Assembly Square Infill and Small Developments | Somerville

From that angle and from the T it looks like more than half this development is a parking garage. I'm surprised that they didn't go for underground parking. I don't get why they need so much parking, they should charge for parking with a discount for people who use retail. I'm not sure about the Assembly development but I park at Stations Landing regularly and that garage is almost always more than half empty. All of this new parking is not needed.

JeffDowntown said:
Since Wynn gets to claim his casino is on Boston Harbor, does this mean this is now Assembly Row Boston Harbor, Somerville?
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Besides the boutique hotel Assembly will and does draw from a mostly local audience. A name change referencing Boston is not needed.

Also just a random observation, between Foley Street and Grand Union Blvd they should have a light or rotary installed. Also that ugly grass on the other side of the T tracks, could that be developed while making part of it a more aesthetically pleasing park.
 
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tysmith95 said:
From that angle and from the T it looks like more than half this development is a parking garage. I'm surprised that they didn't go for underground parking. I don't get why they need so much parking, they should charge for parking with a discount for people who use retail.
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It looks like that from the T because the parking is (sensibly) stacked up by the T tracks. Underground parking would be SO much more expensive. The limiting factor for Assembly's growth isn't necessarily the land, so paying the premium to bury the parking wouldn't make any sense.
 
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tysmith95 said:
Also just a random observation, between Foley Street and Grand Union Blvd they should have a light or rotary installed.
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Yeah agreed. Two 4-lane roads intersecting with a 4-way stop sign is FUGLY.
 
CSTH said:
Yeah agreed. Two 4-lane roads intersecting with a 4-way stop sign is FUGLY.
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And dangerous. I could easily picture people running the stop signs on Grand Union. Also traffic will increase immensely and this will be a common pedestrian crossing once the other parcels have filled in and the Partners building is fully operational. Stop signs should be reserved for small side streets not busy roads like this.
 
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From today's Federal Realty Trust quarterly earnings call: Trader Joe's will be replacing AC Moore, not Sports Authority.

Federal Realty Call said:
A couple of the most consequential deals include an important merchandising upgrade at the power center portion of Assembly Square, where Trader Joe's will replace AC Moore at a significantly higher rent beginning late in 2017. That should also help create even more tenant demand when the adjacent Sports Authority vacates later this year.
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More from the call:

Federal Realty Call said:
At Assembly, Phase I done, stabilized, with every building at least 95% leased and occupied. Because of some free rent in the office tenants yet to burn off, income will continue to increase next year. Nearly 2,000 employees going to work each day at Partners Healthcare as of today. Double that, next year, have already created higher shopping and restaurant traffic. Dust and noise are the flairs of the day as roughly 40% of the Phase II spend has been incurred, and we remain on time and on budget. The office occupation, the T stop usage, the Trader Joe's deal in the adjacent power center I talked about before, all of these really show just how important this community has become to the north side of the city.
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They also referred to this REIT.com video and feature on the call.
 
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datadyne007 said:
Argh. Signing new tenants means the "power center" (wtf?) is not likely to be torn down anytime soon then.
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"Power center" is the standard industry term for a development with multiple abutting big boxes all sharing a common architectural style and landscaped parking facilities. They're generally a bit bigger, nicer, and more of a "destination" than your typical neighborhood strip mall.

As we've discussed previously on this thread, there is a whole lot of other development that will take place at Assembly before these stores will be touched. It'll be at least a couple cycles of lease rollover before Federal considers it. Expect buildings 5B, 8, 7A, 7B, 9, and the K-Mart to all go first.
 
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Trader Joes delays its occupancy and they don't have a tenant for Sports Authority and they spin it as a good thing?
 
Arlington said:
Trader Joes delays its occupancy and they don't have a tenant for Sports Authority and they spin it as a good thing?
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Trader Joes was never planning on moving until late-2017. The news came out right around the Sports Authority bankruptcy announcement so everyone assumed that they'd take that space, but it looks like they were set for the AC Moore space (which doesn't open up until then) all along.

And really, no matter how you look at it, Trader Joes moving in is fantastic news for Federal and Assembly. They should be talking about it on their call.
 
datadyne007 said:
Argh. Signing new tenants means the "power center" (wtf?) is not likely to be torn down anytime soon then.
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I don't think it all has to come down at once, anyway. If KMart is soon to go, they could theoretically tear that down first, then find TJ Maxx some space in their next Assembly Row phase and take that and the Sports Authority down. That would leave them with TJs, Staples, and Christmas Tree Shops in a stub.

Unlikely, but possible. I kind of wish they'd put TJ's next to the Orange Line, but whatever.
 
Equilibria said:
I don't think it all has to come down at once, anyway. If KMart is soon to go, they could theoretically tear that down first, then find TJ Maxx some space in their next Assembly Row phase and take that and the Sports Authority down. That would leave them with TJs, Staples, and Christmas Tree Shops in a stub.

Unlikely, but possible. I kind of wish they'd put TJ's next to the Orange Line, but whatever.
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All the big boxes share the same underlying structure (part of the old Ford plant) except for K-Mart which is in a separate abutting building. And if you extend the existing Assembly street grid to the west, "Canal St" would chop the K-Mart off into a different block. Plus K-Mart is closest to the T stop and the densest part of the Assembly Row development as currently planned.

This all suggests to me that K-Mart will go before the rest of the big boxes.
 
The big boxes (with the exception of the kmart) are in one of the old assembly buildings from the Ford plant. I'd rather see that building, and the boxes, stay. After all, they are a pretty good shield from the highway(s) and the only large floor plate space allowed (some agreement with somerville prevents the new developments from having large retail spaces).

