Image courtesy of Stantec
Sky Everett is losing its only competition for the title of “Everett’s Tallest Planned Development” after a nearby development was redesigned.
The Everett Planning Board is scheduled to hear a new proposal Monday night for a scaled-down version of a 240-foot-tall, two-tower development Boston-based Fulcrum Global Investors first proposed in mid-2022. If approved, it would leave V10 Development’s proposed, 21-story Sky Everett tower nearby as the tallest project by far approved for development in the area.
Filings show 310 apartments – 31 of them affordable in line with the zoning district’s requirements – and 3,875 square feet of ground-floor retail space in a 7-story wood-frame podium building
Amenities shown on plans include 91 parking spaces in a ground-floor garage, 2,000 square feet of unspecified ground-floor amenity space and 8,500 square feet of second-floor amentity spaces opening onto a pair of southwest-facing rooftop courtyards taking up 10,000 square feet between them.
The MBTA’s new, high-frequency Route 104 bus runs past the building, partly in dedicated lanes, and the transit agency has floated a conceptual proposal to extend its Silver Line bus rapid transit service from Chelsea to Sullivan Square in Charlestown, via Second Street and Everett Square.
The market-rate unit mix indicated on project filings is 90 studios renting at around $2,350 per month, 164 one-bedrooms renting for $2,700 a month and 25 two-bed, two-bath units renting for $3,600 per month. The 31 affordable units would break down as 10 studios, 18 one-bedrooms and two two-bed, two bath units, all priced for renters making 80 percent of area median income.
Fulcrum’s filings do not give a reason for redesigning its 2022 proposal, but construction and finance costs have escalated precipitously since then.
The lot at 380 Second St. is currently occupied by a mid-1970s warehouse that currently appears to house a forklift dealer. Its neighbors include a scrap metal dealer and a big-box furniture store. But two large, new, institutionally-backed apartment buildings have opened along Second Street in the last few years, taking advantage of new zoning that added over 3,200 units in the area since 2015.
“Rather than continuing an aging industrial use that is inconsistent with the district’s long-term planning objectives, the project transforms the site into a vibrant mixed-use community that advances Everett’s vision for economic development, housing production, neighborhood revitalization, and transit-oriented growth,” Fulcrum wrote in its site plan approval application.
Fulcrum Global Investors was founded by former Barings global head of real estate Scott D. Brown. The company received approval for a mixed condominium-rental tower in Charlestown last fall from the Boston Planning & Development Agency.
