I was hoping, praying, that December 15th would bring closure to the Alexandra Hotel mess.

Nope.

The long and the short of it is, the hotel was in receivership, I think meaning that the city (the BRA) was suing to take ownership of the decrepit building, an eyesore at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue & Washington Street, in the South End.

The owners had found someone to buy the building, but the potential buyers weren’t able to meet the original deadline, sometime this past summer.

The two sides were given an extension to work things out. By October, however, the potential buyers had pulled out of the deal.

The city and the owners met in court, this past week, to decide what would happen next, and, apparently, were able to hammer out an agreement that was acceptable to both sides, and the judge … if no one else.

As part of the agreement, Macedonia Realty Trust [the owner] has agreed to spend up to $400,000 preparing architectural, structural and development plans sufficient to apply for building permits for redeveloping the Alexandra; those plans are supposed to be complete by July 31, 2007.

The city has agreed to facilitate all this planning, but reserves the right seek placing the building back into receivership if the owner fails to acquire building permits or sell to a third party by Nov. 15. Unlike the 2004 court order, the settlement agreement doesn’t outline specific benchmarks for physically rehabilitating the Alexandra.

I’m going to assume the judge knows better than I what should be done. I think the city has waited long enough, and the time has come to take the property, by court order.

I have little hope that six months from now anything will have happened.

Disappointing.

Source: Alexandra court case closes - By Chris Orchard, South End News