News
The End of Slumerville
May 17, 2011
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| We snapped Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone with a depiction of the future Assembly Row: 5M SF of housing, offices, retail, and a hotel that will take 10 to 12 years to build. After 14 years of debate, ?the most important project in the city's history? is finally getting out of the ground, the mayor tells us. It will bring the once-maligned city a new neighborhood, new era of prosperity, a civic accomplishment, and 19,000 permanent and 21,000 construction jobs. For years, ?we had to fight against the image of Slumerville,? he says. ?Now, our time has come.? The $1.5B Assembly Row mixed-use development took a major leap forward a week ago with a final agreement to build a new $53M T stop on the 50-acre site. The city, state, MBTA and developer Federal Realty Investment Trust all got on board with the plan to provide mass transit to what essentially will be a new neighborhood. |
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| Federal Realty-Boston's Don Briggs, here with development partner Avalon Bay?s Scott Dale, says that the green light to move ahead with construction of the Orange Line T stop is a ?huge milestone that unlocks lots of opportunities.? The T stop makes accessible the neighborhood that will have 1.8M SF of offices,2,100 residences (rental and ownership), 500k SF of retail, a hotel and parking for 9,000 cars. T construction, which starts this fall, should be completed by mid-?14. Financing will be provided by the state ($38M) and Federal Realty-Boston ($15M). By late this year or early ?12, more digging will start for the first of AvalonBay?s two rental buildings, which will have a total of 450 luxury apartments. The first occupants, likely to be in the 20- to 45-year-old range, should be moving in by mid-?13, Scott tells us. |
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| Federal Realty-Boston's infrastructure work is well underway, including Assembly Row?s main street where Don, leasing director Lee Anne Klemyk, and Scott are standing. Some funding for Assembly Square Drive is coming from the ARRA. Also in construction are utilities, lighting, storm water outfall, landscaping, and signage. Don says Federal Realty-Boston will break ground on a 170k SF retail building when AvalonBay starts the apartments, which will also have 110k SF of retail. Don tells us that the leasing team is negotiating with several anchor retail tenants. The architect for the master plan is Street-Works Development of White Plains, NY. Designing the first retail building is Spagnola Gisness and the apartment building is Elkus Manfredi. Don says that in '05, Federal Realty-Boston started assembling the site that it eventually purchased for $100M. In early '10, it received its major permits. Since Federal is a REIT, it will self-finance its share of the costs. |
