Cambridge Infill and Small Developments

Hello, all,

I took my camera and walked around 22 Water Street with the intent on letting fellow ArchBostonians know what is happening. Sadly, despite shooting about 20 useful images, I cannot reliably get them to share into this site. So, I will describe with text (and someone else can shoot again unless I find a way to get them here).

Many folks do not know that Zinc has been open for at least a month. It has quite a few tenants, if the cab and car and bike parking lots and gym activity are representative! At night, the lit windows feature folks moving about (unlike Twenty|20, which lights lots of rooms sans inhabitants). The property is clean and contemporary. Facing a very small plot of grass (not yet grown) and then the northern tip of the train yard makes for a desolate location, though. And it makes the building feel hulking. There is a long bike road (approximately 10 feet wide) that runs roughly north to south between the building and the grass. If you follow the trail north to the building's end, you will find...

The green line construction! Yes, for weeks I thought the ginormous crane was for Superior Nut renovation or some thing else related to that building. The rail expansion is clearly underway, however, and there are myriad places to take photos of the rail support columns (no, they are not just clearing materials: there are pillars already finished!), building forms, equipment, and even construction diagrams displayed on signs. Strangely, the construction is wide open, with no barriers (as of Sunday) between Zinc's property and the (literal) tracks of the crane or vehicle roadways. By the way, I did not know there was so much land back there. If any of you visit, you will note a huge expanse - almost another Northpoint, but more banana shaped as it curves behind Sav-Mor and the Rt 28 bridge toward Somerville - that is nearly all dirt up to the extant tracks. All of it is being developed: from the aforementioned columns to the retaining walls, to grade leveling, to other processes that I do not recognize.

After writing this I really want to try to upload some images. In any case, if anyone visits, walk past the crane (behind Shell) and down toward the retaining wall: that's where are of the documents are. It's looking good!
 
I would use imgur as you don't need an account and it is easy to use and reliable in my experience.
 
Does anyone know what is being built along RT-2 between Vox on Two and Lake St.?
 
I noticed they knocked down the Lechmere car wash near Twin Rivers Plaza. What is being built there?
 
Photos to support my text (above):

4Uo2dK9.jpg


aXgvvRi.jpg


qJvkHsE.jpg


vNkMsyg.jpg


KsrhQW9.jpg


f0wSqGi.jpg


qxGULjT.jpg


dzi2jb6.jpg


oEJhnkE.jpg


b6zJUN1.jpg


8tEvvM2.jpg


jsLJzPF.jpg


gN010we.jpg


WO6pFLh.jpg


LUTaQEF.jpg
 
Last edited:
Nice photos. I was wondering what was going on behind the Shell Station and car wash. At least construction is getting closer to Lechemere. It seems that everything so far has been done in Medford and Somerville. I would like to see construction start at Lechmere so that the GLX becomes much more visible to persons who have to use the current Lechmere station (ie bus shack).
 
Any plans to develop this site?

Not until the Cambridge City Council gets the balls to start taxing the supposedly "nonprofit" owner or eminent domain the site. He's owned for a decade, claiming that he will build a performing arts center. Meanwhile, only a couple hundred k has been raised, most of which has been sent to send the owner on tours of the great performing arts centers of Europe. Last I checked, he wouldn't even comment on how much money is in the bank for the project. If he had to pay property tax, this would have been sold off long ago.

The lot ruins some of the few tendrils of real streetlife in Kendall (created by the neighboring cafes, bars, and farmers market). I fear Cambridge will turn it into another poorly-maintained "park" (read field) if it's not developed soon.
 
AP: Toyota invests $1 billion in artificial intelligence in US

AP said:
Toyota is investing $1 billion in a research company it's setting up in Silicon Valley to develop artificial intelligence and robotics, underlining the Japanese automaker's determination to lead in futuristic cars that drive themselves and apply the technology to other areas of daily life.

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda said Friday the company will start operating from January 2016, with 200 employees at a Silicon Valley facility near Stanford University. A second facility will be established near Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

The investment, which will be spread over five years, comes on top of $50 million Toyota announced earlier for artificial intelligence research at Stanford and MIT.
 
Part of 22 Water ST's roof is glowing blue tonight. It's nice, but apparently only one panel, facing due south toward Twenty|20. Perhaps they are testing it?
 
I walked past this building last Wednesday evening. I really love the materials and I'm especially interested to see what goes into that retail space (and how well/poorly it does).
 
A reference point as to what is driving the Cambridge building craze
from a recent Boston Globe brief story:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...er-invested/aAQEysH2qO0fBHTuXtEgrJ/story.html
Cambridge lab space doubles in worth in 18 months

In the latest example of the hot market for lab space in Cambridge, a building near the Alewife T station sold for twice what its owner paid for it 18 months ago. King Street Properties last week closed a deal to sell 200 CambridgePark Drive — a 99-percent-leased six-story laboratory building — to an arm of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing for $165.5 million. In June 2014, King Street bought the building for $39.75 million as part of a two-building, $54.5 million deal with Pfizer. It invested $44 million in improvements and tenant build-outs, and leased nearly all of its 221,000 square feet, attracting Celgene and Amgen as lead tenants. At nearly $750 per square foot, the deal is among the richest seen yet in Cambridge....

...King will continue to operate 200 CambridgePark on behalf of Morgan Stanley. It will still own 87 CambridgePark, which it also bought from Pfizer for $14.8 million. — TIM LOGAN
 
Time to upzone the parcels that'd be walkable to Alewife except that they are on the "wrong side of the [Fitchburg] tracks" and have them pay for a CR stop and pedestrian bridge.
 
Time to upzone the parcels that'd be walkable to Alewife except that they are on the "wrong side of the [Fitchburg] tracks" and have them pay for a CR stop and pedestrian bridge.

Arlington -- that is precisely what Cambridge seems to be looking at doing through spending a fair amount of money 200+ K$? to hire a consultant

I'd like to see a restructuring of the land surrounding Fresh Pond Shopping Center to allow a couple of moderate-scale towers that can connect to the back entrance to Alewife T and then those old Cambridge Fresh Pond Public Housing towers should be replaced by modern mixed income development including some mid-lux condos and apartments and some lower priced family housing
 

Back
Top