🔹 What's Happening With Project X?

Blackbird said:
Kind of a vaguer inquiry than most, but: what's going on with Malden? I feel like they put up a lot of great TOD downtown around Pleasant and Exchange and then just....stopped? There are still plenty of underutilized lots and such in and around downtown (like this corner of Charles and Middlesex) but it doesn't seem like there's a single thing being built in the city in 2024. Very different than its neighbors like Somerville, Everett, and Chelsea. Was there a concerted effort made by City Hall to slow down growth?
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Part of that is Malden does a terrible job of making documents publicly accessible, but I wouldn't say Malden is anti-development, but they've gotten most of the low-hanging fruit. That site in particular was originally planned for a Mass-Timber framed office building that got as far as foundation pours before being canceled during the pandemic - it's since been pivoted to a residential development that has a fully approved special permit, though I rather doubt it's still mass timber.

That said, the original office proposal required zero parking - thanks to some outdated ordinances in Malden, residential does, and they don't actually own the repair shop site.
Current Proposal:
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Prior Proposal:
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I am interested in the history of how Malden center ended up with the mega-block hellscape. It feels like the West End got copy and pasted over a street car suburb.

I do recall one of the blocks having a minor league baseball stadium proposal, but that’s probably dead along with the majority of MiLB.
 
RandomWalk said:
I am interested in the history of how Malden center ended up with the mega-block hellscape. It feels like the West End got copy and pasted over a street car suburb.

I do recall one of the blocks having a minor league baseball stadium proposal, but that’s probably dead along with the majority of MiLB.
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There was a whole series of Urban Renewal projects in Malden run by the MRA in the late 1950's and 60's -- so somewhat like the West End or NY Streets areas.

"Dilapidated" neighborhoods were wholesale bulldozed.

Here is the history of just one:
neighborhoodview.org

Suffolk Square Remembered: The epicenter of Malden’s Jewish community lost to urban renewal - Neighborhood View

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neighborhoodview.org neighborhoodview.org

Also Chapter 4 of this MIT Thesis from 1984 is about Malden Center's "redevelopment":
 
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Has any work started on Northeastern's huge 840 Columbus dorm yet? It has final city approval.
 
Malden had an apartment moratorium at one point in the last decade, driven by implicit racial panic.
 
Blackbird said:
Kind of a vaguer inquiry than most, but: what's going on with Malden? I feel like they put up a lot of great TOD downtown around Pleasant and Exchange and then just....stopped? There are still plenty of underutilized lots and such in and around downtown (like this corner of Charles and Middlesex) but it doesn't seem like there's a single thing being built in the city in 2024. Very different than its neighbors like Somerville, Everett, and Chelsea. Was there a concerted effort made by City Hall to slow down growth?
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I think yes unfortunately, the City Administration is not supportive of residential growth, certainly not to the extent that Everett, Cambridge, etc. are. I have heard that the Mayor is not supportive of additional multi-family or multi-family-dominant development in the Downtown area, instead feeling that more commercial is needed to support/balance the tax base. To some extent, it doesn't matter what the zoning says - if you go meet with the mayor/Planning Director with a concept, and they say "no multi-family - you're unlikely to advance the project.

Back during the labs-craze, there were at least a couple proposals for Downtown Malden - https://www.lee-associates.com/boston/11-dartmouth-malden/ - which I think were damaging to the politics because it fed the narrative that Malden would be the next Seaport and residential wasn't necessary.

It's frustrating on many levels. I think the nicest areas of Downtown Malden are those where multi-family was redeveloped in the past 15 years and these developments generally house upper income young professionals, so they are net financially positive for the City.

I think this anecdote from Amy Dain's Upzoning Update reflects the city's current approach to residential redevelopment --

"At first glance, Malden’s new zoning district for ten-story residential towers looked trailblazing. Unheard of, really. But… the high-rise zoning district covers four parcels only, each currently containing a building taller than ten stories. The district was adopted to meet the state’s requirements under MBTA Communities, but not to allow new ten-story buildings."
mbtacommunities.bostonindicators.org

Raising the Roof: The promise and politics of higher building heights

Upzone Update offers analysis of MBTA-C compliance efforts, produced by zoning expert Amy Dain and the staff of Boston Indicators. This week's article is by Amy Dain. This week: a cover article on building heights and lots of news articles and town-by-town updates as a busy fall gets underway...
mbtacommunities.bostonindicators.org mbtacommunities.bostonindicators.org
 
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