Life for residents in the sleepy town of Berlin could become far busier, if the development team behind the ambitious 400,000-square-foot Riverbridge North retail and residential development can finalize a deal to build a hotel, hundreds of apartments and potentially office space at the site.
Riverbridge North LLC is working to close a deal with a financial partner to start the process of building a 109-room, extended-stay hotel at the 65 River Road West site. If all goes as planned, the company will see heads on beds by the summer of 2014. The project is fully permitted.
That’s just the start of what is planned for the site, according to Matt Senie, general manager and partner with Riverbridge. The company is also cleared to build up to 205 residential units that could be a mix of apartments, condos, or assisted living. And the project is permitted for up to 20,000 square feet of office space, but there has been admittedly little interest in office, Senie said. It all depends on what the market dictates, but Senie wants to see the first residences under construction next year, and the rest to come in 2015. All told, the residences and hotel could cost up to $72 million to build.
The property contains 26 buildable acres, with 113 being held to manage as conservation land. A new zoning overlay allows for a dense commercial project while keeping a lot of that land untouched. The developer can build up to 50-feet high on the property. The retail could be single-story with office or apartments above.
But the financing still needs to be determined for any of it to happen. So to start, Senie and his partners just broke ground on Growing Room, a 12,500-square-foot day care center that will be part of the Riverbridge development. Integrated Builders is constructing the day care building.
The firm did build a 3,500-square-foot convenience store and 10-pump gas station almost immediately “because there wasn’t a gas station more than six miles,” Senie said.
If You Build It …
But there’s one big question is looming over the project in the little-known town of Berlin, with its population of 2,380 and 1,871 registered voters. That question is: who would invest in a seemingly one-horse town?
But take a closer look. Senie’s development site is at a nexus of Berlin, Northborough and Marlborough. It’s is also immediately adjacent to interstates 495 and 290. Genzyme has a sizable facility nearby in Northborough that is accessed using the same roadways that pass by the proposed development site, and the Solomon Pond Mall is nearby as well, said Paul Matthews, head of the 495/MetroWest Partnership. Not far from the site is also pharmaceutical company Sunovian’s national headquarters, and St. Gobain, a French company.
In nearby Marlborough, tenants absorbed or made commitments to fill 1.2 million square feet of commercial space in 2012, according to the Marlborough Economic Development Corp.
“That’s a really interesting corner of the region without much public notice,” Matthews said. “Even I tend to think of that road as retail, but there is a significant office park presence in that area.”
At this point, besides the mall, Berlin’s biggest claim to fame is likely an institution called Pure Hockey, a retail warehouse for all things hockey next to the Riverbridge site, as well as several area rinks. The hockey activity, coupled with the commercial space absorption, could make Berlin a prime candidate for such hotel and residential uses, according to industry experts.
William Sullivan, a broker with Avison Young in Boston, knows referees that travel from New York to games in Berlin that cannot find an open hotel room nearby, and have to resort to driving to Worcester. Sullivan said the site is ideal for a new hotel.
Email: jcronin@thewarrengroup.com
