Cambridge Infill and Small Developments

[Ron Newman]

You might be 'furious' but legally, if they have an office in Massachusetts they have to charge Massachusetts sales tax .. just like they charge Washington sales tax to customers in Washington.

 

[jass]

I am merely stating my concern that the state will quickly overreach as usual in its greedy hunger for funds to further the patronage empire and kill what could be another golden goose. I also would be quite furious if I had to start paying a sales tax on Amazon orders because they had a physical office presence in the state.

Boston's retail scene has become more and more homogenized over the past two decades; and even though there are more retailers, they all sell the same stuff. I don't want to have to drive out of the city to buy certain items, which can't be found at local stores, and the internet is a savior in that regard.

Ah yes, please, lets give a mega corporation a 6.25% tax break, on top of there already huge advantage in reduced operating cost.

Just remember, if amazon continues to have a tax advantage on top of their business advantage, they will destroy retail.

No B&M precense = no lease, no active store front, no employees, no electricity or water bill, etc etc

"but amazon hires thousands of warehouse workers, so the employee thing isnt a factor".

Bullshit, Target and such have just as many warehouse and IT workers, o top of the hundreds of thousands of local jobs.

 

[Oakley]

Ah yes, please, lets give a mega corporation a 6.25% tax break, on top of there already huge advantage in reduced operating cost.

Just remember, if amazon continues to have a tax advantage on top of their business advantage, they will destroy retail.

No B&M precense = no lease, no active store front, no employees, no electricity or water bill, etc etc

"but amazon hires thousands of warehouse workers, so the employee thing isnt a factor".

Bullshit, Target and such have just as many warehouse and IT workers, o top of the hundreds of thousands of local jobs.

Why is it Amazon's fault that they have a business advantage? That's the goal of any business.

 

[GW2500]

^^ I see no wrong with Amazon, but it does have the ability to take away store fronts, and that makes for a more boring city/life. It further allows people to become isolated and detached, it can erode away at common grounds which people would gather at. Maybe it's inevitable, hopefully street retail can survive and there can be a nice balance. B/c a city with out a healthy amount of retail, stores to walk into, would basically suck.

 

[jass]

Why is it Amazon's fault that they have a business advantage? That's the goal of any business.

Its not their fault they have a natural advantage.

Its their fault they actively lobby for tax exceptions on top of it.

 

[tmac9wr]

Its not their fault they have a natural advantage.

Its their fault they actively lobby for tax exceptions on top of it.

Whether we like it or not, that seems to be a game most of the big companies play.

 

[whighlander]

^^ I see no wrong with Amazon, but it does have the ability to take away store fronts, and that makes for a more boring city/life. It further allows people to become isolated and detached, it can erode away at common grounds which people would gather at. Maybe it's inevitable, hopefully street retail can survive and there can be a nice balance. B/c a city with out a healthy amount of retail, stores to walk into, would basically suck.

GW -- I'll bet that the same thing was said when Jordan and Marsh set up their Department Store which tried to sell everything from muffins to mufflers (both kinds)

Times they is a changin and elctronic / photonic retail is just part of the process -- say sayonara to Block Buster and the other video rentals while you are at it

 

[GW2500]

Oh I recognize its just the way things are going, but like I said, I hope a healthy balance will exist in the future.

 

[whighlander]

From the Cambridge City site

Top employers in Cambridge for 2011


1 HARVARD UNIVERSITY 10906
2 MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 7640
3 CITY OF CAMBRIDGE2 2947
4 NOVARTIS INSTITUTE FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH 2271
5 VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS3 1600
6 MT. AUBURN HOSPITAL 1558
7 DRAPER LABORATORY 1281
8 BIOGEN IDEC 1272
9 GENZYME CORPORATION 1259
10 CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE 1172
11 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 1144
12 MILLENNIUM PHARMACEUTICALS 1142
13 BROAD INSTITUTE 861
14 AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES 780
15 PFIZER 758
16 SPAULDING HOSPITAL CAMBRIDGE 700
17 MICROSOFT4 700
18 EF INTERNATIONAL 650
19 WHOLE FOODS4 643
20 FORRESTER RESEARCH 624
21 CAMP, DRESSER & MCKEE 601
22 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS 592
23 QUEST DIAGNOSTICS 523
24 PEGASYSTEMS 520
25 RAYTHEON BBN TECHNOLOGIES 510


Note that Cambridge is about to lose its 5 largest employer (Vertex) while gaining an additional outpost of Pfizer (the current Pfizer # is mostly the result of the acquisition of Wyeth by Pfizer) from the move of Pfizer Research from Connecticut

and

THIS STORY APPEARED IN Boston Globe
Calif. biotech moving to Mass.
December 22, 2011|By Robert Weisman


Former Genzyme executive John P. Butler is Inspiration Pharmaceuticals…
Cambridge is about to gain another promising biotechnology company.

Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals Inc., a seven-year-old California start-up working to bring a pair of hemophilia drugs to market in the United States and Europe in the next two years, will set up shop at One Kendall Square next month.

It plans to have 100 employees by the end of 2012, and 150 or more a year later, in space once occupied by Genzyme Corp. and Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc.

The company’s new chief executive, John P. Butler, 47, a former Genzyme senior executive who was recruited earlier this year to lead Inspiration, said moving it to Cambridge will help attract talented scientists and salespeople as Inspiration transitions from a virtual firm that farmed out its research to a commercial organization.

“We’re building a fully integrated company,’’ Butler said yesterday. “Ultimately, we’re a bricks-and-mortar company as of Jan. 1. Going forward, Cambridge is our address. We expect to have two products on the market in the second half of 2013.’

 

[Shepard]

There's a lot of developer interest in the courthouse redevelopment, apparently, but no specific proposals yet. At the same time, this is one of the boldest, most bloodthirsty NIMBY power grabs I've ever heard:

The answer disappointed the crowd of more than 50 people at the East Cambridge Planning Team-sponsored event, several of whom suggested lopping off some of the building’s 200-plus feet to bring it closer to what current zoning says is appropriate for the residential area: 80 feet.

Since city officials have told the state that a several-story parking garage across Second Street could be sold or leased long term as part of the redevelopment, recent City Council candidate Charles Marquardt wants the top several floors taken off the building and basically added atop the parking garage, resulting in a lower skyline but roughly equal density. Another resident merely told Harrell that, by having the courthouse forced on it in the 1970s despite protests, “this neighborhood has a burden. You should consider we’ve had the burden of this high-rise all these years, and this jail, and the traffic from the courthouse. I think it’s good for us to get something in return, some kind of remediation … take half the building off!”

http://www.cambridgeday.com/2012/01/12/overwhelming-interest-in-redeveloping-courthouse-state-says/

 

[Ron Newman]

A reasonable argument could be made for lopping off all the floors of that building and starting from scratch.

It really is in the middle of a residential area, surrounded by small two-lane streets.

 

[cozzyd]

A reasonable argument could be made for lopping off all the floors of that building and starting from scratch.

It really is in the middle of a residential area, surrounded by small two-lane streets.

It's also almost next to the Galleria, very close to Lechmere, and not far from Kendall and all the crazy new development along 3rd street. I kind of like the way it towers over East Cambridge. It looks better than the Miller River Apartments too.

 

[Boston02124]

today Harvard Sq area

Alewife

 

[Digital_Islandboy]

A reasonable argument could be made for lopping off all the floors of that building and starting from scratch.

It really is in the middle of a residential area, surrounded by small two-lane streets.

Probably not for long. Cambridge is going vertical in a big way since Rent Control went out the windows in the 1990s. The taller buildings of Kendal Square/Cambridge Center have been gradually spreading eastward. Genzyme's buildings tops out at 12 storeys and totals 350,000 sq. ft.
North Point has also hit some impressive heights at the other side of the city and that may naturally start to spread southward and meet somewhere in the middle. MIT's buildings are also getting taller and wider. Give it 20-30 years and that 22 storey courthouse may not be the tallest thing around any longer. The skyline of Kendal now looks like an extension of Downtown/Back Bay.
The "hi-rise" courthouse has/had elevators that go/went up to 16. Then everything above that is the jail (above the red doors.) Many Carmbridge development are clearly going to soon rival that highrise ("hi-rise" as they called it.)

 

[mass88]

Does Whole Foods have some management operations in Cambridge? I am going to assume they must given the high number of workers the have in Cambridge.

 

[Ron Newman]

Whole Foods has three stores in Cambridge, which is more than they have anywhere else in the Boston area.

 

[whighlander]

Perhaps in addition to the others already threaded: Novaris, 610 Main and the "Mega Lab" etc. - we should spin off the Kendall area of Cambridge as a separate general thread -- retaining stuff related to the Fogg, Rt-2 Apartments and Whole Foods , etc. for the generic Cambridge Developments

 

[JohnAKeith]

Whole Foods Fenway
Whole Foods Jamaica Plain
Whole Foods West End / Beacon Hill
Whole Foods Brighton

 

[Boston02124]

cool!

 

[datadyne007]

^^ Incredible view! Really looking forward to your update pix in the coming years!