Assembly Square Infill and Small Developments | Somerville

So where are the current Partners offices that will be consolidated into this project?
 
So where are the current Partners offices that will be consolidated into this project?

I know their corporate HQ is currently on the 11th floor of the Pru and according to the article below, they are not leaving.

Here's an article that lists some locations they are closing to move to Assembly Row:
(emphasis mine)
Partners HealthCare to be anchor tenant in first office building at Somerville’s Assembly Row

By Robert Weisman
Globe Staff
December 5, 2013 5:19 PM

Partners HealthCare System, the state’s largest hospital and physician organization, will consolidate administrative operations from 14 sites in eastern Massachusetts and move 4,500 non-hospital employees into 650,000 to 700,000 square feet in a new office building scheduled to open at Somerville’s massive Assembly Row development in late 2016.

The move is meant to reduce costs and boost efficiency at a time when many leases at Partners non-hospital sites are scheduled to expire between 2016 and 2018, according to Partners vice president Rich Copp. While sites in Charlestown, Wellesley, Needham, and elsewhere will close, Copp said the Partners corporate headquarters will remain in Boston.

“This is an effort to consolidate the administrative and non-hospital functions,” said Copp, who estimated Partners will save about $10 million a year in the move. “It’s an opportunity to be more effective and it’s part of our system-wide effort to reduce the cost of health care.”

Partners corporate offices, where its top executives work, will continue to be in Boston because the health care system wants to remain close to Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals, the academic medical centers that were its founding institutions, Copp said.

http://www.boston.com/business/2013...ssembly-row/IwElEOkUWyqlfR19hDpJ2J/story.html
 
I'm grateful to revisit the pictures from upthread, now that many of us have had a chance to visit and see how things are going.

For JohnAKeith, who was understandably put off when crossing the empty parking lots to get to Assembly Row, it is worth noting that the parking lot most Orange Line users cross these days is the future Block 6 in this plan (Everyone leaves the station from the corner of Block 8, there's not much use for the other entrance 'til Partners opens)

So all that will one day be filled in. In my answer above, I referred only to blocks 5 & 6 as "yet to come" but this picture reminds us that 5, 6, 7 & 8 and 9 are will be part of the "original plan" for Assembly Row. (And there is a Starbucks on Site 10).

Many of the map/murals at today's Assembly Row emphasize only Blocks 5 and 6 as future retail (it would make sense if 5 and 6 had a preponderance of outlet/destination/fashion shopping and the local/practical/chore stuff waits for Blocks 7 and 8...it makes sense to put "the CVS" and "the dry cleaners" closer to the subway entrance where commuters will walk past it, and that has to wait until there are more residents.

On the Partner's Site (former Ikea Site...and not "originally" part of Assembly Row) , Phase 1 will be the trackside garage and the left two (out of 3) towers (in blue).

I also hope that the margin of green on the T tracks (on the Assembly side) is wide enough for the future Urban Ring BRT/LRT. It looks a little tight, but it certainly will fit the multiuse path shown.
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Will all of the parking lots left of and below Parcel 9 eventually get redeveloped too? It seems to make sense that "Grand Union Boulevard" would have buildings on both sides.
 
Will all of the parking lots left of and below Parcel 9 eventually get redeveloped too? It seems to make sense that "Grand Union Boulevard" would have buildings on both sides.
In the long run, building on those lots so close to a subway station seems inevitable, doesn't it? I think the only question is: how long with the long run run? One thing that's going to slow it down is the fact that the parking lots are an "important" use that makes "economic sense" for the retailers there, until either the retailers move out (or content themselves with foot traffic), or somebody builds structured parking.

Past plans have definitely shown variations of infill on that side of the Grand Union Blvd, like this one from 2008 (which is funny because it showed a central square with parking!)


and this one (from when the IKEA--in red-- was going to go where Assembly Row is now...before an earlier land swap), but shows the lots you speak of fully built-on, along with the Home Depot & Circuit City replaced with "grid buildings")


On the other hand, there are many parking lots in great locations that have sat "open" for years awaiting their building, either biding their time as paid lots (as the Seaport did for *decades*), or the lots at Wellington have, or even freakish ungated-and-free-but-timed outliers like the lot at Porter Square.

At Assembly, in the next 5 - 10 years, they probably have enough building-out planned to soak up demand for buildings, and the retail tenants in the Assembly building itself are going to want to make sure they continue to have "acres of free parking".
 

