Hood Park owners are seeking an anchor lease to kickstart construction of an office-lab tower at 10 Stack St. as part of a 1.1 million-square-foot expansion. Image courtesy of SMMA

Assembly Row and Cambridge Crossing are demonstrating how once-drab industrial parcels near the elevated decks of Interstate 93 can be reinvented as successful mixed-use developments. 

Developers are following a similar game plan at Charlestown’s Hood Park as they usher in the third act in the history of the 20-acre property. Following its 1990s conversion from dairy plant to office and industrial space, Hood Park is positioning itself to attract office and life science tenants at discounts to rents in nearby East Cambridge and downtown Boston. 

That’s caught the eye of suburban companies looking for a home near public transit, along with downtown tenants seeking rent relief, said Debra Gould, an executive managing director at Newmark Knight Frank who represents owners in the office and lab leasing. 

“We’ve seen a lot of tenants from downtown who are coming up on leases, and are facing a very different market as far as prices,” Gould said. 

The park contains three existing buildings dating back to the 1920s, including the former H.P. Hood headquarters at 500 Rutherford Ave. Surface parking lots toward the rear of Hood Park are approved for up to 1.1 million square feet of additional development including offices, labs and a hotel. 

Developer Catamount Management is seeking an anchor tenant to kick off the 365,000-square-foot office-lab tower known as 10 Stack St. Asking rents are in the $60s–per–square–foot range, triple-net, Gould said, at a time when asking Kendall Square lab rents have topped the $100–per–square–foot barrier. 

Building infrastructure is designed to accommodate up to 40 percent as lab space, said Mark Spaulding, a principal for architects SMMA. 

Designed for Expansion 

Hood Park faces competition from several other fully-permitted sites on the Orange Line north corridor, including office-lab parcels at Federal Realty’s Assembly Row and the Xmbly development on Somerville’s Middlesex Avenue by Cresset Group and Novaya Real Estate Ventures. 

For nearer-term availabilities, Catamount plans to convert 40,000 square feet of data center space into offices following the departure of TierPoint at 500 Rutherford Ave. 

Hood Park faces competition from several other fully-permitted sites on the Orange Line north corridor, including office-lab parcels at Federal Realty’s Assembly Row and the Xmbly development on Somerville’s Middlesex Avenue. 

Another 53,000 square feet of lab space is available at 100 Hood Park Drive, a unique seven-story parking garage and commercial building nearing completion that was designed with long-term expansion in mind. 

Architects SMMA designed the building to house 900 parking spaces above ground-floor retail and the second-story lab space, with potential to build up to an additional 6 stories of commercial space. And the parking levels eventually can be converted into office and lab space by removing alternate levels of the parking deck to create 18-foot floor-to-floor heights, Spaulding said. 

As master planner of the site, SMMA had to defuse neighborhood objections to building heights and opposition to a concert hall component which was eventually dropped from the final plans. It situated most of the taller buildings away from Rutherford Avenue and largely residential Charlestown. 

“In any neighborhood, people don’t like change,” Spaulding said. “We reassured them that particular view corridors wouldn’t be obstructed and we wouldn’t create a wall, even though we needed a lot more height.” 

With the arrival of Cambridge College and venture-backed Kendall Square startup Indigo AG, large chunks of the existing space in Hood Park have been filled. Photo courtesy of Wilson Architects

Seeking Kendall Square Transplants 

The arrivals of Cambridge College and venture capital-backed startup Indigo AG have largely filled up the three existing structures dating back to the 1920s, and nearly exhausted the park’s capacity. 

The former H.P. Hood headquarters at 500 Rutherford Ave. has been slowly converted from distribution space to office and flex uses for tenants including Indigo AG, a Kendall Square startup that’s grown into 93,000 square feet and 600 employees since relocating in 2016. The company received $250 million in venture capital funding for expansion in 2018, and has offices, labs, growing spaces and storage at the 500 Rutherford Ave. location. 

In permitting, developers cited Indigo AG’s continuing growth as a potential tenant for the new development, but no agreements are in place for its expansion at Hood Park. In a statement, Indigo AG spokeswoman Paula Sokolska said the company continues to expand in Boston, Memphis, Research Triangle Park in North Carolina and internationally. 

24-Hour Neighborhood Transition 

Steve Adams

Catamount considered a housing component essential to creating a more vibrant environment after business hours, culminating in last fall’s opening of the 177-unit Harvey. 

Designed by CBT Architects, the horseshoe-shaped complex surrounds an interior courtyard equipped with urban farming stations for residents, supplied by Somerville-based Green City Growers. Architects included high-end touches in the wood-framed building more likely to be found in luxury high-rises, including a 2-story lobby, robust soundproofing and equipping units with floor-to-ceiling windows along with protruding window bays to maximize views and natural light. Monthly rents for studios start at $2,500. 

“We expected that the twentysomething and low-30s demographic would be our target market and this neighborhood tends to be a lot more youthful. You’re a little bit of an urban pioneer to live here right now because it’s not as easily accessible as other parts of Charlestown, but it’s really vibrant and an interesting location,” said Ellen Perko, an associate principal at CBT.