Weston infill and small developments

This is why we need min lot size reform; 3A was a good starting point, but it's not how you'd get to small lot houses. Townhouses combined with apt's do fit the bill for it.
 
bankerandtradesman.com

Judge Backs Developer in 'Weston Whopper' Project

A Middlesex Superior Court judge supported The Hanover Co.’s seven-year-long attempt to build a 180-unit apartment complex in Weston.
bankerandtradesman.com bankerandtradesman.com
A Middlesex Superior Court judge supported developers’ seven-year-long attempt to build a 180-unit apartment complex in Weston in a ruling Tuesday.
Judge John Fraser affirmed the state Housing Appeals Committee’s 2025 decision issuing a comprehensive permit for the 4-story building at 518 South Ave. under Chapter 40B, the state’s affordable housing zoning law.
[...]
Houston-based Hanover Co. initially proposed the project on the 9.5-acre parcel in 2019. Weston’s ZBA rejected the project in 2021, stating it violated the town’s stormwater bylaw. Opponents objecting to the project posted yard signs decrying the “Weston Whopper” and its effects on traffic and the environment.
The developer challenged the ZBA decision at the state Housing Appeals Committee (HAC), which reviews local decisions on Chapter 40B projects. In January 2025, the HAC instructed the town to issue a building permit “without undue delay” after ruling that the region’s need for affordable housing outweighed the town’s arguments.
Year-to-date through May, the median single-family sales price in Weston was more than $2.4 million, according to data compiled by The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. In February 2025, the ZBA and a group of six opponents filed lawsuits in Superior Court seeking to overturn the HAC decision.
In this week’s 16-page decision, Fraser rejected opponents’ arguments.
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www.firstalert4.com

Panera plans to move headquarters from St. Louis area to Boston suburb, internal memo shows

Panera will be moving its headquarters to the metro Boston area next year, an internal memo shows.
www.firstalert4.com www.firstalert4.com
Panera Bread plans to move its headquarters from the St. Louis area to Weston, Massachusetts, in the Metro Boston area, according to an internal memo obtained by First Alert 4 Investigates.
CEO Paul Carbone informed all support center team members of the plan in a memo dated July 27, 2026. Staff were also told of the move on a call with Carbone Monday morning. Carbone has been with the company since 2023 and has ties to the Boston area.
In the memo, Carbone wrote that the new headquarters in Weston is set to open in July 2027. He said the move is part of the company’s transformation strategy, called Panera RISE.
“We will maintain a St. Louis support center; however, we will soon relocate many St. Louis Support Center and remote team roles to the new headquarters in Weston,” Carbone wrote. “Multiple factors were carefully considered to determine which roles would relocate and we understand the personal and professional impact this may have.”
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But... Weston?

(Other than the CEO is moving there of course, and most of the jobs that were in St Louis are going to be offshored or AI'd)
 
Maybe they can pick up Biogen’s former Weston HQ, which was closer to their then-CEO.
 
jklo said:
But... Weston?

(Other than the CEO is moving there of course, and most of the jobs that were in St Louis are going to be offshored or AI'd)
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To be fair, the current CEO of Panera already works here - they have an office in Newton - I basically read it along the lines of they're moving the C-suite and executive team to join him, but as far as I can tell... Their C suite already doesn't work out of St. Louis. The dude was CFO before he was CEO, and he never moved to St. Louis; a cursory look at the C suite on LinkedIn appears to indicate they're scattered around the country. https://www.thedaviscompanies.com/panera-bread-opening-offices-culinary-center-in-west-newton/
RandomWalk said:
Maybe they can pick up Biogen’s former Weston HQ, which was closer to their then-CEO.
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I have to assume they're going to; it's Weston, there's not exactly a plethora of commerical buildings. The only other possibility is Riverside Labs, but, that's obviously a lab space.
 
RandomWalk said:
Maybe they can pick up Biogen’s former Weston HQ, which was closer to their then-CEO.
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The article doesn't mention the specific location but that almost has to be the spot.
 
