Developer Scraps Somerville Project After City Limited Allowable Lab Space
The developer behind a four-story lab project planned in Somerville has abandoned its plans after the city wouldn't support its proposal.
SGL Development pulled its application for the project at 32-44 White St., on the border with Cambridge, ahead of a Somerville Planning Board meeting last Thursday where the plan was scheduled to be considered. The developer had proposed 42K SF of research and development lab space on the site.
The withdrawal, first reported by Cambridge Day, came after Somerville planning staff issued a memo July 13 that said it would only recommend approval if the developer reduced the amount of lab space in the building to less than 50% of the total square footage.
"We decided to withdraw the project because of lack of city support for a 100% lab project at that location," SGL principal Adam Siegel told Bisnow Tuesday. "They wanted to reduce the lab component dramatically, which ultimately makes the project not financially viable."
Siegel also told Bisnow that his company is now moving to terminate its contract to acquire the parcels, which hadn't closed.
Because the property is zoned for commercial, limiting the lab use to 50% of the space would mean the remainder would need to be office, and he doesn't see demand for that in the market, Siegel said, adding that switching the zoning to multifamily would be a more arduous process.
"We're not interested in working with the city anymore, based on this experience," Siegel said.
The property, occupied by two single-family houses and a one-story print shop, sits across the street from the Porter Square Shopping Center and a short walk from the Porter MBTA station. Siegel said he met with abutting property owners and community groups, who were mainly worried about parking and traffic but didn't voice concerns about the amount of lab space in the proposal.
Siegel said he expected that there would be plenty of lab demand to fill the project's 42K SF by the time it would have delivered, even though the market has been slowing down in recent quarters.
New life sciences leasing activity in Greater Boston last quarter totaled 305K SF, less than one-third of the activity recorded in the first quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Vacancy has risen from what was once an "extremely tight" market, with 14.7% of the inventory across the Boston area available for lease at the end of Q2 and 8.5% of Cambridge's space available.