The parking lots in front should be redeveloped, of course, bringing everything together. A restoration of the assembly building to its heritage look would also fit in well with the theme of the whole place. It's the parking lots that are really the problem, not the boxes.
 
More from the quarterly call regarding Trader Joe's, Sports Authority, and the future of the big boxes at Assembly:

Federal Realty call said:
Q: In terms of the Sports Authority lease at Assembly Marketplace [...] do you have control of that box? And then, with the Trader Joe's already slated to come in, who's the target? Who's on the target tenant list for that space?

A1: [Laughing] Yes we do. We do have control of the box. I don't want to give you the names of the tenants that we're talking to because we're having them compete with one another and trying to create the best deal, Jeremy, you understand that. But I will say if you take a look at the merchandising in that shopping center, particularly with the Trader Joe's announcement that they're coming in, and the success at the Row at the street adjacent to it, I mean, that's pretty much ground zero for boxes. So, we would very much anticipate a competition for space for that box.

A2: Yeah the only thing I would just add is how really thrilled we our with our partner of Trader Joe's that they are coming in, and with all the construction we have going on and all the residential being added it is a great co-tenant for our residents and there's already excitement and benefit that we're seeing.
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By listening to the call you can get a sense of how excited the Federal Realty executives are about this space. They were literally giggling about it. As they say this is "pretty much ground zero for boxes" and they would "anticipate a competition for space for that box". In other words, this space will be filled pronto, its rent will be high, and the REIT is not planning on tearing down that building any time soon.

(For those who may not know, "control of the box" means that it is up to Federal to find a new tenant for the Sports Authority space and have them sign a new lease. This is opposed to Sports Authority finding a new tenant to take over the terms of their existing lease until it expires.)

And more still from the call on the Sports Authority space:

Federal Realty call said:
As it relates to Assembly as we said earlier in the call there is a lot of active interest. It's important from a merchandising standpoint to nail that with the right type of tenant so you can take advantage of it being a complement to the Row property next door and the outlet mix and the soft goods we have. A lot of interest and as soon as we're able to provide you more guidance on exactly who those tenants are we will.
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One executives goes on to explain that, when the market is hot and your properties are doing well (as Federal's are), vacancies can be a good thing. If tenants are struggling for reasons unrelated to the space then landlords WANT vacancies, as they can replace their struggling tenants with healthier companies who will pay more and contribute more to the overall retail environment. He explains that a recent group of vacancies across Federal properties, including the Trader Joes space at Assembly, went from $18/foot to $27/foot on average as they were re-leased, and the new higher-quality tenants will "create better shopping centers for the next ten years". The same dynamic likely applies to the Sports Authority space at Assembly and would go for a potential K-Mart closure as well.

There's also some interesting discussion about the LEGOLAND at Assembly, and the virtues and risks of "experiential" retailers. Basically, they're great at generating buzz and traffic when they open but this fades as people don't keep coming back once they've "been there done that". From one of the executive:

Federal Realty call said:
"What will be interesting to see is, from this point, do they grow slowly like other retailers from here? Do they reprogram the space with different attractions and things like that? How does that work out? [...] But the level that they're doing today is pretty darn impressive, albeit not what it was when they opened up".
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From another executive:

Federal Realty call said:
"[LEGOLAND] provided a draw to the 18 million tourists that come in to Boston every year. We got on the same program as the Aquarium, the Duck Tours, and the science museum so that those constituents coming in came to Assembly to drive traffic to every other use we have there. [...] There was also a very defined purpose as to why we did it which was creating a use and a need that attracted a regional draw. If you talk to them they draw from about a 120 mile radius, we see field trip busses there all the time, and I've got 3 kids I remember when they were younger at the same destination Chuck'e'Cheese [...] for birthday parties I probably went there 30 times."
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davem said:
The big boxes (with the exception of the kmart) are in one of the old assembly buildings from the Ford plant. I'd rather see that building, and the boxes, stay. After all, they are a pretty good shield from the highway(s) and the only large floor plate space allowed (some agreement with somerville prevents the new developments from having large retail spaces).

The parking lots in front should be redeveloped, of course, bringing everything together. A restoration of the assembly building to its heritage look would also fit in well with the theme of the whole place. It's the parking lots that are really the problem, not the boxes.
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+1. Totally agree with this assessment. Assembly-fy the parking lots (replaced with some above-ground garage space) and you actually have a neighborhood instead of an outdoor mall surrounded by a sea of parking.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
+1. Totally agree with this assessment. Assembly-fy the parking lots (replaced with some above-ground garage space) and you actually have a neighborhood instead of an outdoor mall surrounded by a sea of parking.
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Does anyone know of any examples of big box stores surrounded by garages and mixed use developments. I'm not sure the big box tenants want to be surrounded by other things.
 
tysmith95 said:
Does anyone know of any examples of big box stores surrounded by garages and mixed use developments. I'm not sure the big box tenants want to be surrounded by other things.
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As long as customers (and ideally free-spending young customers) have easy access to/from the box, I don't think they care. Besides, I don't think were talking true BIG box (and huge shopping cart being trans-loaded into big SUV), but rather more things that have more $ per gram or cubic inch.

There's this one in Arlington VA, The Market Common Clarendon, with both a Crate & Barrel and a Pottery Barn, that serves as an example of an Assembly-like (transit/walk/garaged) setting that has some big names[in medium-sized boxes], including an Apple Store.
 
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^ Yes. They're stripmall stores. The economics of stripmalls/bigbox are changing especially in urban areas. As long as they get customers in the door buying things, why would they care if they're surrounded by a sea of parking or mixed-used development w/ a parking garage?
 
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