Assembly Square Infill and Small Developments | Somerville

Love that mural. I feel like Somerville has done an amazing PR job with Assembly while other TODs like Wellington just fly under the radar.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Assembly would be a LOT more accessible if they could hash things out with the T to snake the river walk behind Charlestown Garage and associated properties to reach Alford St. Garage already has a 15 ft. grass easement between the bus parking lot pavement and the seawall. All they need is a tall security fence around the yard, decorative fence atop the seawall, and *at most* move the curb + guardrail back 1-2 ft. for breathing room. Then the ratty MOW yard closest to where the path cul-de-sacs out just needs a little landscaping and cleanup to do the same.

1800 ft. walk...and a nice walk despite what's on the other side of the security fence if they just top the seawall with something tasteful and light the path. There's already a Harborwalk segment on the other side of Alford going around the Scraffts building and Delta Dental HQ. And only 2 additional blocks to square before that segment can be hooked in contiguous with the segment that goes along Little Mystic Channel to the Navy Yard.

I mean, clearly the Assembly path was provisioned for just such this connection behind the garage given the spot where the trail ends, with dreams of just such a contiguous Harborwalk link when that small Charlestown gap gets filled. But have any of the parties that be actually talked about doing this sooner rather than later? It's not like this is a big-money proposition. Assembly would be so much more accessible to Charlestown and East Somerville-feeding-into-Sullivan if there was a *nice* walk available. When I lived there a few blocks off Broadway I would've gladly gone the extra distance on a *nice* walk to get to Home Depot instead of having to duck under the scary 93 underpass to breach the great wall of East Somerville.
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Just do it. Start walking there, clear the path and see who says no and why.

Even though this is a small money thing to do it is going to get blocked because bigger players want the bigger project and don't want nice things to happen before they can use those niceties as leverage to get their projects through...So we have to live the status quo for another decade unless someone just gets some bolt cutters and makes it happen.
 
tangent said:
Just do it. Start walking there, clear the path and see who says no and why.

Even though this is a small money thing to do it is going to get blocked because bigger players want the bigger project and don't want nice things to happen before they can use those niceties as leverage to get their projects through...So we have to live the status quo for another decade unless someone just gets some bolt cutters and makes it happen.
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I and many others have done it. Historically there have been holes cut in chain link fences. In fact, I used to do a run (pre-Row) that went from the purported dead end at Draw 7 and snaked through the industrial and MBTA properties to get to Alford Street. Needless to say, the property owners have since doubled down on trespassers (post-Row) by adding extra fences and locked gates.

You can run along the Mystic's tidal shoreline all the way until you hit that seawall, which there is no easy way to ascend (some have tried) and no way around. As F-Line notes, until an actual route is built out here, it is not possible to hack the route unless you're more amphibious than me.

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At the end of the Northern Strand Trail in Everett, a map shows a link between Draw Seven and Alford St is currently in the planning phase.
 
kc said:
Update on the old cinema parcel:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...mer-theater/TbA4p4TlfaBQf5kWqVjN5L/story.html
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If they end up doing this, the big box stores are certainly going to be going away. Significantly more value in high rise retail, condo, office space and they stick out big time. Eminent domain has been mentioned in the past and I wouldn't be surprised to see Federal Realty do it themselves for a tax break (they own the Kmart, Staples, Christmas Tree Shops, etc.)
 
AmericanKryptonite said:
If they end up doing this, the big box stores are certainly going to be going away. Significantly more value in high rise retail, condo, office space and they stick out big time. Eminent domain has been mentioned in the past and I wouldn't be surprised to see Federal Realty do it themselves for a tax break (they own the Kmart, Staples, Christmas Tree Shops, etc.)
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Except for Home Depot. That's the single-busiest location in the state because of the 93 access, and the single most lucrative for high-margin contractor sales because it's the easiest for contractors to access before beginning their shifts. The whole reason there's one across the river at Gateway was because the Assembly one got way too busy, and still gets way too busy at peak contractor pickup hours. But that Mystic Ave.-facing parcel is really sort of different than the rest of Assembly, so I doubt any master plans would be all that keen on touching it. It's a big traffic generator for the rest while being segregated enough from the rest to not throw too much 'ugly' traffic. They know full well what a cash cow HD is, and would be crazy to mess with it. If anything HD probably needs to knock down the vacant Circuit City next door and expand a little more.

