Developers and urban planners will need to solve transportation and other issues facing Boston’s Seaport District before a true neighborhood can be created there, according to Young Park, president of Boston-based Berkeley Investments.
With a lack of roadway connections between development areas, proposed cuts to MBTA service and a lack of available liquor licenses, the area has a long way to go before it is a cohesive district, Park said at a "State of the Seaport" industry event this morning, sponsored by Bisnow.
"Despite the momentum established, you still have challenges to create a real neighborhood," Park told the audience at the Seaport World Trade Center.
For just that reason, Park said he recently signed a deal with American Provisions to open a 5,500-square-foot urban market for fresh produce and cheeses in space Berkeley owns along Farnsworth Street.
"That will establish the fact that the district is not just for restaurants," Park added.
But that market is no substitute for a supermarket, which panelists said is really needed in the area. Davis Wamester is executive vice president for Boston Global Investors (BGI), which with WS Development is in the process of designing 320,000 square feet of retail space at what is slated to become Seaport Square.
Wamester said WS is holding back on a supermarket as part of its retail plan, which includes a movie theater complex, until the residential market takes hold in the area.
In addition to the retail, some prospective large life sciences tenants have been talking to BGI to lease space in the future Seaport Square buildings, although Wamester did not identify them by name.
Farther inland in the district, Beal Cos. is considering converting some of its smaller startup spaces at the Seaport Center into lab space for life sciences companies as leases expire and tenants look for space elsewhere.
The amount of capital available for Seaport projects "completely outstrips" the number of opportunities that exist, said James McCaffrey, managing director for Eastdil Secured, a Boston-based real estate investment banking firm. He said riskier development could beat the bigger-name projects in "fringier" areas like the Marine Industrial Park.
But Stephen Faber, senior vice president at Beal, countered, saying developers should drive development into the market-rate areas instead of riskier investment and development.
