A prominent real estate developer may be preparing to enter the race to be the next mayor of Boston.
Thomas O’Brien, managing partner of HYM Investment Group, is weighing a bid to supplant Michelle Wu at the top of the city’s political ranks, the Boston Globe reported. O’Brien has not officially announced a campaign for the election, which will take place in November.
O’Brien would likely run as a Democrat. The top two vote-getters for mayor in preliminary voting in September would battle in a runoff two months later.
“It is clear some developers are willing to do whatever it takes to buy this office,” read a statement from the Wu reelection campaign.“It seems like Josh Kraft is not turning out to be what they expected and now they are shopping for a new option.”
Residents and business leaders have called O’Brien to express concern about fiscal health, rising property taxes, affordable housing and the quality of the city’s public school system. The commercial real estate community has lately grown frustrated with Wu, particularly her attempts to raise commercial property tax rates while capping rent hikes for residences.
O’Brien has a number of important real estate developments in the works with HYM. The firm is spearheading the redevelopment of Suffolk Downs and the Government Center Garage. The firm also won the bid to develop a parcel in Roxbury into a life sciences hub and housing.
Prominent projects for HYM, which launched in 2009, also include Boston Landing in Brighton, NorthPoint in Cambridge and Bulfinch Crossing in downtown Boston.
O’Brien — brother of Boston College football coach Bill O’Brien — served the city for five years at the city planning and development agency under Thomas Menino in the 1990s. He resigned after a scandal erupted over a senior agency aide buying a subsidized condo intended for low-income families.
Another candidate with a football connection, Josh Kraft — son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft — launched his campaign last month. The philanthropist is honing in on rent control and more affordable housing while distancing from his father’s ties to Donald Trump.
Wu will be difficult to beat in the fall, as no incumbent mayor in the city has lost a re-election campaign in more than 75 years.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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