The Boston Globe - 13.08.2019

Business

THE BOSTON GLOBE TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/BUSINESS

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By Tim Logan
GLOBE STAFF
One of Boston’s biggest landlords wants to
build an office tower on the edge of China-
town and the Leather District. The neighbors
are decidedly not impressed.
Residents of both downtown neighbor-
hoods are lambasting Oxford Properties’ plan
for a 24-story tower on the site of the parking

garage at 125 Lincoln St., in hundreds of pag-

es of comment letters released Friday by the

Boston Planning & Development Agency.

They criticized the plan for its lack of public

amenities, the way it would “wall off” the two

neighborhoods from each other and how, at a

proposed 340 feet, the building would soar

more than three times higher than what’s

currently allowed in the Leather District.

“Do zoning laws mean anything at all in

this city?” wrote Leather District resident

Henrietta Cosentino, in all-caps, bold type.

Along with many dozens of letters from

residents, critical comments were submitted

by the Chinese Progressive Association, Chi-

natown Residents Association, and Greater

Boston Legal Services. They worry that a

project with 625,000 square feet of office

space — but no housing — would put even

more pressure on the already limited supply

of affordable apartments in Chinatown.

Others, including City Councilor Michelle

Wu, weighed in to note the project would dis-

place both a grocery store and a dim sum

banquet hall that are longtime Chinatown in-

stitutions.

“There are few alternatives remaining

within Chinatown for these types of busi-

nesses,” wrote resident Linda See. “Losing

TOWER,PageC

Could this be the longest Beacon Hill has

had to wait for a windfall in the history of

state budget writing?

In late 2012, Boston developer Leggat Mc-

Call Properties won the rights to redevelop

the ugly Sullivan Courthouse tower that

looms over East Cambridge. But Leggat’s deal

to buy the giant white elephant from the state

for the aforementioned sum remains up in the

air, nearly seven years later. The latest hitch:

The develop-

er’s request to

lease part of

the city-

owned garage

across the

street has run

into serious

resistance.

The saga’s

next chapter is

scheduled to

play out at a

Planning

Board hearing

on Tuesday

night. But

that’s just a

prelude to the

main event.

The parking

transfer —

Leggat wants

the spaces to

fulfill a condi-

tion of its spe-

cial permit to

redevelop the empty tower — goes before the

City Council next month. Six of the nine coun-

cilors need to vote in favor, an outcome that

remains in doubt.

For those in favor, including Cambridge

Mayor Marc McGovern and City Manager Lou

DePasquale, this plan represents the smartest

way to clean up the asbestos-packed 22-story

tower and turn it into something useful again.

To opponents, it’s the city taking the easy way

out rather than thinking of the best public use

for the tower property and the garage.

The development already survived one ma-

jor challenge — in the courts. The 280-foot

tower is the very definition of nonconforming,

surrounded as it is by much smaller buildings.

CHESTO,PageC

By Jonathan Saltzman

GLOBE STAFF

A

2½-year-old Easton girl who

was deemed ineligible for the

world’s most expensive drug

will get the $2.1 million medi-

cine to treat her rare genetic

disease, after all.

Illinois-based AveXis, a sub-

sidiary of the Swiss drug giant

Novartis, has agreed to provide

Zolgensma, an intravenous gene therapy

that requires only one dose, free to Natalia

Boidi through a compassionate use pro-

gram. She has spinal muscular atrophy,

which kills more infants than any other in-

herited disorder.

“I was shocked, but I’m excited and I’m

very grateful,” her mother, Marisa Boidi,

said Monday of AveXis’s reversal, which fol-

lowed a Globe story on Thursday concern-

ing the denial of her application. “It’s going

to give her a better chance at life.”

Afflicting one in every 6,000 to 10,

babies, spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA,

attacks the neurons that control muscle

function. Its most dire form kills most chil-

dren by their second birthday.

Natalia can’t swallow liquids, has a feed-

ing tube inserted into her abdomen, uses a

breathing machine at night, and often

needs her parents to clear mucus from her

airways with a suction device. During a re-

porter’s recent visit to her house, she

watched TV with an oxygen monitor teth-

ered to the big toe on her right foot.

Before the drug won Food and Drug Ad-

ministration approval on May 24, AveXis

had been providing it free to some patients

under its compassionate use protocol. But

the program was limited to children with

Type 1 SMA, the worst form of the disease.

Based on Natalia’s medical records, the No-

vartis subsidiary concluded that she had

Type 2, a milder form, and denied her appli-

cation.

But after receiving more documentation

ZOLGENSMA,PageC

24-floortowerplanstirsprotest

Residents of Chinatown,

Leather District call

office high-rise a bad fit

Saga of empty

Cambridge

courthouse

tower persists

Toddler denied a $2.1m drug

will get it, after all — for free

Pharmaceutical company reconsiders girl’s rare spinal muscular atrophy

NIC ANTAYA FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Natalia Boidi, 2, played with her mother, Marisa, at their home in North Easton recently.

INSIDE

GENSLER

Renderings of the proposed office building.

JonChesto

CHESTOMEANS BUSINESS

By Hiawatha Bray
GLOBE STAFF
There are a lot of counterfeit
products out there — bogus design-
er clothing, fake auto parts, even
phony aircraft components. But a
Framingham company thinks it can
put the forgers out of business, with
a spray of artificial diamond dust.
DUST Identity spun off from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technol-

ogy in 2011, and has received more

than $2 million in federal grants

through the Defense Advanced Re-

search Projects Agency. In its early

days, the company focused on fu-

turistic ideas, like using nanoparti-

cles of synthetic diamond to build

chips for quantum computers that

haven’t been developed yet. But

now the company wants to use its

diamond particles to weed out

counterfeit products, which cost the

US economy $600 billion a year, ac-

cording to the FBI.

DUST Identity recently raised

$10 million in venture funding, in a

round that included venture capital

firm Kleiner Perkins and the invest-

ment arms of aerospace companies

Airbus and Lockheed Martin, com-

panies that are always on the look-

out for better ways to identify and

track the millions of parts they pur-

chase every year.

DUST Identity’s chief executive

and co-founder Ophir Gaathon, said

his company is getting inquiries

from carmakers, pharmaceutical

firms, even food and cosmetics

companies.

“We’ve just been overwhelmed

with the number of requests,” said

Gaathon, “I think we’ve hit a nerve.”

DUST stands for “Diamond Un-

clonable Security Tag.” The system

combines tiny diamond particles

with a polymer that bonds the dia-

monds to the surface of a manufac-

tured object. The system is compati-

ble with a variety of polymer chemi-

cals, so a manufacturer can use

whichever chemical works best for

its products.

DIAMONDDUST,PageC

Using diamond dust to root out bogus products

Mass. startup reaps

$10m in funding

‘I was shocked but I’m excited and very grateful.... I think

it’s going to give her a better chance at life.’

MARISA BOIDI,Natalia’s mother

BOLD TYPES

Berkshire

Bank’s top

diversity

executive,

Malia Lazu

(left), is

following

an

expansive

to-do list

C

LANE TURNER/GLOBE STAFF

Those favoring Leggat’s

plan say it’s the smartest

way to clean up Sullivan

Courthouse tower.