开发商托马斯·奥布莱恩将参加波士顿市长竞选
【中美创新时报2025 年 3 月 28 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）托马斯·奥布莱恩 (Thomas O’Brien)计划于下周宣布的提名将使他成为与市长吴弭（Michelle Wu）和乔什·克拉夫特（Josh Kraft ）并列的第三位主要候选人。《波士顿环球报》记者Niki Griswold, Shirley Leung 专栏作家 Catherine Carlock 对此作了下述报道。
据四位了解情况的人士透露，波士顿最知名的房地产开发商之一托马斯·N·奥布莱恩 (Thomas N. O’Brien)预计将于下周宣布，他将在今年秋天的市长选举中挑战市长吴弭。
奥布莱恩的声明时间将早于吴弭下周六在南区举行正式的连任竞选活动之前。《波士顿环球报》早在三月初就报道过奥布莱恩正在考虑竞选市长，而《麻省政治报》周五上午也报道了他即将宣布的声明。
奥布莱恩曾担任前市长托马斯·梅尼诺 (Thomas M. Menino) 的首席城市规划师，目前领导 HYM 投资集团，该集团正在建设波士顿市最大的两个房地产开发项目，即 市中心政府中心车库的改造以及东波士顿和里维尔前萨福克唐斯赛马场的开发。
据了解奥布莱恩计划的人士透露，61 岁的奥布莱恩的妻子特里西娅和几个孩子将陪同他宣布竞选消息，这些孩子均来自哥伦比亚、厄瓜多尔、危地马拉和埃塞俄比亚。他已选定东波士顿的地点，这个社区因其欢迎移民的悠久历史而被称为波士顿的埃利斯岛。他还在这个社区呆了数年，为他的萨福克唐斯项目争取社区支持。
奥布莱恩组建了一支高级顾问团队，目前正在就住宅物业税、波士顿公立学校和财政支出等问题对波士顿居民进行民意调查。
继长期担任非营利组织领导人、爱国者队亿万富翁老板罗伯特·克拉夫特 (Robert Kraft) 之子乔什·克拉夫特 (Josh Kraft)于 2 月 4 日正式宣布参加竞选后，奥布莱恩将成为吴弭在今年市长竞选中第二位引人注目的民主党挑战者。
和克拉夫特一样，奥布莱恩在波士顿的市民和商业领域也颇有名气，尽管两人之前都没有担任过公职。奥布莱恩在斯基图特和安多弗长大，现在住在波士顿市中心。他的兄弟比尔·奥布莱恩是波士顿学院的橄榄球主教练。
九月份将进行一轮初选，得票最高的两名候选人将进入十一月份的决选。
奥布莱恩和克拉夫特都与波士顿商界有联系，他们 可能争夺的是类似的选民群体：对吴弭的领导方式不满的居民，他们对住房开发放缓、波士顿公立学校长期面临的挑战以及她对城市预算的管理感到担忧。但奥布莱恩决定参加竞选可能表明他意识到了克拉夫特竞选阵营的弱点。
本月初，吴弭在全国舞台上为波士顿辩护后，获得了大量政治支持。吴弭和其他三位自由派市长在共和党领导的国会委员会面前就各自城市的公共安全政策和与联邦移民执法工作的合作作证。吴弭在国会山的表现赢得了波士顿居民的赞扬和关注，并登上了全国头条新闻，因为她在面对共和党攻击时保持镇定，并多次回击。
上周，她第三次在年度市情咨文演讲中庆祝胜利，并在国家电视台露面，本周与主持人兼脱口秀喜剧演员 Ronny Chieng 一起作为嘉宾参加喜剧中心频道的“每日秀”。
然而，吴弭对经济适用房的要求和新建筑的绿色住房规范不断提高，加上她长达一年的努力，试图将更多的城市房产税负担暂时转移到商业房地产上，以减轻房主和住宅业主的税收增加，这让波士顿市强大的房地产行业对此深感不满。
本月初，房地产行业的许多人都对奥布莱恩考虑与吴弭竞争表示惊讶。HYM 目前在市政府面前有多项活跃项目，吴弭政府也经常呼吁奥布莱恩支持其不受开发商欢迎的政策举措。
HYM 由 O’Brien 创立，是一家颇具影响力的房地产开发公司，该公司已帮助波士顿一些最引人注目、最复杂的项目通过了波士顿备受诟病的开发审查程序。HYM 与鞋业巨头 New Balance 的房地产部门 NB Development Group 合作，在奥尔斯顿/布莱顿边境开发了近 200 万平方英尺的波士顿登陆综合园区，并在剑桥、萨默维尔和波士顿启动了占地 45 英亩的前 NorthPoint 开发项目（现称为 Cambridge Crossing）。
作为对旧政府中心车库为期十年的重建计划的一部分， HYM 还在波士顿市政厅外开发了两座摩天大楼： 位于 One Congress 的道富银行新总部和豪华公寓大楼 The Sudbury， 奥布莱恩家族在其中拥有一套公寓。
奥布莱恩最近因将萨德伯里的经济适用房资金转用于牙买加平原新开的 3368 华盛顿街住房项目而受到赞誉，该项目是松树街旅馆为以前无家可归的人提供的永久性支持性住房社区。奥布莱恩是松树街旅馆的董事会成员，并参加了该项目的剪彩仪式，吴弭在仪式上发表了讲话；克拉夫特也在观众席上。
但目前，由于融资困难和建筑环境艰难，许多 HYM 项目都处于不同程度的延迟状态。位于东波士顿和里维尔边界的萨福克唐斯赛马场大规模重建项目已暂停。而 P3 是一个长期规划的综合用途项目，位于罗克斯伯里的特里蒙特街，HYM 和 My City At Peace 拥有开发权，但该项目尚未破土动工。
吴弭和卡夫竞选团队均未对本文发表评论。
题图：托马斯·奥布莱恩 (Thomas O’Brien) 是 HYM 投资集团的执行合伙人，该集团是波士顿市最知名的房地产开发商之一，2019 年他在 Suffolk Downs 拍摄了这张照片，他的公司目前正在重建该赛马场。David L. Ryan/Globe 员工
附原英文报道：
Planned announcement next week would make him the third major candidate, alongside Mayor Michelle Wu and Josh Kraft.
