There were no flowers, but Mayor Marty Walsh and developer Don Chiofaro finally connected over the Harbor Garage redevelopment.
Chiofaro called Walsh after a Globe column pointed out how the developer went strangely silent after the city came out with a favorable recommendation for what the developer could build on the garage location.
After spending years getting nowhere under Mayor Tom Menino, Chiofaro got the blessing from City Hall to build as high as 600 feet at his garage. But the overall development could be no more than 900,000 square feet, while Chiofaro had wanted to build 1.3 million square feet of retail, office, and condos.
The call was only a few minutes long, but Walsh learned that the developer was going to make the best of it.
“He is looking at what would work there,” said Walsh.
Chiofaro, who is still choosing his words carefully in the media, issued a statement confirming the call and thanking Walsh. “The city has made it clear that it’s committed to replacing the garage with something special,” Chiofaro said. “Though we still have a lot of wood to chop, we’re hard at work exploring the possibilities for achieving this common objective.”
Shirley Leung is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at shirley.leung@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @leung.