Chelsea Infill and Small Developments

Why are you proud to be a middle-aged white man? I'm not implying you should be ashamed or anything, but why pride?
 
Ha, funny...yeah, in retrospect, "proud" is a bit excessive - that particular word was more of a knee jerk reaction to the snobbishness of Shepard's post. But I do like being in my late 40's...sure beats the obstacle course of my 20's and 30's!
 
Forgive me for lumping this in with Chelsea, but I'm not sure it warrants its own thread.

Old Everett candy factory a sweet spot for high-end housing

As Everett waits to find out if a resort casino will be located in the city, a $90 million project to convert the former Charleston Chew candy factory into 328 luxury apartments could become a sweet spot in the Greater Boston housing market, the state's top business official said Tuesday.

"It seems like this was a development just waiting to happen," said Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Gregory Bialecki. "It's probably less than 5 miles from downtown Boston, and it's accessible by all sorts of roadways and public transportation."

Developer Andy Montelli, a principal at Post Road Residential in Fairfield, Conn., predicts the complex will be a strong competitor to housing developments in Cambridge, Medford, and Somerville.

"It's going to be really hot housing," Montelli told Bialecki and other state and local officials. "It's going to be very high end."

Bialecki visited Everett on Tuesday as part of a nine-stop tour of development projects in urban communities north of Boston. Accompanied by Deputy Secretary Arthur Jemison, Bialecki already has visited the Boston neighborhoods of Charlestown and East Boston, along with Chelsea, Malden, Revere, and Winthrop.

They'll visit Somerville on Thursday and end the tour in Medford next Tuesday.

"The locations and the demographics of these communities make sense, and from our perspective, have a lot of opportunity for development growth," Bialecki said.

The secretary praised the work of local officials to encourage new growth in old urban areas.

"The municipal leaders in these places want things to happen," Bialecki said. " Massachusetts in the past had a reputation of being a tough place to get [development] done. But we've found that Everett, and other neighboring communities, don't have that attitude. They want more private investment."

In Everett, the biggest development proposal on the block is the $1.2 billion resort casino proposed by Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn. He is competing against other proposals at Suffolk Downs on the Revere/East Boston line, and a Foxwoods facility on vacant industrial land in Milford, for the one license the state's gambling commission is expected to award for Greater Boston in April, 2014.

Bialecki said a casino should stimulate, but not dominate, a local economy. "Wherever they are in the state, a casino is not going to singlehandedly change everything," he said in an interview. "You have to think of it as a catalyst for other economic opportunities."

Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria Jr., a strong supporter of the Wynn proposal, said the resort would help the city achieve its goal of redeveloping lower Broadway.

"There are a lot more empty buildings, particularly along the [railroad] bed, toward the east, that could be redeveloped," said DeMaria, who led Bialecki on the tour of the city.

In addition to the former Charleston Chew site, state officials also visited Night Shift Brewery, a craft beer maker on lower Broadway, and River's Edge, a mixed-use development shared with Malden and Medford.

The former Charleston Chew factory has stood vacant since it closed in 1985, after production moved to a Nabisco facility in Cambridge. A Boston developer proposed to turn it into the Charleston Lofts, 200 condominiums and artists/lofts, but the project stalled.

Now the Everett property will be named The Batch Yard - a nod to its legacy of chocolate making. The four-story factory, made of concrete, will get three additional floors. A total of 160 apartments will be located in the seven-story building, Montelli said.

"It will have a great roof deck," Montelli told Bialecki. "It will have awesome views of downtown" Boston.

The privately-financed development will include two other buildings that together will have 168 apartments. A parking garage will also be built. Parking spaces will be located under each of the three buildings, for a total of 500 spaces, Montelli said.

The first units are due to open in the spring of 2014. Studio, one, and two bedroom apartments will make up the bulk of the units, with about a dozen three-bedroom apartments, Montelli said.

The development's proximity to Boston and Cambridge, along with MBTA bus stops on Broadway, made the site a desirable investment, Montelli said.

