Harvard, MTA Deny Allston Purchase

Reports that Harvard was prepared last August to purchase another 87 acres of Allston land for $150 million from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA) were denied by both parties yesterday. The purchase would almost have doubled Harvard’s recent land acquisitions across the Charles River.

The Boston Globe said yesterday that documents released during a legal battle between the governor and former MTA board members showed the deal was far enough along in August that it could have concluded by last December. However, MTA officials said no such deal existed.

“I don’t know how someone could have concluded that from the documents,” said MTA Chief Development Officer Stephen J. Hines, who wrote some of the memoranda.

Early this month Acting Governor Jane Swift fired two MTA board members, Christy Mihos and Jordan Levy, after they voted down a toll hike that would have helped pay for the growing cost of the “Big Dig.”

In their appeal of the dismissal to the Supreme Judicial Court, Levy and Johnson introduced MTA memoranda that outlined a timeline for advertising the availability of several parcels, including the parcel reported to be on sale to Harvard.

Mihos claims that those sales could have helped cover the cost of the Big Dig, but that MTA staff who were allied with Swift stalled the sales to prevent any “good news” about MTA finances as she tried to fire the two board members because of the fiscal problems, according to yesterday’s Globe article.

Both Harvard and the MTA, however, claim that no such $150 million deal was under way between them.

“Early last year we had some very general discussions, but nothing concrete,” said MTA Chief Development officer Stephen J. Hines, who wrote some of the memoranda submitted to the courts. “We were not talking about selling the property.”

The only discussions between Harvard and the MTA were informal talks about the possibility of long-term development of the land, which is now covered with railroads that have a permanent right-of-way, Hines said.

If the MTA were selling the land, the sale would go through a formal bid process open to any interested buyers.

“We wouldn’t have been negotiating with a single party,” Hines said.

Harvard spokesperson Joe Wrinn confirmed Hines’ account yesterday, and added that the land was too heavily encumbered by railroad tracks and its proximity to the Turnpike to pique Harvard’s development interests.

“Many people, not just at Harvard, have been thinking about how you could possibly put the Pike somewhere else,” Wrinn said. “There has never been a realistic proposal for a way to develop that land.”

However, a future purchase is not out of the question.

“You never say never, but we’re currently not interested,” Wrinn said.

—Staff writer Matthew F. Quirk can be reached at quirk@fas.harvard.edu.