Negotiations stay testy between the Metropolis of Boston and Kraft Group over the Krafts’ plans to construct a soccer stadium in Everett, with the Wu administration pushing for additional mitigation to offset potential adverse impacts on the Hub.
Kairos Shen, town’s planning chief, shared his frustrations what he sees as “limited progress” in establishing a mitigation plan, regardless of months of negotiations, in a letter he despatched Monday to Brian Bilello, president of the New England Revolution and town’s designated level of contact for the Kraft Group.
“Since our discussions began in February of 2025, we have made limited progress in learning about the project and establishing mitigation priorities,” Shen wrote.
Shen famous that the 2 sides are getting into the mediation part, which was triggered by a scarcity of consensus that was reached by the Could 1 deadline, and that seven conferences, together with a website go to, have been held since talks started.
“While these meetings have been cordial, the information you have shared remains conceptual with none of the technical detail and analysis needed as a baseline to properly assess the impact of your proposal or negotiate a fair agreement to the City of Boston,” Shen wrote. “While we continue working to finalize a mediation agreement, we reiterate that the responsibility to address community mitigation is not optional, nor is it to be taken lightly.”
Spokesperson Anisha Chakrabarti stated the Kraft Group was “surprised to receive this correspondence from Boston this morning, as it is inconsistent with the tone and tenor of the seven productive meetings we have had with the city.”
Metropolis officers in Boston have raised considerations about visitors and parking impacts a brand new stadium in Everett, which might home the New England Revolution, would have on the close by Charlestown neighborhood.
State laws that grew to become regulation final November cleared the best way for a brand new Everett stadium and park, by liberating up 43 acres of land alongside the Mystic River for the Kraft Group’s privately-funded challenge.
Shen stated town has requested that mitigation be centered on transportation; local weather resilience, open area, and noise; job creation and provider range; and total neighborhood advantages.
He additionally talked about that the Kraft Group has not revised its preliminary $750,000 mitigation provide — which he has described as “unacceptable” — saying that it quantities to simply 1.1% of the $68 million mitigation settlement the Metropolis of Boston reached over the adjoining Wynn Resorts on line casino challenge 9 years in the past.
Shen’s letter included an attachment outlining 4 pages price of mitigation measures the Metropolis of Boston is in search of, together with MBTA connectivity, off-site parking choices, and an evaluation of financial impacts a brand new 25,000-seat stadium in Everett may have on competing live performance venues in Boston like TD Backyard and Fenway Park.
“We strongly urge the Kraft Group to consider a starting point for negotiations that is more consistent with previous efforts to mitigate large-scale development on the Mystic River waterfront, more respectful of the city’s rights under the law and actually responsive to neighborhood concerns,” Shen wrote.
The Kraft Group, by way of its spokesperson Chakrabarti, hit again, saying in a press release that it has “negotiated in good faith” by way of a course of that started with formal conferences final February, “and has supplied Boston with every piece of information that the city has requested, including technical information.”
“As a product of what we considered to have been cordial conversations with the city, and as the city is well aware, we have initiated a comprehensive study to address transportation and other related issues raised by the City of Boston and look forward to sharing it once the study is complete,” Chakrabarti stated. “Throughout our many conferences and conversations, representatives from Boston haven’t expressed these considerations with our course of or with our efforts.
“We are deeply disappointed that politics and grandstanding seem to have taken precedence over thoughtful analysis and collaboration. This simply impedes progress and economic development for the City of Everett, the City of Boston, and the Commonwealth,” she added.
The strain between the 2 sides comes at a time when the Wu administration and Krafts are additionally at loggerheads politically. Josh Kraft, son of the billionaire New England Patriots, Revolution and Kraft Group proprietor Robert Kraft, is Wu’s high challenger within the mayoral race.
Whereas Kraft has stated he would recuse himself from his household’s Everett stadium deal if he have been to be elected mayor, the connection has supplied fodder for the mayor and her marketing campaign throughout the race.
“Josh Kraft and his family continue to treat fair negotiations with the City of Boston over their for-profit soccer stadium as a joke,” Wu marketing campaign spokesperson Julia Leja stated in a press release. “For greater than six months, they’ve failed to supply primary challenge data to town, whereas sticking to a lowball mitigation provide that’s completely unacceptable to Boston residents.
“As a pre-approved owner-in-waiting of the New England Revolution and as a candidate for mayor, Josh owes the public answers about his glaring conflicts of interest and the reasons for the team ownership’s strong-arm tactics. Our city deserves a mayor who always puts Boston’s interests first, not one hiding behind their own conflicts.”
The Kraft marketing campaign, by way of spokesperson Eileen O’Connor, responded by saying that Kraft has nothing to do together with his household’s negotiations with town, and that he’s “not part of any succession plan for the New England Revolution.”
“If Josh is elected the next mayor of Boston, he will adhere to the state ethics guidelines and recuse himself from any business before the city that involves his family, and would delegate a member of his team to manage this — unlike what appears to be the sharing of official information from City Hall to the campaign for political gain,” O’Connor stated in a press release.
“But really, all of this bluster is designed to provide a distraction from the other stadium that Mayor Wu doesn’t want people to talk about — White Stadium — and her ‘full steam ahead’ decision to plow hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into a project that primarily benefits a private entity, not BPS kids.”
