The aging warehouse building on Willow Street Gerry Berberian is buying to renovate and fill with new tenants provides an apt metaphor for the transformation that can be seen across Chelsea’s neighborhoods.
In the last few years, Chelsea, long known as that industrial, blue-collar city under the Tobin Bridge, has seen a boom in development, with more than 1,000 new apartments alongside office space and retail centers.
That activity is evidence enough for Berberian, manager of Boston Real Estate Management, a commercial investment firm, that the city is on the rise. His Charlestown-based company is putting the finishing touches on a deal to purchase a 303,000-square-foot warehouse at 22 Willow St., part of which was built in the late 19th century and is in need of repair, where toys and novelty items for carnivals were once manufactured. Berberian said he expects to subdivide the hulking space for between 15 and 20 tenants that could include a microbrewery or craftspeople.
"It’s a whole new world here, with new industry, apartment buildings and a lot of job potential," said Berberian, who as a young man drove his father’s popcorn company trucks to pickup and delivery sites in and out of the city.
Along with the new apartments built or under construction, the FBI has announced it will relocate hundreds of employees into a new office complex off Chelsea’s Everett Avenue in early 2015. There’s already about 750,000 square feet of office space in that section of the city, nearly all occupied by federal and state government offices, according to Jay Ash, city manager.
The city has engaged the Demoulas family about another phase of development at the Mystic Mall. The two entities are talking about the potential for high-rise development, with up to 2,000 residential units, as well as a couple hundred-thousand square feet of office and research and development space.
But any redevelopment of the mall is a long way off. Until then, the city is working to host a food truck rally in an area near the Mystic Brewery’s tasting room along the city’s refurbished waterfront. And while no tenants are yet signed at Berberian’s warehouse space, Jay Ash, city manager, said he hopes the soon-to-be owner can attract a microbrewer that wants to open a brew pub onsite since Mystic doesn’t offer food.
"We see ourselves as a hip, less expensive option to Boston and Cambridge," Ash mused. "Our emerging neighborhoods are being populated by young professionals and empty nesters longing for more space. I’ve heard frequent comparisons to Hoboken and Brooklyn, cities that were often the butt of jokes that have now seen a tremendous resurgence."
Want to learn more about the city’s resurgence? Be sure to read Monday’s issue of Banker & Tradesman for an in-depth look at what else is brewing in Chelsea.
