JOHN F. POWER – ‘Just beginning’
Build it and they will come, indeed.
The Brighton Landing office complex in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood is still months away from completion, but the 240,000-square-foot development already appears to be sparking interest in several nearby parcels. Along with a Boston insurance company that hopes to construct a two-story office building a few doors down on Market Street, a real estate investment group headlined by public television station WGBH has closed on a former trash transfer station that it is apparently eyeing as an office use.
According to records from the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, Farley White Brighton LLC paid $3.47 million for the Browning-Ferris Industries site at 152 Market St. A member of the partnership, WGBH is headquartered just up the street on Western Ave. in Allston, but project spokesman John F. Power said last week he is unclear what the station’s ultimate intentions are for the parcel. One possibility would be as an investment, while some sources suggested the station might use the property for expansion, but Power said nothing has been decided thus far.
“We don’t have a plan yet,” said Power, a principal with CB Richard Ellis/Whittier Partners in Boston whose Investment Services Advisory Group is helping to steer the project along. In buying the property, Power said WGBH “felt it made sense to go after it because of the limited number of opportunities in that area.”
Farley White’s focus thus far has been on closing the sale, said Power, adding that his group will now turn its attention to putting a proposal together. Although some sources at Boston City Hall say project proponents have been informally shopping a 10-story office building, Power insisted that any such talks have been preliminary.
“We really haven’t gotten too far along in the process,” said Power. “Now that we own it, we are going to move forward and meet with the community and try to come up with a project that works for everybody, but we really are just beginning to do that.”
WGBH spokeswoman Jeanne Hopkins said last week that the station is also still mulling its options. WGBH was not actively seeking properties, she said, but was enticed to become involved by a real estate broker who has done work with the entity in the past. Given that the operation is currently “bursting at the seams,” Hopkins said it is possible that WGBH might ultimately occupy the property, but said nothing has been determined along those lines.
“We are kind of spread and scattered right now, and we are just trying to keep our options open as we try to keep up with our space needs,” said Hopkins. “But as of right now, we do not have any specifics on what we may or may not do there.”
WGBH currently occupies about 280,000 square feet in Allston, said Hopkins, estimating that the station is located in about 12 different buildings. She stressed, however, that the station “is not trying to aggregate all of that [occupancy] in one place.”
Active Place
Even at such an early stage, concerns are already being voiced about the new ownership’s intentions. Boston City Councilor Brian Honan, a Democrat who represents Allston-Brighton, said last week that congestion from commercial development could create a hardship for longtime residents and the nearby Brighton Center business district.
“We haven’t even felt the full force of [Brighton Landing] yet,” said Honan, noting that the bulk of the companies leasing space there have yet to move to the two-building development. With more than 1,000 employees headed to that complex, Honan said additional space could prove burdensome to the North Beacon/Market Street area.
“It’s an active place already,” Honan said. Now that the BFI parcel has sold, he added, “I think we are going to have to step up and take a look at the area to see what sort of traffic impact we are facing there.”
Equally concerned is Richard A. Mulligan, president of the Brighton-Allston Improvement Association. Mulligan said the zoning for 152 Market St. includes a 35-foot height limit, one that would preclude anything in the 10-story range.
Ten stories “is not going to work in that area,” said Mulligan.
“I just can’t see any more development, especially of that size and scale, in that area,” he said. “The infrastructure just can’t handle the volume.”
Although Brighton Landing was able to gain local support for its 10-story building, Mulligan said he believes that was a special situation in which the neighborhood wanted to keep the project’s anchor tenant, New Balance, in the area. In addition, the BFI parcel is closer to a residential area, Mulligan noted, requiring a more sensitive approach in developing the land there.
One potential solution now being discussed in Allston-Brighton would be to have a commuter rail stop opened adjacent to Brighton Landing. Trains from downtown Boston to and from the western suburbs run right alongside the property, and Mulligan said he believes it is an idea whose time may have finally come.
“If they are proposing any more development in that area, I think everybody in Allston-Brighton would fight tooth and nail to make sure that happens,” said Mulligan.
Honan concurred with that outlook, adding that his office is exploring a rail stop for the site. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has previously quashed such a notion, but Honan said he believes the opening of Brighton Landing might make such a concept more realistic.
Power said he believes Farley White would also be interested in a rail stop, adding that it will hopefully be part of the discussions with residents and the area’s political leadership. But other than the selection of Tsoi/Kobus as architects and the likelihood that the property will yield office space, Power said the new owners have little to offer in strategy.
“We are not locked into anything,” he said. “We’d like to try and make the area a nicer place, and we are excited about being able to invest in the city, but that’s all we can say about it right now.”
