Hat tip BoomBustBlogger Bill. It appears that the only one's who are actually ever chastised for defaulting on debt obligations are people. To think, some are still bullish on the banks.

Down to its last chance

Developers’ delays and funding woes spur the state to serve notice on Columbus Center, the $800m complex planned to span the Pike

(Boston Globe) Massachusetts transportation officials have begun severing ties with the developers of Columbus Center, the latest, and perhaps last, chapter in one of the most ambitious and controversial projects in Boston’s development history.

The state Department of Transportation yesterday told the project’s developers they are in default of their 99-year lease, after stalling on plans to build an $800 million complex above the Massachusetts Turnpike that would have united the Back Bay and South End neighborhoods.

The developers face termination of the lease not only because they have failed to complete construction, but because they have not properly maintained the property, said a top agency official. He asked that his name not be used because the default notice is not yet public.

Because of funding problems, the developers - the WinnCompanies and the California state pension fund, known as Calpers - stopped construction in April 2008 on the six-building complex of condominiums, hotel, stores, and parks on a massive deck over the highway. Since then, they have neither cleaned up nor secured the building site to the level the state has demanded, according to the transportation official with knowl edge of the situation.