Over the past 10 years, more than 1 million square feet of space in Chelsea has been renovated and developed, 60 percent of which has been new construction. ACS Development is proposing one of the newest projects, a 250,000-square-foot mixed-use development, on a 5.5-acre parcel near Everett Avenue it recently purchased from the city.
The city of Chelsea, long a neglected step-sister of Boston, has been quietly building itself up in the commercial arena, garnering lease deals and development projects that would be the envy of any neighboring municipality. Some of the latest plans include a 5.5-acre parcel at 201 Maple St. near the Everett Avenue business corridor, a tract of land that ACS Development Corp. wants to transform into office, hotel or biotech space.
Patricia Simboli, a principal at ACS, said that there’s preliminary interest from prospective office space tenants, mostly in the 40,000-square-foot range. The parcel of land, wedged between the Wyndham Hotel and Massachusetts General Hospital Chelsea HealthCare Center, now consists of little more than a parking lot. ACS Development, however, has big plans for its use. They’re proposing up to 250,000 square feet of office or mixed-use space, possibly to include a hotel. Simboli says that the proposal has garnered the attention of the life sciences industry. With biotech firm Alkermes located across the street and easy access to Route 1, the Massachusetts Turnpike, Cambridge and Logan International Airport, Simboli said the site is a natural fit for companies in the life sciences field. ACS purchased the parcel from the city in December 2003. The firm hopes to begin construction in 12 to 18 months.
While Chelsea, for years, scrambled to attract attention from businesses and developers, the city has finally turned a corner.
“Chelsea’s just getting to a point where [commercial real estate] brokers are giving Chelsea some attention,” Patricia’s brother, ACS President Anthony J. Simboli, said.
Despite a past that saw least two major fires, a local government that spiraled into receivership and a struggling economy, Chelsea recently has garnered the attention of at least a few developers. While the city credits ACS as one of the pioneers, City Manager Jay Ash says that more and more are following their lead.
Over the past 10 years, more than 1 million square feet of commercial space has been renovated and developed in the city, 60 percent of which has been new construction. Everett Avenue, now dubbed the commercial corridor, has shaken off its old scrap metal and junk yards and attracted a Stop & Shop, KM Foods and Alkermes.
“I had a developer ask me once: ‘Are people calling you now?”’ Ash said. “In ’96, ’97, as the planning director, I was always in Boston with a slide show. Now instead of me cold-calling them, they’re saying ‘are we missing something? We should be over here.'”
In the past month, Ash hosted five tours of the city with potential developers. Crouched at the mouth of the Tobin Bridge, Chelsea sits just a few miles from Boston and Logan Airport. Its location, waterfront property and tracts of developable land are attracting more than a few inquires as the city reinvents itself.
“I grew up in Chelsea, and for those of us who did, it’s startling to see the attention from the business community,” Ash said.
The Arrival
The expanding commercial base, once an area heavily dominated by storage and scrap metal businesses, now includes high-end offices and hotels. The changes also mean a stronger tax base for the city, setting the stage for other city improvements. Before the opening of the Wyndham Hotel in the late 1990s, its 2-acre site along Everett Avenue generated $30,000 a year in taxes. Last year the hotel paid the city $450,000 in taxes.
“I feel like we’ve arrived,” Ash said. “There are all types of people making investments in the community.”
Corinthian College recently signed a 30,000-square-foot lease in ACS Development’s 108,000-square-foot office building at 70 Everett Ave., which was completed about two years ago.
“When the Wyndham Hotel came in 1997, they felt like pioneers,” Ash said. “I can tell you that no one now is a pioneer. They’re all coming to a well-settled community.”
According to “Halfway to Everywhere: A Portrait of America’s First-Tier Suburbs,” a book by William H. Hudnut, Chelsea was first settled in 1624 as a vacation spot for Boston’s elite. But from its incorporation in 1739 to the present, Chelsea hit more than a few bumps in the road. The city lost 472 acres in the fire of 1908 and, in 1973, another 18 blocks. Highway construction in the 1950s leveled or relocated more than 139 homes. By the 1990s, leadership problems, a shrunken tax base and a lack of redevelopment contributed to the city spiraling into receivership. At the time, 24 percent of Chelsea’s families fell below the poverty level, just 25 percent owned their own homes and the median family income was $24,144, according to Hudnut’s book.
Despite Chelsea’s lack of commercial activity, the Simbolis’ father, Anthony C. Simboli, saw its potential. A native of Boston’s North End, Anthony Simboli was accepted to Boston College, where he later graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in the same year. After a career with the Central Intelligence Agency, Simboli developed a drugstore and convenience store business, which he sold around 1980. Four years later, Simboli took a stab at development in Chelsea.
“When he came to Chelsea, it was just dust,” Patricia Simboli said. ACS Development’s first project, a 60,000-square-foot office building along the Everett Avenue area, “was the first office building in 100 years. Everyone thought he was crazy.”
But the decision paid off and ACS continued its Chelsea expansion. It now operates 13 commercial buildings and plans to develop more. ACS is no longer one of just a handful of developers with that notion, however.
Kevin Saba, managing partner of Development and Marketing Group of Waterville Valley, N.H., began looking in Chelsea several years ago. He says it’s the “can-do” attitude at City Hall that attracted him most.
“It’s a gateway city that has a terrific work ethic, and not just from the past [but also] from the people who are there today,” he said. “City Hall and the [local permitting] boards said what they meant and meant what they said. When you’re a developer, that means a lot.”
Saba is planning to build 160 apartment units on Admiral Hill in Chelsea. One-bedroom apartments are expected to rent for around $1,500 a month and two-bedroom units will be priced at between $1,700 and $1,900 per month. Saba is also developing and expanding a marina along 9 acres of waterfront property in the city.
Chelsea’s been close to Boston forever, but what’s changed, Saba said, is that now there’s a real sense of people working together to build business and strengthen a community.