"I know it's going to be successful, because we're next door to huge job centers," he said. "And we have a tremendous bus system right outside our front door."
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http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news...t_candy_factory_a_sweet_spot_for_housing.html
 
FBI building news...


http://www.chelsearecord.com/2013/0...ted-by-developer-as-offering-numerous-firsts/


FBI Building Touted by Developer as Offering Numerous ‘Firsts’
August 22, 2013
By Seth Daniel

A vague rendering of the 9-story proposed New England FBI building that would occupy a vacant lot next to Rt. 1 on Maple
Street. The City’s Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board will review plans on the building at a public meeting on Aug. 27th.
The developer of the proposed Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regional headquarters on Beech Street will tout the prestige and ‘firsts’ that the building will bring to Chelsea when they go before the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) and Planning Board this coming Tuesday, Aug. 27th.

In filings deposited at the City’s Planning Department, ACS Development principal Patricia Simboli said the proposed building would not only be the tallest building in Chelsea at 150 feet tall, but also would become one of the most notable landmarks for the City to those inside and outside Chelsea.

She wrote that approving the plans would lead to the tangible belief to anyone seeing the new building perched alongside Rt. 1 that Chelsea is absolutely a different place than it once was.



“The building will be home to the largest federal lease award in the history of the New England region,” read the filing. “It is a significant building for any community and will be the focus of much media attention, both during construction and once completed and occupied. It will offer several ‘firsts’ in the City of Chelsea, further supporting the belief and image that Chelsea is changing. Young people in Chelsea, residents, business community, City officials, and state and federal representatives can all take pride in the City of Chelsea for supporting and encouraging this significant project and lease award.”

Among the first detailed in the filing were:

•the first LEED Silver Certified office building

•the tallest building in Chelsea, surpassing the Broadway Glen residential tower on Broadway

•the first office building to offer below grade parking


The vacant lot where the proposed building would sit, a site now commonly used for parking at the MGH Chelsea facility.
•the first major office construction since 2001

•the first major office building designed and constructed specifically for the federal government

•the first time Chelsea has competed with Boston and succeeded in relocating a major federal agency

Additionally, Simboli stated that the FBI would be bringing a good bit of business to the hotels, restaurants and other businesses next to the proposed building – a building that is described as being a 24-hour a day operation.

“The new influx of employees will support the surrounding retail and banking facilities,” she wrote. “The tenant will attract travelers and guests for the hotels. It will also have a positive impact on the image of the City and encourage new office users, governmental and private, to consider Chesea as an office location.”

The details in the filing are somewhat vague, as the FBI isn’t allowed to file specific floor plans and office layouts due to security concerns. Also, nowhere in the filing does Simboli mention the FBI, though everyone knows the vague “federal tenant” being spoken about is the FBI.

ACS Development will retain ownership and maintenance responsibilities of the proposed building and land, and would enter into a 20-year lease with the FBI.

The building would be about 150-feet tall and will have nine stories – one story on the first floor for parking and eight floors of office layouts. There will also be one level of underground parking. The total building size is 240,000 sq. ft. on 5.1 acres of vacant land. There are 420 parking spaces designated on the plans, far exceeding the number required.

A traffic study showed that there would be an average increase of 1,456 trips per day in the area – with 206 in the morning peak hours and 197 in the afternoon peak hour.

Site improvements are predicted to be extensive and estimates for the work came in at $2.45 million. The most expensive piece of those costs will be to complete the large landscaping plan, which total $285,000.

The construction schedule looks to have design taking one year, site improvements taking 14 months, core construction 16 months and tenant fit-out at 10 months. The total construction period was estimated to take almost three years (32 months), pegging an opening for June 2016.

It was estimated that 400 construction jobs would be created in the project, and Simboli wrote that Chelsea residents are encouraged to apply for those jobs when, and if, the time comes.

The building will be situated closest to Everett Avenue with an entrance at the corner of Maple Street and Everett Avenue. The entrance will have high-security and those not passing muster will be sent packing in a special ‘turn-away’ driveway that exits on Everett Avenue.

That also points to the overall fact that the proposal is for a high-security law enforcement headquarters. While the building might be a point of pride for Chelsea, it won’t be a place where the red carpet is rolled out and tours are offered.

“There are no proposed public use areas designated within the confines of the project site, as such would violate the security requirements of the tenant,” read the filing. “The proposed tenant occupancy of the building and use of the site are not conducive to any portion of the site becoming common or public land.”

