Assembly Square Infill and Small Developments | Somerville

Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

racerc03 said:
I would hope in the near future Everett sees that it can build it's own Assembly Square directly across the river in the space currently occupied by Costco/Target. I'm not sure how they would improve the locks and turn them into a pedestrian bridge but it would give Everett the closest option to T access the town has.

If a bridge is built it actually functions well to improve the park area available to Assembly Square and then there is the potential for a Wynn hotel in the adjacent lot.
Click to expand...

That site is super-duper contaminated and was only partially remediated when the Gateway center was put in. It is built on a cap and they would have to be much more thorough to put in residences. Same contamination as Wynn casino site. From Monsanto.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

racerc03 said:
Good to know.

I found this from the town website: http://www.ci.everett.ma.us/Everett...ayPresentation3Updated_Dec10_2012_highres.pdf

Not that site, but it looks like they are in the first stage of the planning process for mixed use in the area.
Click to expand...

Great Find.........Look on Page 9.....
If they could expand the Orange Line to and under Broadway Everett right to Chelsea Square maybe possibly reaching E.Boston this would be a major major lift for these areas. All of a sudden you can get in and out of the city without taking the buses to Wellington & Sullivan Square and Maverick Station.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

TheRifleman said:
Great Find.........Look on Page 9.....
If they could expand the Orange Line to and under Broadway Everett right to Chelsea Square maybe possibly reaching E.Boston this would be a major major lift for these areas. All of a sudden you can get in and out of the city without taking the buses to Wellington & Sullivan Square and Maverick Station.
Click to expand...

You'd be damaging the Orange Line too much. You can piggyback off of Wellington's yard space, maybe (there's room for a few more tracks, at least, and there's a couple empty ones even at night) and the maintenance facility. You could tie in to the Orange Line for moves to/from Wellington, but you have to keep it separate. Consider it Urban Ring Phase I.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

Right. Urban Ring, whenever they get to it, will probably be a Green Line/LRT tie-in. Not an Orange Line branch.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

Some Assembly Square Required
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

I'd be happy to see a mega-supermarket here, as long as it's just the first floor of a larger mixed-use building. The now-dead proposal was for a single-story supermarket, which is a bad idea next to a T station.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

That's basically what I understood STEP's objection to be as well. It doesn't really come across in the article though. I don't know what's in the minds of the aldermen.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

I agree with Ron and the city. There shouldn't be a 1 story building anywhere in Somerville. It can be a huge supermarket, but put 10 stories of residential on it.

I think from the developer's perspective, they could build the supermarket next year. But given what they have to buildout, if they add the residential they won't be able to finance it all for a couple years.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

There shouldn't be a 1 story building anywhere in Somerville.
Click to expand...

Let's say there shouldn't be a new 1 story building. Wiping out all of the existing 1 story commercial buildings would remove a lot of the local businesses that makes the city appealing.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

Ron Newman said:
Let's say there shouldn't be a new 1 story building. Wiping out all of the existing 1 story commercial buildings would remove a lot of the local businesses that makes the city appealing.
Click to expand...

Fully agree Ron, I think the gist is that there not being any NEW 1 story buildings there. I don't think he pertained to all existing.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

^No, and certainly not all at once. But not to spread too much into a larger somerville discussion, it would be nice to see areas, especially along the GLX, start the cycle of building mixed-use, multi-level structures so things can be shuffled around and the locals can actually stay in place and get ahead of the development.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

choo said:
^No, and certainly not all at once. But not to spread too much into a larger somerville discussion, it would be nice to see areas, especially along the GLX, start the cycle of building mixed-use, multi-level structures so things can be shuffled around and the locals can actually stay in place and get ahead of the development.
Click to expand...
It is happening: check out Maxwell's Green on Lowell St (a future GLX station) and the infill both built and under construction on both sides of the bike path at Cedar Street (walkable to a future Ball Square GLX). It isn't a crazy boom like you'd get if the GLX were under construction, but Cedar Street in that area shows the kind of life you're looking for.

But back to Assembly Square, there *should* be a Market Basket or Trader Joes somewhere in the "wedge" whose hub is Assembly/Sullivan and that fans out to the north between the "spokes" of the GLX, I-93, the Orange Line and MA 99.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

I have this sinking feeling that Somerville might have just told Wegmans to take a hike.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

Mike02125 said:
I'm sort of glad it all fell apart and is going to be a crappy, half-vacant discount outlet mall.
Click to expand...

As someone who has worked in many area malls and interacted with locals and tourists from all corners of the globe alike, I can tell you that there is extremely high demand for outlet shopping that is transit accessible in Boston. Some organized tours/trips to Boston even feature a day where the bus goes to Wrentham. Keeping those tourists in the city, shopping, eating, being entertained, and spending money in general is vital. Assembly Row should thrive. I would be shocked if it didn't.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

Mike02125 said:
I hate every single thing about Assembly Square, starting with the fact that tax money paid for a Wall Street company to reap profits from it.

I'm sort of glad it all fell apart and is going to be a crappy, half-vacant discount outlet mall. For a real estate failure of such epic proportions, it's odd that the folks in Somerville are so proud of it. And it's odd that they'd push away destination businesses like a Wegmans that would actually bring people to that area to shop and spend some time.
Click to expand...

Are we talking about the same, new development?

And no, they didn't push away Wegman's. The aldermen are calling for added density and height. We should be applauding them.
 
Re: Assembly Square Redevelopment

Central Sq. Star Market is a good example of fitting a full-size food shopping draw in a vertical space. Granted, it's tucked away a little bit and on the 2nd floor, but all the parking is in the attached rear garage and the front entrance is ped-only shared with the adjacent hotel. It's traffic-inocuous but still a neighborhood lifeline. That's what they should be shooting for here.

And dear god does there need to be a inner-city Target or something that is similarly walkable to a T stop and doesn't require crossing a cookie-cutter suburban parking minefield. KMart's too much of a shell of its former self as a chain and the Assembly location is dingy, poorly organized, and sells too much low-quality crap (which is really saying something for a discount store that's supposed to sell cheap crap!) to attract the students at a rate a T accessible not-imploding department store could.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top