Making a scene: Megaproject around TD Garden bounces back from COVID quiet - The Boston Globe
After opening shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down live events and so much more, the Hub on Causeway is fully operational at last.
Just a few weeks prior, Jacobs — the CEO of Delaware North Boston — had celebrated the grand opening of the first two phases of The Hub on Causeway, a $2 billion mixed-use project around TD Garden that was more than two decades in the making. The project was expansive: an upgraded and expanded arena, an underground pedestrian tunnel to North Station, a hotel and movie theater, downtown Boston’s largest grocery store, a live music venue.
Most of the massive project relied on in-person gatherings. The Celtics and Bruins, both of which call TD Garden home, both had seasons in full swing and were cruising to the playoffs.
Then came the coronavirus. What became the deadliest pandemic in US history prompted the NBA to suspend its season on March 11, 2020; a day later, the NHL followed suit.
“It hit everybody, I would say, shockingly fast,” Jacobs said. “Everybody’s got their own horror stories, right? Ours, given the industries that we are in at Delaware North, specifically here at TD Garden, are about people getting together.”
Delaware North eventually laid off thousands as traffic to its properties plummeted. The restaurants went dark during monthslong shutdowns. The 15-screen ArcLight Cinema never re-opened, and its Los Angeles-based parent company eventually filed for bankruptcy.
The theater was the only retail tenant that failed at The Hub on Causeway. Delaware North worked on rent relief for the local retailers who had signed on to operate at the food hall before COVID-19.
“We wanted to make sure they survived,” said Chris Maher, vice president of development at Delaware North.
Delaware North has stayed in good standing with its own lenders, but did have to ask for temporary waivers for some contracts.
How were those conversations? “Brutal,” Jacobs says.
“You know, your friends who lend you money, tend to, you know — they want it back,” Jacobs said. “When you’re in the foxhole, you find out really, who’s your friend.”
“How do we get people to come back?” he said. “And what are we doing to entice them to show up to work and be present, and want to be here?”
That’s a key question for the project’s third phase: A 31-story office tower that recently opened at the Hub on Causeway, home to Verizon and Rapid7 and offices for the Bruins and Celtics.
The entryway to the Bruins’ corporate offices in the new office tower at the Hub on Causeway.LANE TURNER/GLOBE STAFF
Both teams are offering a hybrid schedule for their corporate employees — some days in the office, some days at home. The Bruins have replicas from their six Stanley Cup wins up in their offices, all in front of a wall of several thousand hockey pucks. There’s also a bear in a Bruins jersey around the corner from a working air-hockey table.
The Celtics, meanwhile, have replicas of their 17 championship banners hanging. The staff for the Celtics, Bruins, and TD Garden share an elevator at the office tower, which adds to a sense of community, said Rich Gotham, the Celtics president.
“The space is beautiful,” he said. “It’s just a great place to come to work every day. It’s given us a new energy that just keeps propelling us forward.”
