Music isn’t the only thing rockin’ in Allston “Rock City” these days. The Boston neighborhood, along with its Brighton counterpart, has become a new focus – and some say the new frontier – for developers willing to take a chance on an up-and-coming area.
As an added bonus, the neighborhood is already populated – which is more than can be said for other areas of town (ahem, the Seaport?) where developers are trying to create neighborhoods largely from scratch.
The Allston-Brighton neighborhoods represent the city’s westernmost outposts, abutting the inner western suburbs of Brookline and Newton. They are comprised of largely working-class residents and students in smaller apartment buildings and triple-deckers, all in close proximity to commercial properties. The two neighborhoods are essentially bisected by the Massachusetts Turnpike, lending much of the land along the Pike a decidedly industrial bent.
As anyone knows who has attempted to navigate the part of town east of the New Balance complex at Brighton Landing, the streets are a maze of small garages and industrial buildings packed side-by-side with apartment houses.
But in the area bordered by Everett, North Beacon, Market and Guest streets, there is little but long, unbroken walls of mostly short commercial buildings. Loading docks and parking lots are prevalent – and pedestrians largely out of place.
It’s not news that Harvard University, which owns more than 350 acres of land in Allston, has long harbored ambitions to create a mixed-use academic, residential and retail hub on the land across the river from its more famed Cambridge campus. Not long ago, Harvard envisioned a massive 250-acre campus in Allston that included academic space, student housing, entertainment facilities and the transformation of Barry’s Corner to replicate Harvard Square.
But work on that campus expansion slowed considerably in 2009 as the school’s endowment plummeted. Slowed, but didn’t entirely stop. The school opened a $20 million building for entrepreneurship last fall. Soon after, the university broke ground on a $100 million building for housing on its business school campus, slated to open in 2013.
‘Under Everybody’s Nose’
Southwest of Harvard’s Allston campus, Jim Davis, chairman of athletic footwear and apparel company New Balance, is planning to create a gleaming new headquarters for his company. Earlier this year, the Boston Redevelopment Authority board of directors approved a master plan for New Brighton Landing, the first step toward approving the $500 million development project proposed by New Brighton Landing LLC, a New Balance subsidiary.
The proposal calls for a 250,000-square-foot world headquarters for New Balance, a 140,000-square-foot hotel with about 175 keys at 180 Guest St., and up to 650,000 square feet of office space spread among up to three buildings at 38 to 40 Guest St. There would also be up to 65,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
In addition, New Balance would build an up to 345,000-square-foot sports complex at 77 Guest St. The adjacent vacant lot would house a 200-meter track and field facility, an NHL-regulation hockey arena, 30,000 square feet of medical office space and space for other fitness activities.
But the New Balance project headquarters and office buildings will not be completed for at least three to five years, respectively. And Harvard has not put forth more proposals. Even so, one new apartment project, containing 100 units, just opened at 65 Brainerd Road in Allston.
While that’s not an amazing achievement in itself, industry observers were impressed that all 100 units were pre-leased before the doors on the Mount Vernon Co.’s apartment building, called Element, were open for occupancy.
Ben Sayles, a director at the Boston office of development financier Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, said that for developers that already have a presence in the neighborhood, the area is ideal. Barriers to entry are high for outsiders because there is little to no vacant land available to develop, only redevelopment opportunities. So, if you own property or development rights and a developer drops by asking to buy it, that land could be very valuable.
“Allston’s one of those markets that’s been under everybody’s nose for so long, and now that new development makes economic sense, many of the best sites have already been snapped up,” Sayles told Banker & Tradesman.
‘A New Standard’
That’s encouraging news for Bruce Percelay, chairman of Mount Vernon Co. His firm is planning to create another 400 units of housing in what it is calling Allston’s first “green district.” The $125 million residential project along Brainerd Road near Commonwealth Avenue will be full of environmentally friendly systems, shared Zipcars and green building materials, Percelay said. He said he intends to position the community to help house the office and lab workers that could eventually populate space in New Balance’s and Harvard’s proposed projects. Rents vary from $1,600 up to $2,800 a month, Percelay said.
“We’re re-creating a neighborhood here that was formerly occupied by under-utilized or vacant industrial buildings,” he offered. “From a market standpoint, what this means is that Allston is coming of age here. It deserves better housing options and we are now providing those alternatives. It’ll set a new standard for living in Allston … and raise the bar for other landlords there and hopefully set a new trend in this area going forward.”
Currently, Allston and Brighton’s office markets contain about 899,000 square feet of space, said Brendan Carroll, vice president for research at Richards Barry Joyce & Partners. More than 400,000 square feet of space is located at New Balance’s headquarters. In total, the vacancy rate for Allston and Brighton is 8.8 percent.
