Construction is underway on a 20-story luxury apartment building, rising just west of the Gilmore Bridge, that will include 355 units for new tenants ready for move-in in the spring of 2015.
The campus already houses two condo buildings with about 330 units, called Sierra and Tango, that are completely sold out.
Now, the master developer of the 44-acre campus is talking with potential life sciences and high-tech tenants to secure an anchor for the first of what HYM Investment Group expects will be multiple office buildings at the property across from the CambridgeSide Galleria shopping mall.
While he would not offer many details about the possible office tenant, Thomas O’Brien, founder and managing director of HYM, said he expects construction on the next property at the campus to start in about a year. The NorthPoint campus is permitted for about three million square feet of residential, allowing for about 3,000 units of housing over time, and two million square feet of commercial space.
The developer has redesigned the retail portion of the neighborhood HYM is attempting to create in an area that was once a railyard. The new concept has more of a town square feel to it, and it needs to be “unique and neighborhood-oriented,” O’Brien told Banker & Tradesman.
For the most part, residents she’s heard from are in support of the project, said Barbara Broussard, president of the East Cambridge Planning Team, comprising local residents and stakeholders.
“We’re hoping by the time it all gets built-out, we’ll have a farmers’ market and some nice ground-floor retail to connect the new community to the one that’s already established,” Broussard said.
Wait 10 More Years
That fully built-out state Broussard referenced will take about a decade to reach, O’Brien offered. That’s because the campus includes some 21 different development sites. In total, it will likely cost $2 billion of investment to finish the job.
“From a lot of people’s points of view, anything is better there than what we had. It was like a wasteland. They’ve worked very hard at it,” Broussard added. Her primary concern is that residents living in the planned housing will eschew onsite private parking for less expensive on-street parking. But Broussard lauded the development team for creating about five acres of parkland at the site. O’Brien said he plans for about another six acres of the NorthPoint campus to be parkland.
Part of the project’s success could hinge on a new Green Line station and extension – the MBTA is planning to replace the outdated and unappealing Lechmere station adjacent to NorthPoint. Work on the new station is underway and slated for completion in 2017, O’Brien said.
But delays from lawsuits and the Great Recession have plagued development of the campus. Work on the site first halted because of a legal battle between the site’s former owners. In 2007, Archon Group, Goldman Sachs real estate branch, was reportedly lined up to buy the site, but the deal crumbled. Then, the economy tanked and the project was put on the shelf.
However, in 2010, HYM joined with Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, which includes former Los Angeles Laker Earvin “Magic” Johnson, to restart planning and construction.
And while the fulfillment of the promise of NorthPoint – a new, mixed-use section of Cambridge where those with the means can live, work and play – might seem like a long time coming, city officials are just glad work has restarted at the site. Plus, the Green Line station work is likely to provide potential lab or office tenants with new confidence in the project. In the past, interested companies “were skittish” because of the holdup in the transit project, said Brian Murphy, the assistant city manager for community development. But now, with possible tenants having a greater comfort level, “I think it really is poised to pop,” he said.
“We’re incredibly excited about what’s happening over there,” Murphy added. “There are very few places in Cambridge with the wide-open possibilities for development that NorthPoint has.”
Email: jcronin@thewarrengroup.com
