To read Boston Globe columnist Steve Bailey’s March 2001 follow-up on this 470 Atlantic Ave project, click here.
This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 1/31/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
Steve Bailey, Globe StaffIf zillionaire builder Les Marino were to buy the Red Sox, corked bats could become standard equipment for Manny and the hitters. Pedro and the pitchers might be issued tubes of Vaseline.
With his drive, Marino could be just the guy to finally bring a world championship home. Consider: He wakes up at 3:30 every morning, works seven days a week, never takes vacations. At 65, he spends two hours a day pumping iron, a half-hour every morning and night flossing his teeth with dental tape dipped in a peroxide-baking soda solution. He wonders if his Modern Continental could become the biggest company in the world. He wants to live to be 150.
But when you play the game the way Marino does - hard and by old-school rules - beware those umpires. And Marino, the developer and contractor, has just been whacked by the umpires who patrol Boston's waterfront, not once but repeatedly.
His recent problems:
Work to add an extra floor to the building Marino is rehabbing at 470 Atlantic Ave. has been halted because he didn't have the permits needed under tidelands regulations. The state Department of Environmental Protection fined him $10,000; it just added another $20,000 fine because he failed to pay the original fine on time.
The same state agency says it is now "in discussion on enforcement" with Modern Continental regarding the ticket offices that were built on Long Wharf to serve Marino's Boston Harbor cruise boats. The issue again: no permits.
Just down from Long Wharf, on Commerical Wharf, Marino has been ordered to tear down an ugly cinder-block transformer building he put up at the end of the wharf as part of a marina he built in 1996. Again: no permit.
And finally, the Boston Conservation Commission this month tagged Modern Continental with $80,000 in fines for dumping sediments into Fort Point Channel.
In the newspaper business, we call that a trend.
Building in Boston is infamous for its overlapping regulations and maze of civic watchdogs always on the alert. Nothing is easy. And any contractor the size of Modern Continental is going to have some problems.
But at a time when Boston is focused like no time before on the promise of its waterfront, Marino's recent actions are making a joke of the process. The message I take from the company's uncivil behavior: Catch us if you can.
Marino is out of the country. Charles Madden, Modern Continental's executive vice president, defended the company as a good corporate citizen that made some mistakes. At Modern's urging, Vivien Li, the harbor activist, called to attest to the company's good works. "We are good neighbors," Madden said.
This is an extraordinary American success story. Marino came to Boston from Italy 40 years ago with $30 in his pocket. With just two shovels and a wheelbarrow, he started his own construction company paving driveways. A lifetime of 12-hour days later his company, known for bringing projects in on time and on budget, is the largest contractor on the $15 billion Big Dig and has projects as far away as Brazil.
His eclectic interests include the Marino Ristorante and the Marino Center for Progressive Health, both in North Cambridge, and a 150-acre Natick farm. The Sox would be his greatest jewel.
"I want to see if we can become the biggest company in the world," Marino once told the Globe's Cindy Rodriguez. "The only person that can stop it is me."
Biggest or best? You will never read a column like this about Norman Leventhal or John Drew, two other local developers. Les Marino is right: The only person who can stop him is Les Marino.
Steve Bailey can be reached at 617-929-2092 or by e-mail at bailey@globe.com.This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 1/31/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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