This Week's Boston Deal Sheet
The Wynn Las Vegas developement group has hired an architect to work on its $1.6B, 3.3M SF casino project that could catapult gritty Everett to the ranks of resort locales like Macao and Hong Kong.
Jacobs Global Building is the executive architect for the gambling resort, which is expected to pull in revenue of perhaps $750M/year, says Wynn SVP Michael Weaver. It's a major milestone for the hotly contested project (approved in September) that features a 600-room hotel, gaming, restaurants and retail on 26 acres. The next big hurdle will come at the end of January when Wynn presents the drawings for approval to the state gambling commission, he tells us. Construction could start late summer '15 for a late '17 opening. The only gambling resort in Greater Boston, Wynn Massachusetts will go up on the site of a polluted former chemical plant along the Mystic River. The waterway is a big draw as water is a key element in many Wynn resorts like the Bellagio and Mirage in Las Vegas, and often must be manufactured. This creates opportunities for outdoor amenities on the site and for new water taxi service convenient to Logan Airport and the TD Garden, Michael says.
Construction & Development
CV Properties, which has been a major player in re-developing the Boston waterfront, broke ground on its $220M South Street Landing mixed-use project in Providence that will overhaul a power plant on the river. The new complex will house the Rhode Island Nursing Education Center (a joint University of Rhode Island/Rhode Island College nursing-education center), Brown University offices, graduate student housing and a parking garage. Boston-based Spagnolo Gisness is leading the design team for this urban renewal project.
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Forest Hills Arborway, a partnership of John M Corcoran and The Brennan Group started construction on the $90M, 283-apartment Commons at Forest Hills near the T-stop. For years, they’ve been de-contaminating the site long used by Hughes Oil. Once completed by Q2 ’16, a two-bedroom will rent for a moderate $2,650/month.
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The Coalition for a Better Acre and the Veterans Northeast Outreach Center closed a $2.5M tax credit for the $6.4M, 27-unit veterans’ housing project they’re developing in Haverhill. The Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation provided the low-income housing tax credit investment. Twelve months of construction, started in November.
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The Community Builders and development partner JP Parcel U will build a $40M complex with 124 residences (including 38 affordable rental units), ground-floor retail, and new green space in Jamaica Plain. Construction on Phase 1 is slated to start this spring and be completed by the summer of '16.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation won City approval to develop nearly 1M SF at Tremont Crossing in Roxbury for a new State transportation building, the National Center for Afro-American Artists museum, and 126k SF of retail, entertainment, and educational uses.
In 2015, developer Corcoran Jennison Cos will launch the $28M expansion of the Bayside DoubleTree Hotel. By March ’17, it will complete 97 new rooms on the northeast side of the hotel that’s near the JFK/UMass T-stop. Once the six-story, L-shaped addition opens, the hotel will have 294 keys; a new conference/meeting space, a 4k SF dividable ballroom, a restaurant, and bar.
Developer Anthony Ruscito will invest $6M to redevelop a two-story commercial building at 1580 River St in Hyde Park into a three-story building with 32 condos and parking. This spring, construction will start on the project designed by Roche-Christopher Architects with an even split of one- and two-bedroom units.
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The Boston Red Sox have launched the next renovation of their 102-year-old stadium with 150 to 200 seats being added in left field, next to and above the Green Monster, and in the outdoor Lansdowne Pavilion. GC Gilbane will lead construction. From '02 to ’12, The Sox did $300M in renovations.
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MassHousing and the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development closed $22M in Affordable Housing Trust Fund loans for affordable housing in 16 communities. The newly built or rehabbed buildings with 973 rental apartments are in towns from Medfield and Orange to Cambridge and Lawrence.
Sales
Slate Properties paid Katz Properties $24.4M for the Derry Meadows Shoppes in Derry, NH. Cushman & Wakefield's Robert Griffin, Geoffrey Millerd and Justin Smith repped Katz in the deal for the 187k SF center on I-93 in a major regional retail corridor.
People
BRA acting director Brian Golden is now the main man at the BRA, the city development agency. He aims to bring greater transparency and fairness to the authority and will create a long-term master plan for the city, a document it last had in the 1960s.
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Stephen Hassell has joined Shawmut Design and Construction as the director of business development for New England. Steve recently was VP of client development at Columbia Construction and previously worked at Anderson-Nichols, Cushman & Wakefield and Collaborative Engineers.