Rest of the big boxes occupying the old Mall building...definitely, they're eminently expendable.
-- KMart's not long for this world anyway since they're owned by incredible imploding Sears, so it's only a matter of time before that strip gets deprived of its largest anchor tenant.
-- Bed Bath & Beyond has its duplicate Gateway location. And they've been pruning some of their excess stores lately so one of these was probably ripe for consolidation. Assembly's a lot stronger than the Gateway location, but I doubt they'd care if it consolidates.
-- Wellington Plaza up on Fellsway is long overdue for a reboot, and big box strip is probably still the best use for it. The actual strip buildings are old and poorly arranged, and the hugely-trafficked Stop & Shop near the Route 60 end is the only tenant going gangbusters. The rest of it could sorely use a refresh...both the facilities and the second-rate tenants.
-- Gateway Ctr.'s north (Michaels, etc.) end performs a lot worse than the very busy south end. Parking lot rarely gets more than half-full out there even at busiest times of year, indicating a troubleshooting opportunity. A little rent competition from, say, Xmas Tree Shops, could place a new anchor tenant at the north and boost the fortunes of the middle tenants.
-- The Blinds To Go/Verizon strip @ Gateway has an empty slot at the south end for extending the plaza to the corner. Again, middling utilization on that end except for the restaurants. So a real anchor geared at the near end of the access road to quick trips (Staples?) would not only fit with ample square footage but also increase the value of that isolated and underutilized corner strip.
-- Given how Best Buy has gone on the rocks lately thanks to Amazon that isolated location across the parkway from Gateway is easily going to be one of their first cuts when they have to prune Eastern MA stores. Loser of the Gateway/Wellington Plaza musical chairs (Sports Authority?) can easily set up shop there.


And ^this^ is not only doable, but also an arguably necessary/inevitable free-market correction. There's too big a big box glut along the Mystic, and the chains are not in the same location saturation mode they were 10+ years ago. Wellington Plaza's second-rate tenants and unmodernized storefronts show it. Meadow Glen Mall's (non-Kohls) collapse shows it. The slightly diffuse northern extreme of Gateway shows it. 16 @ 28 and 99 is still the place you want to have the big boxes, but a market correction in supply would probably do some good at increasing the quality and utilization of those plazas.
 
AmericanKryptonite said:
If they end up doing this, the big box stores are certainly going to be going away. Significantly more value in high rise retail, condo, office space and they stick out big time. Eminent domain has been mentioned in the past and I wouldn't be surprised to see Federal Realty do it themselves for a tax break (they own the Kmart, Staples, Christmas Tree Shops, etc.)
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Agreed. Kmart isn't long for this world nationwide, and Staples has lots of urban locations - they can easily be relocated into a new structure or one elsewhere in Assembly Row. The Christmas Tree Shops is a nice amenity that needs a big box location, but I don't think it fits the higher-end image Federated is going for at Assembly. I could see it moving to one of the remaining big box centers across the rivers.
 
The old "Assembly Square Marketplace" big boxes will surely go eventually, but I suspect they still have more years ahead of them then much of this board is giving them credit for. F-line points out a "big box glut along the Mystic" with plenty of less-than-successful locations, but every location at Assembly Square itself is super successful and has been for years. That strip has been 100% leased up and busy since opening in its current form in 2006. A market correction may be due to close down some of the big-box supply in the area, but market corrections almost always take down the weakest competitors, not the strongest, and Assembly is clearly the strongest around. Yes, the Assembly real estate is better suited redevelopment than the land at Meadow Glen or Wellington or Gateway, but for the same reasons it is also better suited for the existing retail than the land at Meadow Glen or Wellington or Gateway. Some of the exact same dynamics that make the Assembly Home Depot more successful than the one across the river also make the Assembly Sports Authority and Christmas Tree Shop and etc. more successful than potential relocations across the river.

Since Federal Realty owns the Marketplace as well as Assembly Row, I think the ball is firmly in their court. If they decide to redevelop, great for them, but the steady income they're getting from the big boxes in their current form makes that calculation harder to justify. The city has mentioned eminent domain, but I really don't see that happening anytime even remotely soon. Taking one commercial development to build another is always controversial, and since the same company owns both what you're trying to remove and what you're trying to create it introduces all sorts of sketchiness and potential for corruption to the mix.

