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Image courtesy of Henning Larsen and Studio Gang
It wasn’t supposed to be this difficult to push the first part of Harvard University’s new Enterprise Research Campus across the finish line.
Harvard and its private development partner, Tishman Speyer, presented a revised proposal for the first phase last fall, bringing 900,000 square feet of Kendall Square-style life science buildings and multifamily housing to a 7-acre site on Western Avenue.
Among the changes: A larger percentage of affordable housing; a redesigned swath of open space – known as “Project Greenway” – running through the heart of the site; fewer surface parking spaces. The discussion among community members and Boston Planning & Development Agency staff turned to a potential vote by the agency’s board in February.
“You know what? Tishman Speyer wants to be in this neighborhood,” said Michelle Adams, senior managing director for the New York developer. “We’re not going to hide it. We want to be with all of you. We want this project to move forward.”
Six months later, approval appears no closer. A grassroots group formed last summer is pushing back against developers, and receiving support from local elected officials. Among their demands: a 33 percent income-restricted housing component, the inclusion of condominiums as well as apartments and funding for a community land trust to buy and preserve existing housing stock in the neighborhood.
“Harvard needs to come to the table,” said Kevin Caragee, a founding member and organizer of the Coalition for a Just Allston + Brighton (CJAB). “This is a for-profit campus and business model. We’re not against them making money and partnering with biotech firms, but we want an urban community built. We don’t want an investment district that benefits Harvard.”
Advisory Group Unimpressed with Changes
In the latest David vs. Goliath skirmish between Harvard and Allston, the underdog has worked out a stalemate. Housing is a key sticking point.
Harvard proposes 263,500 square feet of housing in the first phase of the Enterprise Research Campus, along with 440,000 square feet of office-lab space and a 196,500-square-foot hotel and conference facility known as the “Treehouse.” In an amendment to its 2019 proposal last fall, Harvard increased the affordable housing component from 13 to 17 percent.
Before the changes were submitted, a group of residents had begun organizing in reaction to the neighborhood’s shrinking housing affordability and the effects of Harvard’s future development. The university owns approximately 170 acres in Allston, stretching from the Charles River to Massachusetts Turnpike, comprising a third of the neighborhood.
The Coalition for a Justice Allston + Brighton now counts 40 community groups and nonprofits as members, and attracted City Councilor Liz Breadon and state Reps. Kevin Honan and Michael Moran to an anti-ERC roadside protest in mid-March. The organization wants the Harvard-Tishman venture to set aside at least 33 percent of the housing units for income-restricted housing: nearly three times the city’s current minimum and 13 percent higher than Mayor Michelle Wu’s stated citywide goal.
The new level of affordability merely brings Harvard’s proposal in line with many of the recent developments in Allston, noted Caragee, a Suffolk University professor and Allston resident. Since 2020, six developments have been approved in Allston-Brighton with higher affordability minimums than 17 percent. They include projects by National Development, The Davis Cos., Anchor Line Partners and King Street Properties’ Nexus project, which will be built across the street from the Harvard site.
Another cornerstone of the coalition’s demands: for the developers to contribute to creation of a community land trust, funded with an upfront payment and percentage of annual profits from the Tishman Speyer ground lease, which would acquire local properties to maintain affordability.
The Harvard Allston Task Force, an advisory group created during the Menino administration in the 1990s to oversee the university’s growth in Boston, hasn’t met with Harvard and Tishman representatives since December. No public meetings with any BPDA entities have taken place since late February.
“We are all just in a holding space right now,” task force member Cindy Marchando said. “Harvard picks and chooses what they want to respond to. It is really like a slap in the face. The task force has been adamant that we want a response one way or the other.”
The most recent indication of Harvard’s intentions came in a Feb. 23 letter from Executive Vice President Katie Lapp to the task force and elected officials. In the letter, Lapp said 20 percent of all housing units in the entire 40-acre project will be income-restricted.
Harvard also committed to a planning process that encompasses not only future phases of the 40-acre research campus, but its plans for the Beacon Yards development that will be built on Harvard-owned land near the Massachusetts Turnpike, according to the letter.
But the university has not indicated how many housing units will be built overall, Marchando said.
New Faces in Key Roles
Personnel changes also factor into the delays. Wu last month hired a new chief of planning, James Arthur Jemison II, who will reshape the city’s development reviews, although Jemison has indicated that projects already in the pipeline will not be subject to different standards for approval.
Tom Glynn, CEO of Harvard Allston Land Co., stepped down last June and was just replaced in April by Carl Rodrigues, a Leominster native and Tufts University graduate who most
Steve Adams
recently was chief operating officer of the New York City Economic Development Corp.
In a statement, Lapp described Rodrigues as a “a superbly talented force in the housing and economic development field, who has a keen understanding of the value of community and the importance of fostering collaboration along with diversity, equity, and inclusivity in neighborhoods and cities.”
Tishman Speyer declined to comment.
Allston elected officials issued a joint statement last week saying they want the Enterprise Research Campus to provide housing for diverse income levels.
“As Harvard develops its landholdings in Allston and North Brighton for commercial and residential use, we support Allston-Brighton residents who want to share in Harvard’s prosperity, and who want to contribute ideas to Harvard’s planning for greater levels of environmental sustainability, affordable housing, open space in perpetuity, and for innovative and resilient approaches to transportation,” said the statement signed by Councilor Breadon and state Reps. Moran and Honan.