Stlin said:
To be fair, the current CEO of Panera already works here - they have an office in Newton - I basically read it along the lines of they're moving the C-suite and executive team to join him, but as far as I can tell... Their C suite already doesn't work out of St. Louis. The dude was CFO before he was CEO, and he never moved to St. Louis; a cursory look at the C suite on LinkedIn appears to indicate they're scattered around the country. https://www.thedaviscompanies.com/panera-bread-opening-offices-culinary-center-in-west-newton/

I have to assume they're going to; it's Weston, there's not exactly a plethora of commerical buildings. The only other possibility is Riverside Labs, but, that's obviously a lab space.
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Could also be Global's former space, which wouldn't have the lab component.
 
awood91 said:
Panera is taking 102K sq ft at 133 Boston Post Road in Weston

www.bisnow.com

Panera Signs Lease To Move HQ To Weston: Boston Deal Sheet

Panera plans to relocate its headquarters from St. Louis to Greater Boston, continuing its strategic growth.
www.bisnow.com www.bisnow.com
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Why would a company pack up and move its hq to a random office park in weston? I could understand kendall or the seaport in order to try to get the best new talent out of college that want to work in places like that, but weston? Theres no difference between this spot and any other suburban office park in america.

Its technically a stones throw away from kendall green mbta station but typical of shitty suburban planning the route to get there from the hq is circuitous. It shows .6 miles on google earth as the crow flies but to walk is 2.3 miles and 51 minutes.
IMG_6228.png


I read the company came from st louis so thats honestly sad that yet another company is bailing on the formerly great city… and to a random crappy office park no less. The city still has great bones so hopefully they can turn things around eventually.

Though apparently this is what their st louis location looked like, so I guess they really like garbage suburban office space.
1786001561902.jpeg
 
stick n move said:
Why would a company pack up and move its hq to a random office park in weston? I could understand kendall or the seaport in order to try to get the best new talent out of college that want to work in places like that, but weston? Theres no difference between this spot and any other suburban office park in america.

Its technically a stones throw away from kendall green mbta station but typical of shitty suburban planning the route to get there from the hq is circuitous. It shows .6 miles on google earth as the crow flies but to walk is 2.3 miles and 51 minutes.
View attachment 74759

I read the company came from st louis so thats honestly sad that yet another company is bailing on the formerly great city… and to a random crappy office park no less. The city still has great bones so hopefully they can turn things around eventually.

Though apparently this is what their st louis location looked like, so I guess they really like garbage suburban office space.
View attachment 74757
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Technically speaking this is directly adjacent to the proposed location for a relocated Kendal Green/Route 128 P&R, but I don't think they envision anyone taking transit to this office.

The company is moving there because the CEO wants to drive to work there and probably either already owns a house in Weston/Lincoln or would like to. That's it.
 
The current HQ is in Fenton MO, which is in the suburbs. You wouldn't want to have your office in St Louis itself. It's super ghetto.
 
jklo said:
The current HQ is in Fenton MO, which is in the suburbs. You wouldn't want to have your office in St Louis itself. It's super ghetto.
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Yea, its sad because its a self fulfilling prophecy. The city has declined, so more companies move away and it declines more. St Louis is a formerly great city with great bones, an actual rail transit network, good urbanism…etc. Id much rather see ppl and money flocking there for cheap housing and good urbanism and regrow that city than the shitbox sprawl-topia’s that everyone is moving to like *points to everywhere in florida except miami, dallas, phoenix…etc. Ah well…
 
stick n move said:
Yea, its sad because its a self fulfilling prophecy. The city has declined, so more companies move away and it declines more. St Louis is a formerly great city with great bones, an actual rail transit network, good urbanism…etc. Id much rather see ppl and money flocking there for cheap housing and good urbanism and regrow that city than the shitbox sprawl-topia’s that everyone is moving to like *points to everywhere in florida except miami, dallas, phoenix…etc. Ah well…
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Most of the jobs in SL are in the burbs I think.

