A developer hopes to break ground within a year on a project that would reshape 10 acres next to Boston’s South Bay Center into a mixed-use complex including apartments, retail shops, restaurants and a hotel.
South Bay Town Center is Columbia, South Carolina-based Edens’ vision for a new neighborhood with five buildings replacing a mix of commercial and industrial properties including the Aggregate Concrete plant. Taking their place would be 113,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a 12-screen cinema, 475 apartments and a 130-room hotel.
Although Edens compares the project’s retail experience to Harvard Square in Cambridge, a more recent parallel can be found in Somerville’s Assembly Square. Much as Federal Realty redeveloped 56 acres there into a mixed-use complex next to Assembly Marketplace, its big-box retail center, Edens plans a pedestrian-oriented development next to the South Bay Center, which it owns.
The development will have entrances on Massachusetts Avenue, Southhampton Street and from the South Bay Center, according to a project filing submitted last week to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). The elimination of the industrial users will mean 100-plus trucks per day will be removed from local streets. The project would generate 6,600 new weekday vehicle trips, including 504 during the evening rush hour.
Edens bills the new project as a transit-friendly development because of its proximity to the MBTA’s Newmarket commuter rail and Andrew Square subway stations, and said it will improve pedestrian connections between the South Bay Center to Newmarket Station. At the same time, the project will include 1,066 parking spaces, including 919 in three garages built with retail space and residences wrapped around them.
The heart of the project is the urban streetscape, designed to create an “exciting urban context” in contrast to the adjacent big-box center, with outdoor dining and transparent storefronts, and streets lined with shops, cafés and apartment stoops, according to the project filing. The plans are subject to a large project review by the BRA.
