A 150-acre site at 75 Reed Road in Hudson has the most robust power capacity of any commercially-zoned property in Massachusetts, according to a MassEcon survey. Photo courtesy of National Development
The hilltop property in Hudson appears to have all of the ingredients a developer could ask for: a soon-to-be-blank slate totaling nearly 150 shovel-ready acres, proximity to Interstate 495 and the most robust power capacity at a commercial development site in Massachusetts.
National Development’s 75 Reed Road property represents a rare opportunity amid growing demand for big development sites serving emerging industries, particularly data centers, that require hundreds of acres and staggering power capacity. Massachusetts’ economic competitiveness hinges upon its ability to offer viable big sites with fast approvals, while demand for them intensifies, according to a recent MassEcon report.
“We see these requirements coming more often,” said Peter Abair, executive director of MassEcon. “The demand is there, and it will be there in the future. But we will lose opportunities unless we start to do some smart planning right now in terms of where we want to see these opportunities go.”
MassEcon is a public-private partnership that promotes Massachusetts as a place for businesses to grow or relocate, including maintenance of the ReadyMass 100 database of large development sites.
Since 2022, MassEcon has fielded 18 requests for sites over 100 acres that have robust power requirements suitable for clean energy companies and data center operators. Only two of the requirements are still active.
Lengthy permitting processes and long lead times for utilities to upgrade power capacity to sites prompt developers to go elsewhere, Abair said.
Beyond Scale, Speed to Market is Key
After gaining final control over the property this month, National Development is moving quickly to prepare 75 Reed Road for potential tenants.
Intel’s leaseback of the property expired May 1, and demolition of the three remaining buildings totaling over 700,000 square feet is taking place over the next six months, said Ed Marsteiner, National Development’s president.
Town officials are working with National Development on planning the future of the property, which is the largest single taxpaying parcel in Hudson, Planning and Community Development Director Kristina Johnson said.
A wide range of uses are permitted under Hudson’s industrial zoning, including traditional and advanced manufacturing, warehousing, biomanufacturing, R&D and data centers.
“The industrial zoning in the town is very liberal and flexible. There are not a lot of restrictions in terms of what is not allowed,” Johnson said.
Hudson Light & Power, the municipal utility, provides another financial incentive to power-hungry potential tenants, Marsteiner said: some of the lowest rates in the state, at 12 cents per kilowatt hour.
But even those advantages may not be enough to lure data center developers, many of which are seeking power capacity of 100 to 300 megawatts, Marsteiner said. The Hudson site has capacity of 48 megawatts.
After Atlanta-based Portman Industrial withdrew a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse proposal in 2022 amid neighborhood opposition, National Development acquired the property for $12 million and assumed the risks for permitting a future project.
CBRE, which represents National Development in marketing the property, has received inquiries from manufacturing, warehouse and data center companies, Marsteiner said.
“We generally believe the highest and best use of this site is industrial in nature, and strongly believe we’ll end up with users in those product ranges,” he said.
Steve Adams
‘Developer-Driven’ Process Hinders Upgrades
Clean energy and data storage users all require robust power capacity that only a handful of commercially-zoned sites in Massachusetts currently offer. Long lead times by utility companies to upgrade infrastructure to sites and slow permitting processes for development prevent Massachusetts from competing with other states, Abair said.
Insufficient water capacity – needed for cooling processes in energy-intensive operations – also hinders development of many sites outside of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority district.
“We’re not built out by any means, but a state-led collaboration needs to take place,” Abair said. “Right now the entire process in Massachusetts is developer-driven. And you can’t depend upon the development community to solve all of these problems.”
Beyond land and inexpensive, robust power, data center operators seek locations near the workforce with skills to operate them, said Mark Rosenshein, a partner at owner’s project manager Trademark Partners in Boston.
That points to opportunities at sites such as the Union Point redevelopment in South Weymouth and additional commercial development at Devens, the state-run business park in central Massachusetts.
“If you can amass a certain amount of acreage, it really is a cost question. You want to be as close to the urban center as you can for your staff, but not right next to residences, because they don’t want to be living next to these data centers,” Rosenshein said.
