Blackbird
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- Feb 2, 2014
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"Here Shall Be A New Tourism District," and presto, the bulldozers start... but around here? I'm extremely skeptical.
Assembly? The Seaport?
"Here Shall Be A New Tourism District," and presto, the bulldozers start... but around here? I'm extremely skeptical.
Assembly? The Seaport?
That's a significant point about the dynamics of Metro Boston. Everett and Somerville are far more accepting of new developments, and in the case of Somerville, transit extensions (re: GLX) than are the snootier towns such as Cambridge, Brookline, Belmont, Arlington etc. Could be a future trend that the historically "dumpy" towns (Everett, Somerville, and Lynn) will pull ahead of the pack, and the more provincial snooty towns will fall behind and become mummified relics. All we need to accelerate this trend is to get BLX to Lynn and a decent LRT, or even a Silverline BRT, to Everett.
The Seaport was essentially just vacant surface parking lots, no? With extremely consolidated ownership (Fallon and McCourt, yes?). And just one item got built that could plausibly be described as touristy--the ICA (someone correct me if I'm mistaken). In that vein, do tourists really venture to Assembly? Yes, it's rather high-end malling, but--that's available in plenty of other areas in the central core, with lots more hotels.
Wynn had to spend a colossal sum on environmental remediation--and the net result was a massive casino that is nevertheless shoehorned into an area that is still overwhelmingly gritty/heavy industrial in use/atmosphere--both abutting, and within the larger lower Mystic context. Of course it made sense for him because he could anticipate a good ROI given the casino being approved... but how many more casinos are going to be approved in this neighborhood? So again, I'm extremely skeptical.
And keep an eye on both sides of the Mystic Riviera over the next several decades. The emerging shore of Charlestown/Somerville/Medford facing the emerging shore of Chelsea/Everett/Malden may become a very nice interface for the tens of thousands of scientists and lab workers who yearn to get housing in the area. Assembly/Wellington/Encore are just the opening salvos. Keep it going and take full advantage of the River for transpo, dining and entertaininment.
We’re also working on unit layouts and engineering in Sky Tower and we hope to start that sometime in 2023.