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Matthew P. Maggiore
President, Maggiore Cos.
Age: 45
Industry experience: 30 years
Beginning in his teenage days working as a field laborer alongside young Ben and Casey Affleck, Matt Maggiore’s tenure at his family’s Woburn-based construction and development firm progressed to project and property management after his college graduation. As president of Maggiore Cos. since 2006, Maggiore has overseen expansion of multifamily residential development in the Boston suburbs, while retaining ownership of over 2 million square feet of commercial space at 13 properties. Maggiore Cos. has completed more than 500 housing units in the past 17 years, including the 60-unit Wakefield Station and one of the largest recent developments in Woburn history: construction of 112 townhouses at the former Shannon farm property. Matt’s father Paul founded the company in 1974 and continues to serve as CEO.
Q: As a developer, what worries you from a financial standpoint?
A: It’s kind of the uncertainty of the mortgage market. Everything ties back to residential mortgage rates and the cost of materials. Everybody’s used to borrowing free money, and a 6 or 7 percent mortgage for people who were expecting that is way too high. The mentality is: I’m going to wait until things start to come down. But in a strong community like Arlington, you end up getting a lot of cash buyers that don’t have to worry about financing.
Q: Along with the 50-unit Majestic Mill condominium project that recently broke ground in Arlington, are you planning for-sale condominiums in future projects?
A: Our business model is more geared toward condos than rentals. We are in the holding game for our commercial assets, but we’re primarily focused on for-sale condominium product. We feel that construction financing is more favorable, and we can catch the market at the right time, build the project and get out of it as opposed to following the ebbs and flows of the rental market.
Q: What are your criteria for a suitable development site?
A: These days, with opportunities thinning and limited land opportunities, we look for good demographics: suburban locations and access to public transportation, minimal environmental concerns and, obviously, the standard adequate water and sewer and electric capacity.
Q: How big of a development opportunity do you foresee in the suburbs from the MBTA Communities rezoning requirement?
A: That zoning will provide greater density from a massing perspective, as long as you’re in keeping with the neighborhood and can prove you’re not going to tower over the abutting properties. Developers will take hard looks at different sites and come up with creative ways to redevelop those sites, barring things you can’t control like environmental issues.
Q: What are the benefits of the design-build services from your construction arm?
A: Design-build on some of our projects helps free up the designs from a time and cost standpoint. We’ll prepare architectural plans in-house with our design team, and we’ll farm out the mechanicals to third parties. We have the ability to control the dollars for the client, versus giving it to a larger outfit that’s going to dictate the schedule. You can be in the ground in a fraction of the time compared to if we were outsourcing this.
Q: What was your introduction to the family business?
A: One of the first [projects] was back in the mid-’80s. I’m 45 now and we were doing a fit-up for a lab tenant in one of our buildings in Woburn: driving round in the truck, cleaning toilets and doing grunt work for the most part. I hated it. You start off in the basement to work your way up to the top floor, so to speak. At the time, we were primarily focused on flex industrial, office-warehouse type of product, and a lot of auto dealerships.
Q: How are the enhanced energy codes adopted by many suburbs affecting project costs?
A: We actually permitted [Majestic Mill Brook] last July under the [previous] energy code and were able to get it in under that code, and skirt the local “plus code” that was adopted by Arlington which is basically pushing you into Passive House construction. I’m hearing through the rumor mill we could be up another 8 percent to get to that plus code. With the building envelope in Passive House, it’s a greater insulation and exterior wall and roof system, higher-efficiency HVAC and energy recovery ventilation, and solar requirements.
Maggiore’s Five Favorite Winter Playground Destinations:
- Jackson Hole, Wyoming
- Steamboat Springs, Colorado
- Katahdin Region, Maine
- White Mountains, New Hampshire
- Old Forge, New York
