Fifty-six acres down. Seventy-three to go.
With apartments, outlet stores and restaurants opening in the first phase of Assembly Row, Somerville’s master-planned riverfront development is starting to live up to its long-awaited potential. At the same time, Mayor Joseph Curtatone is eyeing what could be an even larger redevelopment of neighboring properties stretching south to the Boston line.
Curtatone is seeking $500,000 for land-use studies of the area, which contains several generations of commercial uses, to lay the groundwork for another master-planned development rivaling the $1.5 billion Assembly Row.
The strategy: to prepare 17 parcels for development and potentially combine them into larger, shovel-ready lots.
“We don’t expect to be in this robust economic market forever,” said Ed O’Donnell, the city’s director of economic development. “At some point, there will be a downturn. The sites that come out of that the quickest are the sites that have done the planning to be ready for them.”
Given its size and location (four miles from downtown Boston), the second phase has potential to attract another major corporate user, according to industry insiders. “There are relatively few large-scale, build-to-suit sites in and around the urban core, so this would be added to be a relatively short list for any corporation looking to build its own building,” said Yanni Tsipis, a senior vice president with Colliers International in Boston.
The studies requested by Curtatone would update the Assembly Square urban renewal plan, which otherwise would expire in 2022, retaining the city’s ability to take parcels within the area by eminent domain. The city is starting the process now to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the opening of Assembly Row this year and the arrival of Partners HealthCare System’s office campus in 2016.
The assessed value of the 17 properties in the next phase is $176 million. Ideally, developers would acquire the land through private negotiations; eminent domain would be considered a last resort, O’Donnell said.
The updated plan would replace one approved in 2002, when three developers, including Swedish furniture retailer IKEA, were interested in various parts of the 129-acre Assembly Square. IKEA backed out in 2011 and Federal Realty went ahead with retail, apartments and offices on 65 acres overlooking the Mystic River.
Curtatone is now looking at the remaining 73 acres south and west of Assembly Row, an area that includes the Assembly Square Marketplace big-box center, a Home Depot and former Circuit City property, a jumble of smaller parcels along Mystic and Middlesex avenues.
The city’s strategy is similar to the one it’s pursuing for Union Square, where it hopes to jump-start up to 2.3 million square feet of commercial and residential development. The city plans to acquire five parcels totaling 15 acres in Union Square to turn over to a master developer, expected to be named this summer.
In Assembly Square, some of the remaining parcels are as small as 1,737 square feet. Consolidating them would maximize their economic potential, O’Donnell said. “On an urban site, the parcels right now don’t make a lot of sense,” he said.
Along Middlesex Avenue, the properties include La Quinta hotel, a 99 Restaurant and an office building partially occupied by Cambridge Health Alliance. At the south end of the neighborhood, industrial uses are more prominent, including an iron works and auto repair garage.
Properties that are thriving, such as the Home Depot and the Marketplace at Assembly Square, wouldn’t have to be included in the redevelopment area, O’Donnell said. The marketplace is also owned by Federal Realty Investment Trust. However, current zoning opens the door to more intense development on the marketplace site, with allowed building heights up to 125 feet.
The first phase of the $1.5-billion Assembly Row is permitted for 1.7 million square feet of commercial development, 500,000 square feet of retail, 2,100 residential units and a 200-room hotel. Last month, the first shops in the 300,000-square-foot initial phase of retail opened, along with 450 apartments.
Federal Realty is preparing to file plans for the next phase this summer with local and state agencies. It will include a 768,000-square-foot office building for Partners HealthCare with 106,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurants and a seven-story parking garage with 2,000 spaces, O’Donnell said.
Federal Realty also is expected to propose a combination of residential and commercial development on two parcels just south of the current development sites, he said.
Somerville community activist Wig Zamore said the plan reflects the complexities of redeveloping an entire neighborhood while riding out booms and busts in the real estate market.
“There is no way these things get done in one or two business cycles,” he said.
Tsipis, of Colliers International, said the next phase would require an experienced local developer with connections at all levels of government.
“This would be the epitome of a public-private partnership,” Tsipis said.
Email: sadams@thewarrengroup.com
