Developer Mulls Options as Rent Control Looms

BOSTON-As the city council mulls over City Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s recent home rule petition to reinstate rent control, some developers are considering their next move should the proposal become law.

Christopher Reilly, area vice president of Chicago-based Equity Residential Properties Trust tells GlobeSt.com that the prospect of rent control forces his company to “take a hard look” at the residential project it is currently proposing to build on Cambridge Street at Charles River Park. The company is seeking to build between 300 and 600 units, depending upon city approval, with a small affordable-housing component.

But Reilly notes that the prospect of rent control could compel his company to look elsewhere to build. Despite the fact that new construction does not fall under Menino’s recent proposal, projects that were developed in the mid 1990s until now, when the city had no rent control, will now fall under the law. From 1972 to 1996, the city had rent control but the legislature abolished it in 1994.