Image courtesy of Economic Development and Industrial Corp. of Boston
Massport will offer a portion of its marine terminal property in South Boston for development after receiving unsolicited interest in the site.
The agency will issue a request for information this summer, seeking proposals from developers. The 3-acre site, known as parcel 4, could accommodate up to 200,000 square feet of development in a 4-story building, Massport Chief Development Officer Andrew Hargens said.
“We think the time is right for an RFI to test the market and see what interest there is,” Hargens said at today’s board of directors’ meeting. “We have had a number of proactive calls from interested parties, so we think there is pretty strong interest for uses, from traditional seafood processing to cold storage.”
The project is contingent upon an amendment to Massport’s lease for the 40-acre MMT property, which is owned by the Economic Development and Industrial Corp. of Boston, and approval of the marine park master plan update by the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
The master plan update gives developers the option of including non-marine industrial uses on the upper stories of buildings, to subsidize and stabilize the marine tenants.
The changes were sought by the Boston Planning & Development Agency and Massport, which separately own portions of the former Army logistics base, following the decline of the marine economy in recent decades.
Massport is anxious to gauge interest in the property quickly and issue a formal request for proposals, with responses due by the end of the year, Hargens said.
“This two-step process will let us gauge demand and shape the RFP to maximize responses, given the interest we’ve seen, and also frankly the challenges in the development sector,” Hargens said.
One major development project on a Massport-owned property in the marine park was recently delayed because of shifts in the commercial real estate market.
In May, the BPDA approved The Davis Cos.’ request to delay construction of a 4-story, 327,000-square-foot addition to the 88 Black Falcon property because of declining life science demand.
Image courtesy of Massport
