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Image courtesy of Gensler
Somerville’s Brickbottom is joining the ranks of local neighborhoods shedding their industrial pasts to accommodate life science expansion, spurring redevelopment of a former warehouse property as a new 200,000-square-foot lab complex.
As state officials celebrated the start of service on the MBTA Green Line Extension last week, construction crews were already beginning the early stages of 100 Chestnut, a New York developer’s life science project that could set the tone for future development in Brickbottom.
“100 Chestnut is the beginning of a number of projects that are envisioned in Brickbottom, and the pace is certainly exciting in terms of market demand,” said Doug Gensler, principal and co-managing director at Gensler Boston, which designed by two-building complex.
Spanning 47 acres in Somerville’s southeastern section, Brickbottom and its history have long been tied to rail expansion. Railroads acquired portions of the once-rural neighborhood in the 19th century, and the neighborhood became the home to a mental hospital, slaughterhouses, a grocery warehouse and dense residential development. Construction of the elevated McGrath Highway in the early 20th century created a new barrier between the neighborhood and nearby Union Square, and traditional residential uses declined.
Now the MBTA Green Line Extension, which will include an East Somerville station on nearby Joy Street, appears to be catalyzing the next phase of development. The neighborhood also is included in a federal Opportunity Zone, which gives developers tax breaks on property improvements.
Developer North River Leerink received Somerville planning board approval last fall for the by-right project, which includes a pair of connected four-story office-lab buildings with 60,000-square-foot floor plates. Architects Gensler emphasized employee wellness in the designs with outdoor terraces, locker rooms and showers and a four-story connecting stairway. The ground floor will include restaurant and art gallery space, and completion is scheduled for spring 2023.
Along with its proximity to the new East Somerville station, 100 Chestnut parallels the Somerville’s community path which is being extended to Cambridge’s Lechmere station.
Somerville officials anticipate the neighborhood will continue to attract commercial investment are in the midst of a planning study that could clear the way for additional development, while preserving some of the existing uses such as artist live-work space and improving pedestrian and bicycle networks and connections to Union Square and Boston-Cambridge.
“That area has been looked at as a transformational zone within the city of Somerville to capitalize on the enormous investment and take advantages of the Opportunity Zone,” Gensler said. “It’s a really unique opportunity to turn it into a mixed-use neighborhood.”