The joint ZBA/Planning Board meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on Aug. 27th.
 
Anyone know what's going on at the corner of Beech and Carter St, across from the school?
 
danielp said:
FBI building news...


http://www.chelsearecord.com/2013/0...ted-by-developer-as-offering-numerous-firsts/


FBI Building Touted by Developer as Offering Numerous ‘Firsts’
August 22, 2013
By Seth Daniel

A vague rendering of the 9-story proposed New England FBI building that would occupy a vacant lot next to Rt. 1 on Maple
Street........... She wrote that approving the plans would lead to the tangible belief to anyone seeing the new building perched alongside Rt. 1 that Chelsea is absolutely a different place than it once was....... “It is a significant building for any community and will be the focus of much media attention, both during construction and once completed and occupied.......Additionally, Simboli stated that the FBI would be bringing a good bit of business to the hotels, restaurants and other businesses next to the proposed building – a building that is described as being a 24-hour a day operation.....The details in the filing are somewhat vague, as the FBI isn’t allowed to file specific floor plans and office layouts due to security concerns. Also, nowhere in the filing does Simboli mention the FBI, though everyone knows the vague “federal tenant” being spoken about is the FBI.....The building would be about 150-feet tall and will have nine stories – one story on the first floor for parking and eight floors of office layouts. There will also be one level of underground parking. The total building size is 240,000 sq. ft. on 5.1 acres of vacant land. There are 420 parking spaces designated on the plans, far exceeding the number required.....Site improvements are predicted to be extensive and estimates for the work came in at $2.45 million. The most expensive piece of those costs will be to complete the large landscaping plan, which total $285,000.......The construction schedule looks to have design taking one year, site improvements taking 14 months, core construction 16 months and tenant fit-out at 10 months. The total construction period was estimated to take almost three years (32 months), pegging an opening for June 2016....The building will be situated closest to Everett Avenue with an entrance at the corner of Maple Street and Everett Avenue. The entrance will have high-security and those not passing muster will be sent packing in a special ‘turn-away’ driveway that exits on Everett Avenue......hat also points to the overall fact that the proposal is for a high-security law enforcement headquarters. While the building might be a point of pride for Chelsea, it won’t be a place where the red carpet is rolled out and tours are offered.....“There are no proposed public use areas designated within the confines of the project site, as such would violate the security requirements of the tenant,” read the filing. “The proposed tenant occupancy of the building and use of the site are not conducive to any portion of the site becoming common or public land.”

The joint ZBA/Planning Board meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on Aug. 27th.
Click to expand...

I presume it was approved and the construction of the underground works supporting the surface "landscaping" can begin --- If it is anything like the "landscaping" associated with the Federal Reserve Bank -- the "landscaping" can stop a dump truck moving at 40 mph
 
didn't even think it would be tied with the FBI building since its like a block away.
 
Just a few of the updates from Jay Ash:

1. Governor Deval Patrick, Wednesday, 10/30 at 10a in the lobby of the Massport Garage (270 Central Avenue) to make several major announcements - should be a "game changing" day here in Chelsea.

He will be making a major speech and announcing several local and regional projects. The trip is official billed as “Announcements about Investments for Community Growth and Opportunity North of Boston.” Could this be about an infrastructure grant to support our burgeoning economic development, an official announcement about the future of the Silver Line, a follow-up on my conversations with the Administration about waterfront development or another open space project approved? Any one of them would be great, and the Silver Line would be a game-changer!

6. Had an international million/billionaire in town last week looking at Forbes. We have so much good going on that word is travelling international!

7. Among the good word travelling is the Eastern Minerals Park, which is soon to be complete. It is so spectacular that spectacular can’t describe it.

10. Two new hotel projects are awaiting work by others to prepare the lots for construction. I estimate that each hotel will bring in approximately $800k a year in revenue
 
Governor announced $20 million for a new commuter rail station in Chelsea to support the Silver Line Gateway. Anyone seen a plan for this?
 
