Image courtesy of Stantec
The master developer of Somerville’s Union Square is expanding its reach in the neighborhood with a proposal for nearly 1 million square feet of commercial buildings on an industrial site wedged between the MBTA Green Line Extension and elevated McGrath Highway.
US2’s Gateway Innovation Center project would serve as a bridge between the ongoing development in Union Square and the emerging growth cluster in the Inner Belt.
A development team led by US2 proposes a pair of 16- and 12-story office-lab buildings totaling 980,000 square feet at 200 McGrath Highway, replacing a 3.1-acre industrial parcel primarily used for construction equipment storage.
“Situated at the gateway to Somerville, we believe the project will be the first step in transforming Union Square East into an economic engine for the city, while complementing the surrounding neighborhoods,” developers wrote in a submission to the Somerville Planning Board.
The project also includes improved pedestrian and bicycle connections to the MBTA Green Line, and will be designed to reflect the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s plans to replace the elevated McGrath Highway with an at-grade boulevard. Developers will create a new connector road across the site and plan to deed it to the city, according to a master plan special permit application.
The project would create approximately 3,000 permanent jobs, according to the application, and $20 million in community benefits including contributions to the city’s affordable housing trust. No housing is proposed on-site.
Capital Hall Partners initially submitted plans for a larger three-building project in 2020, including a hotel. US2 and Boston-based Spaulding & Slye Investments joined the ownership team this year.
In August, developers presented updated plans dropping the 330-room hotel from the project.
The two buildings would include 926,500 square feet of office-lab-R&D uses and 49,000 square feet of arts and creative space, along with 4,500 square feet of retail. An underground garage would include 588 parking spaces.
The updated plans increase open space on the site from 4,582 to 25,182 square feet, including a park at the corner of Medford Street and McGrath Highway.
As the city’s master developer for the Union Square redevelopment area, US2 is developing a 450-unit apartment tower and 194,000-square-foot office-lab building in the first phase of the 2.4 million-square-foot project project on 15 acres near the MBTA’s Union Square station.
