“My hope is that Harvard is planning to use Watertown as a new baseline for renegotiating our PILOT agreement,” Galluccio says. “My hope is that Harvard is immediately going to contact city officials.”

But Harvard officials say the Watertown agreement represents a special case, since Harvard’s holdings constitute about one-third of that town’s tax base and were purchased in one fell swoop. An agreement like the 1990 deal would have had catastrophic effects on Watertown’s city budget.

“We did agree with our counterparts who were negotiating for Watertown, that the case of the Arsenal was different,” says Harvard’s Associate Vice President for Planning and Real Estate Kathy A. Spiegelman.

The Watertown negotiations, which took a year and a half, also subjected Harvard to intense pressure to make a deal that would satisfy all parties. The University’s purchase of the Arsenal had been controversial, sparking protests by local children and a response from the state legislature, which considered passing a bill to limit the tax-exempt holdings of non-profit institutions.

From Galluccio’s point of view, PILOT payments are not only an issue of money, but also one of the fundamental relationship between Cambridge and the University.

Rather than adopting “reactionary” financial policies, Galluccio says, Harvard should actively seek to compensate the city adequately.

“Unfortunately Harvard has really decided to make all negotiations part of a quid pro quo,” he says. “All relations start with building a foundation of being a good neighbor.”

Harvard is ready to go to the table, according to Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Alan J. Stone, who says he has indicated to most city councillors personally that he is willing to sit down and negotiate.

“No one’s said to me, ‘Come in tomorrow and let’s do it,’” he says.

While Stone declines to say that the Watertown deal would serve as a new baseline, he does say that Harvard is willing to “have a lot of things on the table.”

Even though Harvard officials called Watertown a special case, they also say they know that deal will influence future negotiations with other cities—including Cambridge.

“I think we were aware of the fact that the principle we adapted would apply to each of our host communities,” said Director of Community Relations Mary H. Power.

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Christopher M. Loomis can be reached at cloomis@fas.harvard.edu.