass estimated that Bayside could accommodate about 2.5 million square feet of office, housing, and retail space—twice as much as in the Prudential Tower—and said that number could go higher if a developer partnered with UMass on the project.” Since partnering with Accordia, the Chancellor updated this number by promising “up to 3.4 million square feet of office, lab, housing, and retail space.”

Chancellor Newman’s email stated, “In exchange for a long-term ground lease and development rights, Accordia Partners, contingent on necessary approvals, will pay UMass Boston a minimum of $192 million and as much as $235 million.” In the “Next Steps” progress timeline on the UMass Boston website, they say:

• “The university will negotiate the final lease details with Accordia Partners.

• Contemporaneous with Accordia’s permitting/entitlement process, including necessary public hearing and comment periods, Accordia Partners will begin a robust stakeholder and community input process with the UMass Boston campus, the neighborhoods, and the community.

• The developer will follow the guiding principles of UMass Boston’s Bayside Charretting [sic] process, which includes stakeholder consulting and input.”

The major reasoning behind the sale of Bayside is to integrate UMass Boston further into the surrounding community and to even expand the campus itself but the project still faces backlash. Catherine Carlock and Gintautas Dumcius from the Boston Business Journal reported that the day before the vote, a petition from faculty went around to protest the sale. “Several faculty members circulated a letter Wednesday protesting the possible lease or sale of the former Bayside Expo Center property. The letter also sought to raise alarm over university officials considering the sale or lease of condos used by students and researchers working at the campus’s Nantucket Field Station. The letter, which had gathered dozens of faculty signatures as of Wednesday night, criticized the development process as secretive and questioned whether the campus would actually receive all of the proceeds.” Accordia Partners and UMass Boston intend to continue the conversation between all concerned; to make the most of the business deal and to determine how they want to proceed. Future updates to come.