HYM Investment Group won a city competition for Roxbury’s parcel P3 with a plan for 700,000 square feet of life science space, 45,000 square feet of retail space with preference for local and minority-owned businesses, 144 income-restricted condominiums and 164 affordable apartments. Image courtesy of HYM Investment Group and MyCAP

Tom O’Brien is not shy about taking on challenging projects.

The one-time City Hall planning chief turned developer is fresh off a big win with his One Congress office tower.

O’Brien, CEO of HYM Investment Group, recently held a grand opening for the latest piece of his Bulfinch Crossing development, which is now fully leased – no small accomplishment given what has happened to the downtown Boston office market.

He’s also immersed in an ambitious plan to redevelop Suffolk Downs, with the first residential building under construction there.

Now O’Brien faces another potentially daunting endeavor, as he pushes ahead with plans for a large lab and housing complex just outside Roxbury’s Nubian Square even amid signs that appetite for new lab space has cooled.

O’Brien’s HYM and its local partner, My City at Peace, is gearing up to officially file plans with City Hall for their planned life sciences and residential complex at the long-vacant parcel P3 site across from Boston Police headquarters, a star-crossed lot that has seen previous development efforts sputter over the years.

The filing, expected to take place in January, will mark the first step in the project review process by the Boston Planning & Development Agency, which could take anywhere from a 12 to 18 months.

That could put the project in line for a groundbreaking in 2025, but a lot will depend on the lab market and the appetite for risk on part of investors and lenders, who have been pulling in their horns as of late amid the rise in interest rates and other jitters.

Not One to Shy from a Challenge

But this is far from O’Brien’s first rodeo when it comes to taking on projects with baggage of one sort or another.

Maybe the most prominent example in that regard was NorthPoint, which had been stalled for years when O’Brien and HYM teamed up with the Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds in 2011 to acquire the Cambridge megaproject.

O’Brien and HYM succeeded in getting the project back on track and under construction before selling it to DivcoWest in 2015, who subsequently rebranded the site “Cambridge Crossing.”

“People doubted us on NorthPoint, they doubled us at Bulfinch Crossing – and now that’s the headquarters for State Street – and they doubted us on New Balance,” O’Brien said. “We are used to being doubted. We like being the underdog.”

The BPDA chose HYM and My City at Peace to redevelop the 7.7-acre site last fall, the largest property controlled by the agency and the largest single vacant lot in Roxbury.

HYM and its partner have spent the last several months putting together the voluminous paperwork involved with filing a project proposal for review by city development officials.

However, the upcoming filing by HYM and My City at Peace comes amid as the lab market has gone from red hot to tepid.

Lab vacancy rates are now headed towards the 20 percent mark, while rents are falling as well, with a spate of layoffs by local biotech and life sciences companies.

And while overall economic growth continues apace both nationally and in the Boston area, the real estate sector as a whole faces conditions right now akin to a recession.

Better Odds than Meet the Eye

Yet despite the retrenchment, the life sciences remain the leading growth engine for the Greater Boston economy, and the sector’s long-term future in our region looks bright.

“Boston and Cambridge remain the center of the life sciences market worldwide,” O’Brien noted.

Location is also key here.

After all, we are not talking about the Natick Mall, where The Bulfinch Cos. recently jettisoned plans to turn an old Neiman Marcus store into labs and will now be building pickleball courts instead.

Nubian Square – and HYM’s P3 site – also have the advantage of being near the Longwood Medical Area, a growing hub for the lab and life sciences industry.

The commercial heart of Roxbury, Nubian is on the rise again, with a number of development plans taking shape.

Scott Van Voorhis

And the project will give life sciences companies the opportunity to do good while doing well, with the chance to tap local talent and provide opportunity and jobs for people of color in a section of the city overlooked for decades.

It also has the potential to break a jinx of sorts on the P3 site, which a previous developer spent years trying to develop a project that would feature a mix of housing, large-format retail and the museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists.

A previous governor and mayor both tried mightily to land an anchor tenant for the site, too, but just couldn’t pull it off.

But, that was then and this is now.

And O’Brien is bullish both on Nubian Square and on the future of Greater Boston as a whole.

“This is my third or fourth recession, and every time Boston goes into a recession, we come out of it in a strong way,” O’Brien noted.

I wouldn’t bet against either O’Brien or Nubian Square.

Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.

Correction: 8:45 a.m. Oct. 30, 2023: An earlier version of this column inaccurately described My City at Peace’s tax status. It is a for-profit entity.