Eastern Bank’s Rivers: ‘We just have to get more serious’ about housing

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A top businessman believes Boston should tear down some of its office buildings and replace them with housing, saying that initiatives supported on Beacon Hill and in Boston City Hall aren’t enough as the region remains hampered by a post-pandemic slowdown.

Robert Rivers, Eastern Bank’s executive chair, said more housing is needed “by any means necessary, full stop.” He made the comments as part of a panel exploring the future of downtown Boston and Back Bay held by State House News Service, MASSterList and the think tank Boston Policy Institute.

“We just have to get more serious about the problem. I think the Wu administration and the Healey-Driscoll administration have done a lot of things with respect to various incentives of all kinds to help make the numbers work in terms of new housing construction,” Rivers said while on the panel, moderated by the Boston Globe’s Jon Chesto. “But it’s not enough. Not given the gaps that we have. The numbers just don't work. 

The percentage of office buildings that can be converted into housing is roughly 10%, and they’re typically older, smaller buildings, Rivers said. Without naming the city, he alluded to one in the mid-Atlantic region that has decided some of their office buildings have to be torn down because they won’t economically survive, instead turning them into multifamily housing.

“That is the only way to get more residents and vibrancy here in the city, and that's what we ultimately need, the small businesses need,” he said. “We're not going to get enough office workers in enough to have that stream of revenue to support them.”

Tito Jackson, a former city councilor turned cannabis entrepreneur with a downtown storefront, suggested creating a cross-department office-to-housing conversion desk, and exploring other financing options. (Tufts University's Evan Horowitz and Back Bay Association's Meg Mainzer-Cohen were also on the panel.)

Michael Nichols, head of the private nonprofit Downtown Boston Alliance, was more optimistic, saying tourism and overall foot traffic is up, while retail and office vacancies are down. “You can walk Washington Street from City Hall to Chinatown and back, and there are now only about two or three retail vacant storefronts that have not yet been leased,” he said.

“I don't share his optimism,” Rivers said in response, “but I share his view that we need to be clear-eyed about this, folks, and we have to stop kidding ourselves that it's going to go back to the way it was before. We need to do something different, and that starts with housing.”

Rivers also lamented that the days of the Vault, a group of businessmen who once advised mayors 60 years ago, are gone, the result of major companies in the area now having regional presidents, division heads and managing partners who report to someone out of state. He noted the business community’s political losses, including failing to stop a ballot question that removed the MCAS test as a high school graduation requirement.

“The business community is in retreat. They're not going to speak up on anything. Their vested interests are elsewhere, and as a result, everyone just sort of crawls into their hole and focuses on their lane,” Rivers said. “And I'll tell you, talking to a lot of people in the business community, they've given up. They're frustrated, and they've given up.”

What’s your take on Bob Rivers’s comments? Drop me a line: [email protected].

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