I agree looking at these now that some of it is a reality is useful. Two thoughts:

First, the lot 6 construction will actually impede T traffic getting to the good stuff in the short run. You'll need to walk all the way around a large site before you get to the edge of the shopping. Restaurants are even farther away. It is what it is. But looking at the full buildout plan, as of now, the natural orientation space for T riders is the garden area between 8 and 7. You walk out of the T and pause there to get your bearings. If memory serves, that junction will serve as the "official" Assembly Square of lore. It will also nicely echo the current junction where JP Licks is. So you'll have two initial congregating spaces: one as an entry for transit riders and one for those using the parking garages. That's great and I hope 2025 me gets to enjoy it.

Second thought, given the casino development is likely to happen (based on current polls the repeal ballot question is struggling), what is the economic strategy for Federal? There will be eight (eight!) restaurants in the casino and 140,000 SF of retail. By comparison, proposed full build of Assembly is seven restaurants (actually 13 if you include all the bakeries, coffee shops, bars, etc.) and 635,000 SF of retail. Clearly, Somerville City Hall and Federal were opposed to casino on economic grounds. Will Federal slow down its buildout for the next five years and then recheck the temperature? Or is it full steam ahead to get a committed customer base before Wynn opens in 2017?

My hunch is they will continue to build out apace since much of the retail is already completed. Only two of the next six planned buildings are retail-focused. Much of what is to come will be for commercial and residential use--and those demands are not affected by a casino.

In the long run, as more areas on both sides of the Mystic get reinvented, there will be room for all.
 
^^^ It is also worth noting that the old Sony Theaters have been demolished directly [below] of Block 9 [in the image]. There are a *lot* of good sites for stuff here that are moving in the direction of building something.

For this reason, I think the parking on the side of Grand Union Blvd will be the last to go...that and Grand Union, today, is planned to have a lot of (or too much of) the structured parking from Assembly Row. In order to "face" the river, Assembly Row has turned its back on Grand Union (for now).

They've done a great job of dressing it up with murals and back-entrances, but you can't fully-hide the fact that Grand Union will have two-blocks worth of parking across its 3-block span.

One day (40 years from now) you could also see some of Grand Union's parking being torn down to be replaced by buildings to "face" whatever has been built on the Grand Union Blvd surface lots in the meantime.
 
I have friends who live in Avalon (#1), and the property is nice, but could be a bit nicer for the prices that they are charging. I think the complex as a whole is a success, but a long way from what I thought it would be.
 
the property is nice, but could be a bit nicer for the prices that they are charging.
Isn't this true for all of Somerville? I'm not trying to be snarky at all, but the run-up in prices for anything within a mile of Union Square is for pretty much the "same old' Somerville that folks have (re)discovered for its proximity, its bike-friendliness, and its decently-usable buses, and funky stuff like Rock Gyms and Crossfit and funky coffee.

If Assembly seems overpriced, isn't it just what an overpriced "New Somerville" looks like (with crisp streetscapes and irrigated plantings), as opposed to an overpriced "Old Somerville"?
 
I have friends who live in Avalon (#1), and the property is nice, but could be a bit nicer for the prices that they are charging. I think the complex as a whole is a success, but a long way from what I thought it would be.

+1----The addition of another Orange Line Stop--Is what made this development first rate. This was a good location-

No reason for a car since you live in a small community with most of the amenities along with MBTA pretty much in walking distance of everything.

Brilliant.
 
I was here on Saturday place was packed but not much to do? Went to Earls resturaunt food was very good other than that I see no reason to go back just yet!
 
I was here on Saturday place was packed but not much to do? Went to Earls resturaunt food was very good other than that I see no reason to go back just yet!
Its clearly not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I think they've done a decent job of mixing Legos, Ice Cream, Movies, Luxury outlets, and semi-unique "nightlife" dining.

The problem with being "all new" is that you don't get certain things that are kept alive in other places by inertia and depreciated fixtures (like things that Amazon has killed: book stores and electronics stores...nobody's opening new ones, but the old ones do well-enough that some stay open).

Also, the focus on high-end means you don't get the kind of stores that compete with eBay (the knick-knack-novelty /10,000 Villages stuff and the consignment/thrift stores.)

So, yes, there's a near-complete contrast with what's at Assembly to what's at Central Square, to which I say, to each his own.
 
Re: Lewis Wharf

SomBlox shipping crates appear to have arrived and are being installed for a very late season opening.
iPraBOz.jpg
 
Re: Lewis Wharf

Yeah. I posted from my phone but was sure it was in the Assembly thread. Is there an easy way to switch?
 

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