Cambridge Infill and Small Developments

DZH22 said:
This seems horrible to me. Why would anybody want to pay this much to share their common areas with complete strangers? It's like paying out your butt to live in a (barely) glorified dormitory.
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I agree. We don't need "innovative housing". We need innovative zoning.
 
briv said:
I agree. We don't need "innovative housing". We need innovative zoning.
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Absolutely -- why for example can't some start-up -- just do the starting in an appartment -- actually they do -- they just are not supposed to

Anyway -- if you want a whole lot (many pages of all sorts of material) on what people have been doing with respect ot the new K2 (that's Kendall Square(d) talk for Kendall Square rev 2.0

see the following
http://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/Projects/Planning/K2C2.aspx

and particularly
http://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/Projects/Planning/~/media/5D88786E35F342CA8665D7CA851532C4.ashx

and

http://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/Projects/Planning/~/media/B12253F09172472F944AE3F5BE20C598.ashx
 
How does one move between floors? Its like they forgot something
 
briv said:
I agree. We don't need "innovative housing". We need innovative zoning.
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Yeah, I have to agree, the idea looks pretty horrible. For an idea to lower housing costs for young adults, the price is still too high and the value is even worse by square feet. You don't solve high prices by building stuff that still cost in the unaffordabiltiy range - unless you intend the flood the market, but then it no longer building something that cost in the un-affordability range.
 
ant8904 said:
Yeah, I have to agree, the idea looks pretty horrible. For an idea to lower housing costs for young adults, the price is still too high and the value is even worse by square feet. You don't solve high prices by building stuff that still cost in the unaffordabiltiy range - unless you intend the flood the market, but then it no longer building something that cost in the un-affordability range.
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Ant -- what is unaffordable -- depends on the sub-market -- I'd bet that between Kendall / Cambrige Center area, the strip along the Charles, Northpoint and the rest of older, traditional East Cambridge / Central / Cambridgeport there will be something affordable for everyone who will work in Kendall and wants to live near-by
 
From the Herald,

Life Sciences Center mum on details as event nears
By Marie Szaniszlo | hursday, June 14, 2012

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center is poised to make a series of high-profile announcements at next week’s BIO conference but is keeping mum about most of them.

Susan Windham-Bannister, the center’s president and CEO, said she’ll be announcing the Massachusetts and Israeli teams that are the winners of the first round of new grants for research and development.

The center also will make an announcement involving a “very significant international collaboration” and another involving international companies and Massachusetts academic institutions, Windham-Bannister said, declining to detail either.

But if the Life Sciences Center has been reluctant to reveal its hand about next week’s news, it has been prolific in the number of events it has announced in the run-up to the conference.

Last Thursday, Windham-Bannister joined Gov. Deval Patrick at the ribbon-cutting for Navidea Biopharmaceuticals’ new offices in Andover.
On Monday, Patrick marked the opening of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s new research facility in Tewksbury.

The following day, the Life Sciences Center announced that Xenetic Biosciences, a British drug development company, plans to locate its drug-development offices in the Greater Boston area.

Then, yesterday, the center announced that Batavia Bioservices, headquartered in the Netherlands, has decided to open a U.S. facility in Woburn.

Today, Gov. Patrick is slated to attend the groundbreaking for the new Translational Center for the Cure of Diabetes at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. And tomorrow, Lt. Gov. Tim Murray is scheduled to attend a ribbon-cutting at Forma Therapeutics in Watertown.
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(Bolding mine.)

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/healthcare/view.bg?articleid=1061138867

Harvard is supposed to announce its plans for resuming construction of the science complex in Allston this month, so the announcement may be related to Harvard's plans as well.


 
TO give some superficial credit (I say that because I am not aware of all of the details of the program) but the $1billion bio-sciences program that Gov. Patrick announced a few years back at this conference seems to be going very well. These seems like a key area where public policy and support combined nicely with surrounding academic research a private sector interest. Lots of cranes building labs that will be filled with people having very good, stable jobs.

I just wish someone would find a way to build a better lab-at least at street level.
 
^^ Funny, the Globe ran a big story on this just yesterday saying the opposite.

Story here: "Initiative Brings Fewer Jobs Than Expected."

Key takeaway: 4.5 years ago Patrick promised 250,000 jobs over 10 years. To date 8,750 have been created due to the initiative, more than half of them temporary construction jobs (remember that many life sciences jobs would obviously have been created without the state spending, so this is presumably looking at jobs created due to Patrick's program).
 