Semass said:
Governor announced $20 million for a new commuter rail station in Chelsea to support the Silver Line Gateway. Anyone seen a plan for this?
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No. But the price tag and layout of the area would suggest something relatively prefab and akin to most modern CR station specs. High platforms with short incline down to street level at the crossing, platform lengthening to the east end to round it up to the 800 ft. standard platform length (which Newburyport/Rockport needs with how car-hungry those trains are getting), full lighting, better shelters and seating than that one tiny inbound-only hut that exists today, some crosswalk improvements and streetside accessibility touches, and maybe a badly needed adjacent bus shelter for the 112 and 114. The only frill that would be a valuable addition is a second egress on the far end ramping up to the Washington Ave. overpass for catching the 111, which you can't reach from the Arlington/6th side. That would be the finishing touch making it a quite very functional local stop.


Any UR or SL-Chelsea station would be added on as land clearing on the slack space behind the outbound platform, with the power line poles having to be moved first. Given that the only way to fit that in the space is to lock the CR platforms in their current position at current width, they don't have to do anything special now to provision for it later. It would get grafted on later, and the fence backstopping the outbound high platform would get taken down for going cross-platform. Unless mission creep and monument building starts making this way more complicated than it has to be, it shouldn't need any more than the basics you'd find at any humdrum Old Colony-spec station.


If they fix this they're a Swampscott platform-raising away from being able to use the auto-door coaches through Beverly before switching off on the branches, which will make mainline dwell times a lot crisper. Riverworks is front-door only boarding as a flag stop, so it doesn't impact that. Swampscott's a delicate modification though making the historic station building on the outbound side interface with a full-high. That's been done many times before, but it's not a quickie job. Hopefully they do see enough value in bringing the auto doors to the Eastern Route to grease the skids for a retrofit, because that's a very small hangup preventing their use.
 
So F-Line, is the CR/SL station going in between Spruce & Everett next to the FBI building or behind the Market Basket. Regardless, hopefully the T adjusts the 112 timing a little bit more, in the mornings it seems to always make the connection at the CR about 5 minutes after the train has gone by.
 
Silver Line passengers will still have to deal with traffic going from the Aquarium up and over into the Seaport District ... expect lots of traffic and delays.

PS. That Charleston Chew project couldn't be any closer to the train tracks. It's so close I can reach out and kiss my wife goodbye as I pass by on my way to work.
 
ChelseaDweller said:
So F-Line, is the CR/SL station going in between Spruce & Everett next to the FBI building or behind the Market Basket. Regardless, hopefully the T adjusts the 112 timing a little bit more, in the mornings it seems to always make the connection at the CR about 5 minutes after the train has gone by.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's moving...and, god, I hope they aren't thinking of that. That Everett-Spruce block is only 600 ft. wide. A 6-car train is ~580 ft. (510 ft. in coaches + 56-68 ft. for the locomotive). A 7-car train will overhang one of the grade crossings and cannot open all doors, and any train occupying the station will have gates down on both streets for the entire duration of the station stop. And keep in mind this doesn't factor in how long the ramps down from the high platforms to the street are and whether that shortens the platforms further. The Eastern Route definitely is crowded enough to suck up 6 cars at rush hour, and is the northside's leading candidate for needing 7 cars in the future like Worcester and Providence routinely use at crush load. It would be a guaranteed carpocalypse to put the station there without grade separating Everett Ave. on a bridge (which isn't funded here), it would actively harm train dwells to shorten the platform, and there are obvious safety issues here with only tiny margin to fit the train between crossings and likely inability to do >6 cars because the rear car would be precariously overhanging a crossing (a very dangerous one on the Everett side) at a dead stop while passengers are up and moving around.


The SL-Chelsea plan is supposed to have a station at the Market Basket, but that would be +1 stops after the CR station according to the renderings circulated in the SL public meetings weeks ago. So I'm pretty sure that means the stop is staying put where there's lots of room to grow, 3 bus routes to transfer to if they can get a Washington Ave. egress, and a low-volume intersection at the grade crossing that's considerably safer and less disruptive than messing with the Everett or Spruce crossings. I doubt they want to mess with it given how badly compromised the 6th-Spruce and Spruce-Everett blocks are between crossings.
 
Unless Mass Dot has a horrible blog post, they say the CR station is being combined with the SL station on Everett Ave. So looks like they are moving it. If it stayed where it was I couldn't see the bus way fitting behind a full high platform near Washington Ave stretch.
 
