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Assembly Square Infill and Small Developments | Somerville
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Partners is getting close to being buttoned up, pile driving on Block 6 continues...
Sorry for all the lens flare. No, I'm not trying to evoke JJ Abrams, they just put burlap over my usual picture place in the garage so I only have a window to look through now.
Sorry for all the lens flare. No, I'm not trying to evoke JJ Abrams, they just put burlap over my usual picture place in the garage so I only have a window to look through now.
scorpio02150
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Anyone know if this project is on schedule? Someone who works for Partners sorta mentioned that this was delayed, but i really dont think that this person knows much...
JumboBuc
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From Federal Realty's Q3 2015 earnings call a few weeks ago:
They note delays and cost overruns at some other projects, so I take "proceeding very well" to mean "on budget and on schedule".
bigeman312
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I'm not sure if partners is passing them, but I think the Clarendon Hill Towers are/were the tallest in Somerville. And the worst. Haha.
DigitalSciGuy
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I'll believe it. The building is almost fully buttoned-up for the winter and it seems like they're already well underway with interior fit out of the lower floors. 6 months is plenty of time to do first move-ins.
You don't consolidate a whole company at once. Having worked in IT at a 300-person office of a wholly owned subsidiary of a 40,000-person international ad agency, I imagine that even though they've been planning the building for a while, the actual administrative planning for the move of each office is still being vetted... Staff probably won't get notice about their move date until 3 months before move.
The rent increases are insane. When my family moved from Melrose to Boston a couple years ago, that was a big factor in avoiding any properties managed by large companies. So many of those properties' reviews mentioned huge rent increase. We were looking for a place to be for 5+ years and it's hard to budget for 10%+ rent increases every year.
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Isn't this a fairly standard dynamic of the relocation "Relo"market?
Relo market = "I'm new in town, I'm feeling rich and hurried in my new job/school, and I don't have time to value-shop, so I'm going to overpay for an apartment in a prime/convenient location while I get to know the town"
After a year or two, they realize that there are (relative) bargains available on transit in less-prime areas, and the landlord hikes the rents for the next round of relos.
Its what makes Beacon Hill, Back Bay, and Harvard Square apartments go for what they go for. That Assembly has joined the relo choice set should be notched as a win.
AmericanKryptonite
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It's a pretty simple equation. Raise rent by 5%-10% every year until occupancy rates drop below 95%. The only solution is to continue to build more more housing. Seattle built so much housing that the rent is stagnating.
On black Friday there was a trending hashtag on twitter of huge empty parking lots at shopping centers. The idea was "if they're not full to capacity on black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, they will never be near capacity." I went to Assembly on Saturday afternoon and boy was it difficult to find a spot! All the garages were full and all the overflow lots. I waited 10-15 mins for someone to leave. There were probably hundreds of cars circling and trying to find spaces.
I drove because I was on my way to a car-dependent area, normally I take the Orange Line.
I drove because I was on my way to a car-dependent area, normally I take the Orange Line.
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As much as I love the free parking garages at Assembly Row, they probably shouldn't be free. Pricing should probably be similar to CambridgeSide.
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I agree. Cambridgeside has a really good system for applying just the right amount of market guidance and transit-parity and encouraging shop-and-eat visits while discouraging commuter/event-cheaters.
Particularly as there are more on-site commuter and hotel users.
Below, I've posted the Cambridgeside rates because they do seem to have a good set of tiers (except I hate the penny-back/time-wasting ".99" and would have more pre-pay opportunties)
To encourage more shopping but less commuter parking, I'd do a simpler structure:
0 to 2 hours: $2
2 to 4 hours: $3 (get folks for a meal and/or movie)
5 to 8 hours: $5
8+ hours $20
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The parking needed to be free when Assembly Row first opened, so that people would start venturing there, but now it is very well-established/popular and doesn't need that incentive.
AmericanKryptonite
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I live in Assembly Row and my parking garage has (near Legal Seafood) has the Ethernet cabling in place but maintenance says it may not be used for awhile. The lots near the outdoor bar have wiring as well. My guess is that they are going to wait until 2017 to implement it OR rely on the new massive PHS parking garage which has over 3000 parking spaces during peak hours. The retailers are probably requesting for parking to be free as long as the saturation is below 100%.