A lawyer for the German bank that recently purchased the old Polaroid property has asked the City Council to allow for the withdrawal of a special permit application for a once-planned 1.7 million-square-foot office and retail development at the site.
Robert C. Buckley, an attorney with the firm of Riemer and Braunstein, which represents Helaba Bank, wrote a letter to the City Council asking the council to allow for the "withdrawal of all pending special permit applications without prejudice."
But Ward 2 Councilor Ed Tarallo said that, according to the city's Law Department, the letter may not be legally sufficient for the council's Ordinances and Rules Committee to grant the request.
The Main Street site had been owned by a partnership between Related Cos. of New York and Polaroid. That group, called Watch City Development, planned to build a project called the Commons at Prospect Hill at the 120-acre site.
But Polaroid filed for bankruptcy last December and has reportedly tried to exit the project. According to published accounts, financing for it also stalled.
Then last month Helaba, which holds the mortgage on it, bought back the land at an auction for $42.5 million, leaving the project in flux.
Related Cos. has repeatedly offered no comment on the project.
But Tarallo said he talked yesterday to a Related official who said it had been in discussions with Helaba about the property, but that the bank was "pursuing all of its options."
In Buckley's letter, he said bank officials are available to appear before the committee to provide a "project update" and "to introduce the current project team."
Tarallo said Ordinances and Rules has asked representatives from Helaba to appear at the next meeting, Dec. 7.
The committee has a Dec. 31 deadline to make a decision on the special permit for the Commons at Prospect Hill.
Tarallo said if the committee cannot accept a withdrawal, it doesn't have many other options. He said it could have to prepare a "negative decision."
Richard Conn can be reached at 781-398-8004 or rconn@cnc.com.