ChelseaDweller said:
Unless Mass Dot has a horrible blog post, they say the CR station is being combined with the SL station on Everett Ave. So looks like they are moving it. If it stayed where it was I couldn't see the bus way fitting behind a full high platform near Washington Ave stretch.
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Here's the SL-Chelsea project page with all the design alternatives: http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/silverlinegateway/ProjectStatus.aspx.

All of them keep the station at its current location. I read the blog post and where it named the new stations, then it gave the same project page URL as above. So I think it's pretty safe to conclude that they just spaced on mentioning the existing station in the blog post in their enthusiasm for promoting the new ones. Honest mistake. If the CR station was really moving they would've updated the project page in concert with the Gov.'s announcement. Those public meetings were, after all, only a month or two ago.


So, no worries. The CR station gets all the breathing room of a stock CR station. If any of the SL permutations happen you get the current station AND the Everett Ave. stop as part of the package. And they don't screw with the commuter rail doing compromised (or potentially dangerous) squeezes between grade crossings.


They have many issues with tight squeezes to resolve before they can build that busway, which is why I think the surface option on the Chelsea side of the bridge is much safer for getting service initiated fast or as an interim/route-priming step while they figure out the busway complexities. And, honestly, moving all those utility poles away from the busway side of the ROW is going to be one of those thorny issues that takes a long time to resolve because where would they go except closer to residences that don't want them any closer? The cost is going to bloat substantially and delays get racked up big as they do the engineering analysis, because busway next to tracks is so hard to pull off as CT is ruefully finding out. The Urban Ring BRT was expensive as all hell for a good reason.



$20M is right in-line with a full-spec CR station if you're using the Old Colony intermediates as a reference design. Don't get too wrapped up in the state's monument-building addiction here or the lavishness of those Silver Line surface stop renderings that have to get busted down to size for it to ever be built. A full-regulation CR station here with streetside accessibility touches and bus access at both the 6th/Arlington and Washington ends is a hell of a good deal. That current stop is very spartan, poorly lit, and unsheltered. And look...they couldn't even be arsed to remove severed Track #3 that hasn't been used in a half-century...it's sitting there buried in the outbound platform like a decoy grade crossing. Who does that??? Easily one of the sorriest slabs of platform inside 128 along with the Newton stops. The patronage is going to go up a lot just having a professional-looking, fully-equipped equivalent to all the others upstream.
 
As I posted in the other thread, Boston Globe story names the station location as in that 1200-foot stretch behind Market Basket. Plenty of room for full-highs with ramps to both streets and the Mall - way better than current location.

MassDOT is terrible about its websites other than the official blog. Updates often appear months late; some projects like Yawkey don't even get pages. From what I hear, their IT staff makes updating anything a royal pain. So don't take the non-update there as a sign of anything.
 
The EGE said:
As I posted in the other thread, Boston Globe story names the station location as in that 1200-foot stretch behind Market Basket. Plenty of room for full-highs with ramps to both streets and the Mall - way better than current location.

MassDOT is terrible about its websites other than the official blog. Updates often appear months late; some projects like Yawkey don't even get pages. From what I hear, their IT staff makes updating anything a royal pain. So don't take the non-update there as a sign of anything.
Click to expand...

I just saw that. I'll try not to keep simulcasting my posts, too, between both threads but while the space is there on that side locking up the Everett Ave. grade crossing gates-down for the duration of every train stop is a carpocalypse on every headway. It just can't be done without crossing elimination, and I don't see where the money's going to come from when that's a laughably low figure for the busway. Do the elimination and the station relocation works like a charm...but that's a project dependency. And doubly so if buses are going to be snaking along this crossing (ConnDOT hasn't even figured out on its rail-with-busway how to integrate RR movements and busway movements inside the footprint of the same set of gates). When Chelsea sees the traffic modeling on Everett and level-of-service degradation within X blocks in every direction around the gates they are going to flip their shit in public comment. The howls about that are a project-delayer right off the bat if they don't have a full solve for it already in design. With so many bad crossings there the main advantage of the current station is that it's at a very light-traffic neighborhood intersection where the gates cause no car congestion ripple effects.
 
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