By Niki Griswold, Shirley Leung and Catherine Carlock Globe Staff, Globe Columnist and Globe Staff,Updated March 28, 2025
Thomas O’Brien, managing partner of The HYM Investment Group — one of the city’s most prominent real estate developers, is pictured in 2019 at Suffolk Downs, which his firm is currently redeveloping. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
Thomas N. O’Brien, one of Boston’s most prominent real estate developers, is expected to announce next week that he will challenge Mayor Michelle Wu in this fall’s mayoral election, according to four people he has briefed on the matter.
The timing would put O’Brien’s announcement before Wu holds her own formal kickoff to re-election next Saturday in the South End. The Globe reported earlier in March that O’Brien was considering a mayoral bid, and Politico Massachusetts reported his imminent announcement Friday morning.
O’Brien served for a time as the top city planner under former Mayor Thomas M. Menino and currently leads HYM Investment Group, which is building two of the city’s largest real estate developments, the overhaul of the Government Center Garage downtown and development of the former Suffolk Downs race track in East Boston and Revere.
O’Brien, 61, is expected to be accompanied at his announcement by his wife Tricia and several of their children — all of whom were adopted from Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Ethiopia, according to people briefed on his plans. He has chosen a location in East Boston, a neighborhood that has been dubbed Boston’s Ellis Island for its rich history of welcoming immigrants. He also spent years in the neighborhood building community support for his Suffolk Downs project.
O’Brien has assembled a team of senior advisors and is currently polling Boston residents about issues such as residential property taxes, Boston Public Schools, and fiscal spending.
As the mayoral race heats up, Kraft will likely raise more money than Wu. Will it matter?
O’Brien would be Wu’s second notable Democratic challenger in this year’s mayoral race, after Josh Kraft, a longtime nonprofit leader and son of billionaire Patriots owner Robert Kraft, officially tossed his hat in the ring on Feb. 4.
Like Kraft, O’Brien is well known in Boston’s civic and business arenas, though neither have held elected office before. O’Brien grew up in Scituate and Andover and now lives in downtown Boston. His brother, Bill O’Brien, is head football coach at Boston College.
There will be a preliminary round of voting in September, with the two highest vote-getters advancing to a runoff in November.
O’Brien and Kraft both have ties to Boston’s business community and would likely be battling for similar contingents of voters: residents who are dissatisfied with Wu’s leadership of the city, and have concerns about slowed housing development, longstanding challenges in Boston Public Schools, and her management of the city’s budget. But O’Brien’s decision to jump into the race could be an indication he senses vulnerabilities in the Kraft campaign.
Wu has been enjoying a groundswell of political support after she defended Boston on the national stage earlier this month. Wu and three other liberal city mayors testified before a Republican-led Congressional committee on their cities’ policies related to public safety and cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts. Wu’s performance on Capitol Hill drew praise and attention from Boston residents and through national headlines, for her poise in the face of attacks from Republicans, and for landing several return shots of her own.
She went on to take a victory lap in her third annual State of the City address last week, and with an appearance on national television, joining host and stand up comedian Ronny Chieng as a guest on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” this week.
But deep frustration with Wu has been building among the city’s powerful real estate industry over her increasing of affordable housing requirements and green housing codes for new buildings, as well as her yearlong battle to temporarily shift more of the city’s property tax burden onto commercial real estate to blunt tax increases for homeowners and residential landlords.
Many in the real estate industry earlier this month expressed surprise O’Brien would consider running against Wu. HYM has active projects before the city right now, and the Wu administration has frequently called on O’Brien to support its policy initiatives that have been unpopular amongst developers.
HYM, which O’Brien founded, is an influential real estate development firm that has shepherded some of the city’s most high-profile, complex projects through Boston’s oft-bemoaned development review process. HYM partnered with NB Development Group, the real estate arm of footwear giant New Balance, in developing the nearly 2 million-square-foot mixed-use Boston Landing campus on the Allston/Brighton border, and also kicked off the 45-acre former NorthPoint development — now called Cambridge Crossing — in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston.
As part of a decade-long re-do of the old Government Center Garage, HYM also developed the two skyscrapers just outside Boston’s City Hall: the new headquarters for State Street Corp. at One Congress and luxury condominium tower The Sudbury, where the O’Briens own a unit.
O’Brien recently was credited with directing affordable housing funding from The Sudbury to the newly opened 3368 Washington St. housing project in Jamaica Plain, a permanent supportive housing community for formerly unhoused people run by the Pine Street Inn. O’Brien sits on the Pine Street Inn board and attended the project’s ribbon-cutting, where Wu spoke; Kraft was also in the audience.
But many HYM projects are in varying states of delay at the moment, amid financing challenges and a difficult building environment. Work at Suffolk Downs, the massive redevelopment of a former horse-racing track on the East Boston-Revere border, has paused. And P3, a long-planned mixed-use project on Tremont Street in Roxbury where HYM and My City At Peace hold development rights, has not yet broken ground.
Neither the Wu nor the Kraft campaign returned requests for comment for this story.
