City planners in Cambridge are already keeping a weather eye on their western and southern flanks, with the Route 128 tech belt and Boston’s Seaport vying for the region’s high-tech firms.

Now, Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone is hoping his neighbors will soon have to watch their back.

With the heyday of the Winter Hill gang long past, in recent years Somerville has experienced a boomlet of restaurants and nightlife around Davis and Union Squares. But even as its reputation was cleaning up, it population was going down: Though it’s still one of the most densely populated cities in New England, over the past decade Somerville is one of the few cities in the commonwealth that have seen a shrinking population, declining 2.2 percent between 2000 and 2010 according to the U.S. Census.

Next Big Thing?

That may be changing, with two huge development projects getting underway. On the former Max Pac site, where development plans were first filed in 2004, a 199-unit, $52.5 million project renamed Maxwell’s Green is set to break ground later this month. And the huge Assembly Square redevelopment – a project more than 15 years in the making – is showing some signs of life.

In a special meeting called earlier this month, Curtatone succeeded in winning approval for the city to issue a special $25 million bond to help pay for the development, something he argued was necessary to get the project off the ground. Federal Realty Investment Trust Boston, the lead developer on the project, hopes to “commence construction before year end,” said President Don Briggs. Last week, the MBTA began accepting bids to begin construction of the dedicated Orange Line station to be built at the site.

Back in the mid-1990s, as neighboring Cambridge was developing its reputation as a biotech Mecca, Somerville was struggling. Curtatone is passionate about making sure future opportunities are not missed.

“We got jumped over in that last wave, because we did not prepare,” he said, tapping a table for emphasis. “We got what we deserved, which was nothing. But we’re setting the table, and we’re going to [be able] to compete with anyone, and say, ‘This is where you want to be. This is the next address in the metro core.’ There are no other development opportunities like you have here – from Assembly, even through Sullivan which is on our border, and Brickbottom, Union Square and Boynton Yards – they’re right here. And to do that we need to really approach it in the framework we laid out.”

Starting in 2007, the city completed large scale rezoning actions in several commercial districts, doubling the allowable height in the Boynton Yards area near Union Square from 50 feet to 100, while incentivizing pedestrian-friendly and green development. Plans include moving some city offices to the area in order to bring more people to the district during the day. Moves like this, the mayor says, have awakened interest.

“Developers are saying, ‘We’re looking at Somerville,’” Curtatone said. “Standard and Poor’s took a look at that plan and raised our bond rating.”

‘A Better Product’

But brokers say Somerville may not quite be there yet, pointing out that Somerville competes with sites in Boston and Cambridge with similar construction costs – high land prices, union labor – but which already have established enclaves of research and development and biotech. An area like the Brickbottom, when seeking to attract developers, will have to compete not only with the further-along (if long delayed) Northpoint complex in Cambridge, but also with plenty of fully-built out space: The exodus of Vertex for Boston’s Fan Pier frees up more than 500,000 square feet in Cambridge. That move will also create an anchor point in the Fort Point Channel, which will go a long way toward making that area attractive to similar companies, brokers point out.

In addition, a lot of Somerville’s developable area, including the Assembly Square site, is in East Somerville, nipped off from the rest of the city by Interstate 93, with more sprawling industrial sites and fewer walkable amenities that help make a site attractive to a high-tech workforce.

But developers say that despite the challenges they still see opportunities in the city.

“The approvals process is certainly arduous and layered, but it ought to be,” said Kyle Warwick, a principal at Davis Square Partners, who sponsored the Max Pac site. “It does produce a better product. The countless community meetings, the countless public hearings, the long process, does produce a better product…. We would love to do more in Somerville, and we’re actively looking for more sites in Somerville to do mixed-use development.”

Briggs admitted “there has to be some improvements in the fundamentals” before his firm can build all the office space Curtatone is hoping will improve the city’s commercial tax base. But he did suggest that “the current market is very favorable for multifamily, and that’s reflected in what our first phase is coming out of the ground.”

Residential projects like Maxwell’s Green may help set the table. “When it comes to the next economic upturn, we’re going to be ready,” Curtatone told Banker & Tradesman. “We’re going to be successful. There’s no doubt in my mind.”