There are still plenty of other lots in the Assembly Square area that will likely be redeveloped first. Assembly Row itself is only about 50% built out at this point (4 of 8 parcels complete). Circuit City has been vacant for years. The "old cinema" parcel is working on (super ambitious) plans. This parcel is currently vacant and listed and could easily be combined with the Dunkin Donuts/Sunrise Caribbean and redeveloped. I'd love to see the Ninety-Nine go on a redevelopment kick and build up their Assembly and Charlestown locations and then move back in to the first floors. There's also always the possibility that some of the big box could go--most likely the K-Mart section--but the rest could remain as is for longer.

So yeah, the big boxes should go eventually, but their success in their current form makes that less appealing and plenty of other sites should go first.
 
JumboBuc said:
The old "Assembly Square Marketplace" big boxes will surely go eventually, but I suspect they still have more years ahead of them then much of this board is giving them credit for. F-line points out a "big box glut along the Mystic" with plenty of less-than-successful locations, but every location at Assembly Square itself is super successful and has been for years. That strip has been 100% leased up and busy since opening in its current form in 2006. A market correction may be due to close down some of the big-box supply in the area, but market corrections almost always take down the weakest competitors, not the strongest, and Assembly is clearly the strongest around. Yes, the Assembly real estate is better suited redevelopment than the land at Meadow Glen or Wellington or Gateway, but for the same reasons it is also better suited for the existing retail than the land at Meadow Glen or Wellington or Gateway. Some of the exact same dynamics that make the Assembly Home Depot more successful than the one across the river also make the Assembly Sports Authority and Christmas Tree Shop and etc. more successful than potential relocations across the river.

Since Federal Realty owns the Marketplace as well as Assembly Row, I think the ball is firmly in their court. If they decide to redevelop, great for them, but the steady income they're getting from the big boxes in their current form makes that calculation harder to justify. The city has mentioned eminent domain, but I really don't see that happening anytime even remotely soon. Taking one commercial development to build another is always controversial, and since the same company owns both what you're trying to remove and what you're trying to create it introduces all sorts of sketchiness and potential for corruption to the mix.

There are still plenty of other lots in the Assembly Square area that will likely be redeveloped first. Assembly Row itself is only about 50% built out at this point (4 of 8 parcels complete). Circuit City has been vacant for years. The "old cinema" parcel is working on (super ambitious) plans. This parcel is currently vacant and listed and could easily be combined with the Dunkin Donuts/Sunrise Caribbean and redeveloped. I'd love to see the Ninety-Nine go on a redevelopment kick and build up their Assembly and Charlestown locations and then move back in to the first floors. There's also always the possibility that some of the big box could go--most likely the K-Mart section--but the rest could remain as is for longer.

So yeah, the big boxes should go eventually, but their success in their current form makes that less appealing and plenty of other sites should go first.
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You do, however, have to game out what outside triggers might do to hasten the process. KMart's future being the #1 variable for that. At the rate their holding company is going it's par odds that the entire KMart brand will be shuttered within 5 years. Practically speaking, it's at risk of going splat very suddenly at any given moment with how volatile Sears' current owners are. So there's a big decision right up-front if the far-and-away largest anchor tenant of that strip suddenly goes vacant. Do the landlords recruit a new anchor tenant immediately knowing that it's going to indefinitely lengthen the lifespan of the strip (because they'll probably have to bake in guarantees to the new tenant to not touch the property for X years)? Or do they accelerate down that road to inevitability when the other 6 tenants are potentially more immediately malleable to relocation?

BB&B might not pass up a consolidation offer with the Gateway location if the opportunity arose. Staples has perfected its 'urban' store layout enough that it would probably be happy to trade into a non- big box storefront at Assembly or Station Landing. Those are easy pick-offs. Then that leaves only 4 tenants to settle up. 4 tenants the landlord has many options for accommodating in the same area.


So don't discount events outside of well-laid plans forcing a change of gears on the timetable for the big boxes' exodus from the site. The big box marketplace itself is volatile enough right now that wild mood swings on Wall Street or with short attention-span leveraged buyout brand owners can start that process without provocation. KMart being the first and wobbliest domino there.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
You do, however, have to game out what outside triggers might do to hasten the process. KMart's future being the #1 variable for that. At the rate their holding company is going it's par odds that the entire KMart brand will be shuttered within 5 years. Practically speaking, it's at risk of going splat very suddenly at any given moment with how volatile Sears' current owners are. So there's a big decision right up-front if the far-and-away largest anchor tenant of that strip suddenly goes vacant. Do the landlords recruit a new anchor tenant immediately knowing that it's going to indefinitely lengthen the lifespan of the strip (because they'll probably have to bake in guarantees to the new tenant to not touch the property for X years)? Or do they accelerate down that road to inevitability when the other 6 tenants are potentially more immediately malleable to relocation?

