Northeastern’s attempt to lease up to 427 rooms in Back Bay’s Sheraton Boston is running into opposition from the hotel workers’ union and Northeastern students themselves.

Students protesting against a plan to turn a huge Back Bay hotel into dorms for Northeastern are missing the big picture. And while we are at it, let’s just say the debate over the proposal to convert one of the Sheraton Boston’s towers has been completely one-sided and more than a little disingenuous as well.  

Värde Partners and Hawkins Way Capital, which have been bargain hunting for beleaguered properties in the hotel business, shelled out $233 million earlier this year for the once-proud Sheraton Boston in the Back Bay. 

Soon after, word got out that the hotel’s new owners are looking to ink a deal with Northeastern to convert a block of rooms at the hotel into permanent dorm rooms. 

It would seem to be a logical move for both parties. Northeastern is already leasing rooms at the hotel because it does not have enough beds on campus, so it would be an extension of what has become a fairly common practice for colleges and universities in the city. 

For its part, Värde Partners and Hawkins Way Capital, which bought the hotel for a bargain-basement price of $191,000 per room, need to find ways to put heads on beds at a time when the hospitality sector is still reeling from the pandemic. Indeed, hotel consulting firm Pinnacle Advisory Group predicts Greater Boston hotel occupancy will only hit 68 percent this year, 14 percent below 2019. 

However, fearing the loss of jobs, the local hotel workers union has come out swinging against the move. 

And they’ve been joined by Boston city councilors and Northeastern students. 

 Labor Worries, or Laziness for Some? 

The city councilors, given what should be their neighborhood- and street-level knowledge of housing conditions in Boston, ought to know enough to at least acknowledge the complexity of the issue. 

Instead, a statement by Council President Ed Flynn makes no mention of the role dorm beds can play in corralling runaway rents in city neighborhoods. 

“Now that the pandemic is over, and travel is coming back to the city, what are we going to do? We’re going to cut jobs after the pandemic? That’s not what a world-class city would do. That’s not what a progressive city would do,” Flynn said. 

Well, a progressive city doesn’t let college kids run amuck in its neighborhoods, either, driving out other tenants and driving up rents. 

As for the Northeastern students, they are no doubt an idealistic bunch.

As COVID-19 emptied out campuses, rents plunged by double digits. Apartment List pegged the drop at 17 percent.

That said, it’s not all about labor rights, with some Northeastern students also clearly not thrilled with their prospective accommodations at the upscale Hub hotel. 

Apparently, the mile-long walk would be a bit much for some students, think it would make them less inclined to roll out of bed and get to class in the morning. That, anyway, is what a member of Huskies Organizing With Labor, or HOWL, told The Huntington News, a Northeastern University student newspaper. 

“It’s not ridiculously far from campus, but it’s far enough to the point where the commute from Northeastern’s campus to the Sheraton is kind of long. It makes motivation to go to classes [go] down and lowers the student experience a lot,” said Benjamin Brown, a first-year chemical engineering major, of the university’s plan to lease as many as 427 rooms at the 1,220-key hotel. 

 Pandemic Showed Students Hurt Renters 

OK, college kids will be college kids. But those Northeastern student activists might want to take another look at their stance and their aversion to walking a few blocks across the beautiful Back Bay. 

The pandemic laid bare the role Boston’s more than 150,000 college students have played in driving rents in the city to insane heights. 

As COVID-19 emptied out campuses, rents plunged by double digits in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville. Apartment List pegged the drop at an astonishing 17 percent. 

Yet building new dorm towers is no easy task in Boston. As major development projects, new dorms must go through a lengthy and rigorous review process at the Boston Planning & Development Agency. 

That can take a couple years, even under the best of circumstances, with the prospect of hundreds of students effectively moving next door frequently fueling opposition from neighbors already be disenchanted or cynical about town-gown relations. 

Northeastern has had its share of dorm project battles over the years. 

Given that background, why should the school – and for that matter, other universities – rely on new construction alone when there are all these empty hotel rooms at the Sheraton and at other hotels across the city?  

After all, what better way to get hundreds of Northeastern students out of the housing market? And not two, three or 10 years in the future, but now? 

 Make NEU Do Right by Workers 

However, by throwing a fit over the Sheraton dorm plan, those students are hurting working-class renters across Boston and its environs struggling to survive in one of the most

Scott Van Voorhis

brutal apartment markets on the planet. 

That said, none of this is an argument for abandoning the Sheraton workers. 

If Northeastern wants those dorm rooms, the university should be forced to dig a little deeper and do what it takes to do right by the 100 or so Sheraton workers who stand to lose their jobs, ensuring they can find equivalent or better jobs, either on campus or at another hotel. 

And if those students want to help, should hold the university’s feet to the fire to make sure those workers are taken care of.  

Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.