Gerry Berberian believes Chelsea is on its way up.

Berberian, a commercial landlord, also believes in acquiring and repositioning old warehouse buildings to attract new tenants.

That’s his plan for a hulking old factory in this heavily industrial, blue-collar town beneath the Tobin Bridge, where 1,200 new apartments have been built since 2005, with more in the pipeline.  

But there’s more activity than that making Berberian, a manager for his Charlestown-based family business Boston Real Estate Management, optimistic about the future of this 1.8 square-mile city, the smallest in the state. Or else he wouldn’t be buying the largely empty 303,000-square-foot warehouse at 22 Willow St., once home to a thriving manufacturer and supplier of carnival toys and novelty items.  

“I’m impressed with that whole area of Chelsea,” Berberian mused in a recent interview. “There’s so much activity going on. One apartment after another is being built. It’s going to be a town where people want to be in in the next 10 years.”

Along with the new apartments that have been built or are under construction, the FBI has announced it will relocate hundreds of employees into a 220,000-square-foot property 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.

Then there’s the Mystic Mall, which, including parking, sits on about 25 acres off Everett Avenue near Route 1. The property is owned by the Demoulas family, owners of the Market Basket grocery chain. The family has already built a 133,000-square-foot mega-supermarket with 42 cash registers, and there’s a Home Goods, T.J. Maxx and other chains. Ash says shoppers come from as far as Newton and Peabody to shop at the super-grocer.

“One of the challenges we’re eager to overcome here is to change what has the look and feel of a suburban shopping center into an urban plaza,” Ash offered.

The city has engaged the Demoulas family about another phase of development at the site, but this time, the company would build up, not out. In fact, 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.

With all the office space and potential future build-outs, it makes sense well-known developers like John M. Corcoran and Co. and Synergy Investment & Development would build apartment complexes in the city. It helps that those projects are within blocks of Chelsea’s commuter rail station, just one stop from the North Station transportation hub.

The Near-Term

But the complete redevelopment of the Mystic Mall would be an ambitious project for the city, to say the least, and it’s not happening anytime soon.

So in the near-term, Berberian is working on renovation plans for his soon-to-be-owned warehouse at 22 Willow St., a portion of which was built in the late 19th century and is in need of repair. Just 55,000 square feet of the total 303,000-square-foot property is occupied now.

But when Berberian is through with it, he plans to fill the remaining space with craftspeople and small-shops. He pulled off a similar feat at another warehouse in Everett, where he counts popular local microbreweries Idle Hands Craft Ales and Night Shift Brewing as tenants. He has been speaking with other small brewers to occupy space in the Chelsea building, but none have yet taken the bait.

Renovations at the property will likely start in September, beginning with subdividing the massive space into smaller pieces, for probably between 15 and 20 companies. When all’s said and done, he will likely invest $2-3 million in improvements into the property.

“I don’t see any giants coming,” Berberian said. “But Cambridge and Somerville just don’t want these types of operations anymore. A lot of possible tenants are coming from that direction. There’s no place for these little guys to go.”

Improving Infrastructure

Yet one company in particular, a potential 65,000-square-foot transportation company, has expressed interest in the Willow Street building. That likely is a result of the new $40 million Chelsea Street Bridge that’s been open about a year.

“It has assured our convenience to Logan,” Ash said. “It connects Chelsea to [East Boston] in a local route to the airport. It further unlocks our ability to take advantage of our location. And if Suffolk Downs happens as a casino, we’re right next to it.”

Currently, the state is in the midst of studying the potential for a Silver Line expansion of the MBTA’s rapid transit bus to Chelsea’s Mystic Mall from South Station. That study should be complete in September. That could prove a major impetus for the redevelopment of the Demoulas mall, Ash opined.

And if a bus line is expanded to Chelsea, that could prove a boon for the small businesses that have opened in the city. One well-known startup that opened a tasting room earlier this year is the Mystic Brewery, at 174 Williams St. The beer-centric enterprise is just up the road from the redeveloped Admiral’s Hill Marina, where a walking and biking path leads from under the Tobin Bridge to the park along the waterfront length of the Island End River to the Mary O’Malley Waterfront Park.

Kevin Saba, owner of the marina, decided to open Commoncove onsite, a coworking space where young professionals and those starting their own firms, who often work through wifi offered at the Mystic Mall Starbucks, can rent desks or office space for a day or a month.

Since the Admiral’s Hill redevelopment added the office share space, and the tasting room opened, young professionals that have moved into the area have taken to grabbing growlers of beer and walking the path to the marina to enjoy a drink on the water, according to Jessica Saba, Kevin Saba’s daughter. Realizing the popularity of the space, Saba has partnered with his daughter, a public relations professional based in Brooklyn, to work with city officials to offer yoga sessions in the greenspace, as well as movie nights and a potential food truck gathering this summer.   

“The area has been cleaned up like crazy,” said the younger Saba, who spent a summer living in a renovated houseboat in the marina. “When [the cleanup] started they were pulling out cars from the harbor. Chelsea has always had a reputation as being kind of dangerous. But in the last five years so many people have moved into the neighborhood. A lot of the people have been priced out of Boston, the younger, more adventurous people, a lot of Harvard grads and tech startup, and many of them are moving to this area around the marina.”

Email: jcronin@thewarrewngroup.com