And I wasn't joking about the offshoring and AI bit. The whole point of Saint Louis was jobs that Chicago was too expensive for. Most of those jobs are in Mumbai now, and the rest will be replaced by AI.
 
stick n move said:
Yea, its sad because its a self fulfilling prophecy. The city has declined, so more companies move away and it declines more. St Louis is a formerly great city with great bones, an actual rail transit network, good urbanism…etc. Id much rather see ppl and money flocking there for cheap housing and good urbanism and regrow that city than the shitbox sprawl-topia’s that everyone is moving to like *points to everywhere in florida except miami, dallas, phoenix…etc. Ah well…
Click to expand...

I said the same thing about Baltimore when I moved there 38 years ago……..rampant crime counts.
 
stick n move said:
Yea, its sad because its a self fulfilling prophecy. The city has declined, so more companies move away and it declines more. St Louis is a formerly great city with great bones, an actual rail transit network, good urbanism…etc. Id much rather see ppl and money flocking there for cheap housing and good urbanism and regrow that city than the shitbox sprawl-topia’s that everyone is moving to like *points to everywhere in florida except miami, dallas, phoenix…etc. Ah well…
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As the once-prolific forumer czsz once said about one of my posts about Buffalo, NY, "yeah well skeletons have good bones" 💀
 
shmessy said:
I said the same thing about Baltimore when I moved there 38 years ago……..rampant crime counts.
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Yeah, my younger son and his wife live in central Baltimore, and he does say there's a lot of crime, but that it has improved a bit in the last couple of years. We always meet him outside of Baltimore when we visit.
 
shmessy said:
I said the same thing about Baltimore when I moved there 38 years ago……..rampant crime counts.
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Before trump came back the 2nd time and started trade wars and regular wars all over the place and jacked the economy I really thought baltimore was doing the things that would make it turn a corner finally. The waterfront has been completely redeveloped with billions in investment, the brand new massive under armor hq campus was built, then you have a few of the big public housing projects that are right in the area of downtown being completely redeveloped like perkins square into new mixed income communities which should have a massive impact on the look, feel, and real world safety/vibrancy of the area around the downtown core. That plus there has been a decent amount of new rowhouse condo developments around the city filling in some old scars. It really was looking like it was gonna happen.

In the northeast corridor every single city except baltimore really, has grown massively over the years and in turn gotten extremely expensive. Baltimores dirt cheap housing and location in the northeast megaregion really means that eventually it should be inevitable that it caught some of that fire. It really seemed like the massive new developments/jobs and new investments combined with the existing cheap housing stock was going to be a killer combination for ppl to be able to afford to live in a part of the northeast corridor. It seems like it should be inevitable it eventually pops. I hope that eventually it does finally turn around. I wouldnt want to see housing prices explode like so many other cities, but if it could stay as a cheaper alternative just improved compared to where it is that would be great to see.

The level of housing you can get for the price its so tempting to try to make it work down there.

Historic waterfront condos for $222k

High rise condos with views of the harbor $149k

More views to the harbor from your living room, plus huge balcony $299k

Rowhouses that would fit in the south end $250k

Back bay level rowhouse with even a garage in back 289k
 
Panera's Boston connection.

The Boston Blueprint: In 1981, Ron Shaich merged his 400-square-foot Boston cookie shop, Cookie Jar, with a struggling three-location French bakery chain called Au Bon Pain. Based in Boston's Downtown Crossing and Faneuil Hall, Shaich and co-founder Louis Kane noticed an evolving consumer trend: customers were buying fresh baguettes and croissants, slicing them open, and stuffing them with sandwich meats brought from home.

Panera was technically born out of the 'St. Louis Bread Company', but its corporate growth was heavily engineered in Massachusetts. Co-founder of both Panera and Au Bon Pain, Ron Shaich used his Au Bon Pain blueprint, which at the time was heavily integrated into the Boston business ecosystem, to grow Panera. Ron leveraged the capital, infrastructure, and real estate expertise of Au Bon Pain to systematically build and expand the Panera brand
 
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