Huge Broadway Complex Delayed : Navy Construction Project to Start in ’92

Navy officials said Thursday that conversion of their downtown base and supply center into a military version of a General Motors-type corporate headquarters probably won’t begin until 1992, at the earliest.

That construction date pushes back the timetable several years from the one Navy officials used when the massive development plan was unveiled almost two years ago.

The Navy wants to consolidate many of its far-flung regional administrative operations onto choice waterfront property now occupied by the Naval Base and Supply Center--situated on 16 acres between the popular Seaport Village tourist attraction and Broadway.

Upon full build-out, which is expected to take 12 years, the complex would consist of about 4 million square feet of high-rise offices, hotels and retail stores. Of that, the Navy would use about 1 million square feet of offices.

The plan is based on the premise--backed by a consultant’s report--that private developers, hungry to build on the waterfront, would pay for this opportunity by absorbing about 75% of the cost of building new headquarters for the Navy.

In return, the developers would make a profit by building other private office buildings and about 2,600 hotel rooms on the property.

The sheer size of the proposal has raised fears about overdevelopment along the central bayfront, a concern the Navy is keenly aware of. That is a prime reason the Navy is involved in a major study of its proposal commissioned by the five public agencies with jurisdiction over development on and near the central bayfront.

Until Thursday, though, it was unclear when the Navy expected to break ground. An early Navy document concluded that construction could have started as early as 1989.

As explained by Capt. William J. (Joe) O’Donnell to the Broadway Complex/Bayfront Coordinating Group, the Navy’s tentative schedule involves the completion of an environmental impact statement on the project by early February, 1989; the signing of a development agreement with the city in the spring of 1989, followed by submission of the plan to Congress later the same year.

Selection of a developer would probably occur in 1990 or 1991, O’Donnell said, with construction starting in 1992. “I doubt if we’ll see anything done there until 1992,” he said.