BB&B might not pass up a consolidation offer with the Gateway location if the opportunity arose. Staples has perfected its 'urban' store layout enough that it would probably be happy to trade into a non- big box storefront at Assembly or Station Landing. Those are easy pick-offs. Then that leaves only 4 tenants to settle up. 4 tenants the landlord has many options for accommodating in the same area.


So don't discount events outside of well-laid plans forcing a change of gears on the timetable for the big boxes' exodus from the site. The big box marketplace itself is volatile enough right now that wild mood swings on Wall Street or with short attention-span leveraged buyout brand owners can start that process without provocation. KMart being the first and wobbliest domino there.
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Fair enough. It's perfectly plausible that Kmart could go bust and force change, but that would be due to the failure of Kmart nationally and not the dynamics of the local real estate market. And the failure of Kmart would not equal the redevelopment of the entire strip. It looks like six of the seven stores in the "Marketplace" share the same building while Kmart is in a separate building on the butt-end of the strip. If Federal Realty were to redevelop the Kmart in the case of a bankruptcy they would surely want to keep the other stores open until the new development was complete. One look at Assembly Row show's that they're a big fan of doing development in manageable stages. And by the time a hypothetical Kmart redevelopment is complete we are many years down the road from today, and this boom won't last forever...
 
If they redo the whole strip they are going to have to do more parking. It's just a fact for having new office and shopping, despite being on the orange line and becoming a more defined neighborhood. So if KMart goes, they could build a couple 1st floor commercial with parking up top, like the currently have, and that let's them move down the row and build up the surface lots and the other players on the strip in a more phased fashion.
 
I was at that Home Depot this weekend, and they didn't have the bullnoses for the tile I wanted! TEAR IT DOWN!!!!
 
AvalonBay released their Second Quarter 2015 Operating Results last week, and "Avalon Assembly Row/AVA Somerville" is listed as 95.5% leased (!) with an average rent of $2,630.

Federal Realty's quarterly earnings release and conference call are this Wednesday and Thursday, so we might learn more about their timeline for Phase II of Assembly Row then. Given the success that AvalonBay is having, I'm sure Federal Realty is anxious to forge ahead.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
-- Bed Bath & Beyond has its duplicate Gateway location. And they've been pruning some of their excess stores lately so one of these was probably ripe for consolidation. Assembly's a lot stronger than the Gateway location, but I doubt they'd care if it consolidates.
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Why wouldn't this also apply to the Home Depot? HD could just double down on the Gateway location and call it a day. There's always South Bay for direct I-93 access if one is that desperate for it.


choo said:
If they redo the whole strip they are going to have to do more parking. It's just a fact for having new office and shopping, despite being on the orange line and becoming a more defined neighborhood. So if KMart goes, they could build a couple 1st floor commercial with parking up top, like the currently have, and that let's them move down the row and build up the surface lots and the other players on the strip in a more phased fashion.
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If they do redevelop, they may be better off building a parking garage with ground-floor retail on one of the existing parking parcels for the Assembly Sq Marketplace and leave the box stores for now. Put a four or five floor parking garage on a third of that parking lot and there's an easy net increase in parking while expanding the footprint of Assembly Row-style development, and maintaining the box stores (which are all performing well and reaping windfall from Assembly Row).
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
Why wouldn't this also apply to the Home Depot? HD could just double down on the Gateway location and call it a day. There's always South Bay for direct I-93 access if one is that desperate for it.
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See a few posts up. Gateway location was built because the Mystic Ave. location was oversaturated. Different clientele. Mystic/Gateway tilts very heavily to professional contractor business. It's a zoo during peak pickup hours when construction workers do a pit stop there off 93 to load up for the job site. And the inside is a disaster area in the immediate hours after they all leave and head back out on 93. It got so day-to-day unmanageable that the Gateway location went up just to serve general clientele. Gateway's cleaner, better-organized, less-hectic. Still tops the whole plaza in business. But they will never ever give up Assembly because contractor business is HD's single-biggest moneymaker, and that traffic doesn't migrate across the river if they go out of eyesight of an easy 93 interchange. That store is a sacred cow to Home Depot national HQ. Hell, it's a sacred cow to Assembly.
 
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