Harvard University has paid $147.3 million to complete its acquisition of four parcels from CSX Transportation in Allston in the latest step of a 16-year campus expansion.
CSX Transportation had retained easements to operate its Beacon Park rail storage yard after Harvard acquired the 47-acre site known as Allston Landing South in 2003. The latest transactions completed Nov. 17 involve CSX yielding its easements to the parcels after having completed environmental remediation, said Kevin Casey, a Harvard spokesman.
The crescent-shaped site forms the southern-most section of the I-90 Allston study area, where Harvard has been working with state and local officials on development guidelines following the upcoming realignment of the Massachusetts Turnpike near the recently-demolished Allston-Brighton toll plaza.
Realignment of I-90 is expected to open up millions of square feet of potential development in the neighborhood.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is drawing up final plans for the turnpike realignment, including replacement of the 51-year-old Allston viaduct and construction of a new MBTA commuter rail station. MassDOT is expected to file a draft environmental impact report next year with its preferred version of the turnpike realignment.
Casey said Harvard has not drawn up specific plans for the Allston Landing South site yet, part of a long-term campus expansion to the area south of Cambridge Street.
Following the turnpike realignment, development could occur alongside and above the highway and railroad tracks using air rights and an elevated deck. CSX has relocated train storage to sites in Westborough and Worcester, enabling it to remove many of the tracks at Beacon Yards and opening up new development sites.
Preliminary estimates indicate the area could support at least 4 million square feet of development, said Gerald Autler, a Boston Planning and Development Agency planner and senior project manager.
To prepare for the changes, the BPDA and MassDOT have been studying development guidelines in the entire area from the railroad tracks to the Charles River. A grid of streets would be built, Soldiers Field Road would be realigned to open up more parkland along the river and protected bike lanes would be built on Cambridge Street, according to a placemaking study released in July.
“It reflects a lot of thinking about how that area should evolve and how to evaluate building above the tracks,” Autler said. “A lot of the ideas that we and the community and Harvard had been on board with are now in MassDOT’s current thinking.”
Harvard paid $97 million in December 2015 to complete its acquisition of 19 acres in the Allston Landing North site from CSX. The site on the north side of Cambridge Street is part of the university’s master plan for a 36-acre enterprise campus, next to a $1-billion science and engineering complex which won final BPDA approval in April.