Interest. I missed this. thanks! Definitely some mixed results.
I think in industries like this, however, most of the job gains are in the long run. With (and to a significant but probably slightly lesser extent without) this program there is an enormous cluster here. and when these companies move from R&D to commercialization there is enormous room for continued growth for manufacturing and company support (a la vertex builidng and hiring sales folks) that sets the area up nicely.
 
itchy said:
Key takeaway: 4.5 years ago Patrick promised 250,000 jobs over 10 years. To date 8,750 have been created due to the initiative, more than half of them temporary construction jobs (remember that many life sciences jobs would obviously have been created without the state spending, so this is presumably looking at jobs created due to Patrick's program).
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In all fairness, 4.5 years ago no one foresaw the economic meltdown from which we are still recovering.
 
dirtywater said:
In all fairness, 4.5 years ago no one foresaw the economic meltdown from which we are still recovering.
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If you REALLY want to be fair, then you'd agree that Ron Paul foresaw the economic meltdown... but I'm not about to turn this Cambridge threat into a political debate.
 
choo said:
Interest. I missed this. thanks! Definitely some mixed results.
I think in industries like this, however, most of the job gains are in the long run. With (and to a significant but probably slightly lesser extent without) this program there is an enormous cluster here. and when these companies move from R&D to commercialization there is enormous room for continued growth for manufacturing and company support (a la vertex builidng and hiring sales folks) that sets the area up nicely.
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In all fairness the Patrick B$ Bio initiative has probably benefited UMass Amherst the most from a productive standpoint -- and then the rest mostly benefited PR firms, restaurants, a few hotel ballrooms where the various self congratulatory functions have been held -- not much substantive -- certainly none of the cranes

Instead -what we are seeing in Kendall/SPID is the end result of a huge amount of basic research funded decade plus ago mostly by NIH leading to some number of start-ups funded by VC's (Vertex) -- multi-cranes --- coupled with a lot of major private $ from big pharma (Novartis, etc) -- more Cranes. The other major contribution is investment in the Human Genome Project mostly funded by DOE with a huge role played by MIT / Whitehead which in turn spawed the Broad Institute -- although it has yet to produce any commercial value -- it has produced Cranes
 
choo said:
Interest. I missed this. thanks! Definitely some mixed results.
I think in industries like this, however, most of the job gains are in the long run. With (and to a significant but probably slightly lesser extent without) this program there is an enormous cluster here. and when these companies move from R&D to commercialization there is enormous room for continued growth for manufacturing and company support (a la vertex builidng and hiring sales folks) that sets the area up nicely.
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Choo -- there is a lot less potential for manufacturing than you might think -- Vertex is not building manufactury in the SPID -- its quite possible that the drug might be manufactured in NJ or NC. Besides research and development - -the Vertex SPID buidings will host corporate Hq and sales. In fact of the major bio-pharmas in the Kendall / Cambridge Center only Genyme's facility on Storrow Dr. is a major drug manufactury. All the rest are either still in trials or they license the production and distribution to a traditional Big Pharma or they've been bought by a traditional Big Pharma to serve as an in-house source of Intelectual Property.

Indeed -- that's one of the major deceptions of the 1B$ Patrick Bio Initiative -- it was promised as a means to create factory jobs for Brockton, New Bedford, Fall River, perhaps even Chicopee and Springfield -- not likely. More likely if it ends up producing much of anything it'l be spin-off R&D companies coming out of UMass Amherst and possibly UMass Worcester Medical
 
Meanwhile in Cambridge -- Musical Chairs among the existing buildings
from the BBJ


Four companies have signed separate Cambridge office leases totaling more than 41,000 square feet.

Trimble Navigation, a provider of advanced positioning solutions, relocated to Four Cambridge Center, where it signed a 16,402-square-foot sub-lease on the 12th floor. Trimble, previously located at One Cambridge Center, moved to take advantage of the newly built-out and furnished space. The sub-landlord, Akamai Technologies, was represented by Cushman & Wakefield. The landlord is Boston Properties.

Samsung Information Systems America, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics that specializes in researching emerging technologies for new business, is expanding operations with a new office at One Cambridge Center. Samsung will occupy 11,478 square feet and plans to move in July. The landlord, Boston Properties, was represented by Richards, Barry Joyce & Partners.

Smartleaf, a provider of advanced overlay portfolio management solutions, is moving its headquarters to 210 Broadway, also known as 2 Cambridge Place, where it will occupy 7,735 square feet. The company, which currently occupies space at One Cambridge Center, is expanding to accommodate its growth and plans to be move in July. The landlord, BMR Broadway, was represented by Richards, Barry Joyce & Partners.

Ova Science, a fertility company, is relocating its headquarters to 215 First Street in Cambridge, where it will occupy 6,000 square feet. They were previously located in Boston’s Back Bay. The company is moving to take advantage of the area’s innovative culture and life sciences cluster. The Class A office building is part of the Alexandria Center, an 11-acre, $500 million laboratory, office, and residential complex in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. The company plans to be fully moved in July. The owner, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, was represented by Cushman & Wakefield.
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