Cambridge Infill and Small Developments

kz1000ps

kz1000ps

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I couldn't find any appropriate topic for this, so let this be the catch-bin where all random Cambridge projects go, such as whatever is going on at the corner of Brookline and Green streets (haven't been by a long time).

I took this around the beginning of last month, a fairly good looking building going up on Mass Ave. between Albany and Landsdowne streets.



and here's the back-story:

Novartis plans new Cambridge building
Boston Business Journal - August 26, 2005
by Mark Hollmer
Journal Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- The Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research plans to build a new five-story building next to its Massachusetts Avenue headquarters, the first major project for the Swiss company since completing its initial move here 16 months ago, generating hundreds of jobs in the process.

Novartis, a division of pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS), has inked a long-term lease with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to build a 60,000-square-foot building at 220 Mass. Ave., land that the university owns where Budget Rent A Car Inc. leases space in a single-floor building.

Novartis spokesman Jeff Lockwood said that the new construction would help the company relocate administrative people at 400 Technology Square in leased offices rather than accommodate a substantial hiring expansion. Observers say the planned construction is nonetheless significant.

"This is very good news," said Tanya Schnaydman, industry development manager for the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council industry group. "This means that Novartis is leveraging the fact that they are in Massachusetts to the best of their ability."

Novartis has gradually ramped up its employment levels since first coming to Cambridge three years ago to relocate its global research headquarters. The company now employs more than 1,000 people here, including more than 600 at its Necco building headquarters, 300 additional researchers at 100 Technology Square and its administrative staff at 400 Technology Square.

Details of the building are sketchy, but Lockwood said tentative plans passed the Cambridge planning board and recently earned zoning board approval, though an appeals period is under way. Lockwood said the company hopes to start the construction process by this fall and finish within a year.

Lockwood said Novartis is still working out the cost for designing and building the new structure. But if the company's most recent project is any indication, the investment will likely be significant. The company spent $200 million to renovate the former New England Confectionery Company building that became its 500,000-square-foot headquarters.

Novartis retained The Stubbins Associates Inc. and Tsoi Kobus & Associates Inc. in Cambridge to design its headquarters space. Elkus Manfredi in Boston is designing the new building, Lockwood said.

In addition to housing Novartis administrative staff, the new building will also feature ground-floor retail space, according to Beth Rubenstein, Cambridge's assistant city manager for community development.

"It's going to make a positive addition to the area," she said.

Mark Hollmer can be reached at mhollmer@bizjournals.com. Staff writer Michelle Hillman contributed to this report.

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2005/08/29/story5.html
 
Novartis just keeps on keepin' on..

Novartis Eyes Big Expansion in Cambridge


Boston Business Journal - November 10, 2006
by Michelle Hillman - Journal staff

CAMBRIDGE -- Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing plans to build a research facility as big as 500,000 square feet in Cambridge.

The two organizations have been in discussions on and off for about a year working out the deal's economics, according to sources who believe there's a strong chance an agreement will be reached. If consummated, Novartis -- already the largest tenant in Cambridge -- would occupy nearly 1.4 million square feet in Kendall Square.

Novartis is a division of Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS).

The talks are centered around the Osborne Triangle bounded by Main, Osborne and Albany streets.

Discussions have focused lately on two scenarios: Either MIT will build a new facility for Novartis and lease it back, or MIT will control the land but let Novartis build on it, according to sources.

An official from MIT's real estate department did not return calls for comment.

Brigitta Tadmor, a Novartis spokeswoman, said there are always discussions that are ongoing but wouldn't comment specifically about its future expansion plans.

"Since we are in the area ... they sporadically look at things," said Tadmor. "We are looking into all sorts of opportunities all the time" but nothing's been decided.

Last month, Novartis announced it would move executives from the vaccines and diagnostics division in Emeryville, Calif. to the East Coast. The division was formed when Novartis bought Chiron Corp. in April. Tadmor declined to provide any specifics regarding how many executives from the division would move because the discussions are "premature," she said.

Additionally, she would not say whether the East Coast location would be in Massachusetts.

Novartis previously had been looking at two existing buildings at 730 and 750 Main streets, which were Polaroid Corp. research facilities that MIT now owns and has been trying to lease as lab conversion sites for the past two to three years, said real estate executives who asked to remain anonymous.

The buildings are located across the street from the Technology Square complex.

One real estate executive familiar with Novartis' search for more space said it is possible the company and MIT could still strike a deal for the Main Street properties.

The empty buildings at 730 and 750 Main St. total 206,733 square feet and are in an "Industry B" district, which allows for all uses except housing and is the least restrictive zoning designation.

One source said there are parking constraints and the buildings don't line up with each other, making connecting them into one facility difficult.

Regardless of the outcome, the talks are clear indication that Novartis will stay and grow in Cambridge, said real estate executives.
Growth spurt

Novartis first established its worldwide R&D headquarters at the 480,000-square-foot former NECCO candy factory in 2002 and has been growing there ever since.

Among the operations the Swiss drug powerhouse performs here are research into treatments for diabetes, infectious diseases, cardiovascular ailments and cancer.

Last August, Novartis confirmed it would expand the facility at 250 Massachusetts Ave. and add a five-story, 68,000-square-feet building in place of a Budget Rent a Car site. Novartis employs 1,300 people in Cambridge.

Current zoning allows for another 63,501 square feet of development, but proposed projects of more than 50,000 square feet trigger a special permit process, said Liza Paden of Cambridge's Community Development Department. Paden said she's received calls from people who are curious about the property, which is one of the last large industrial sites left in East Cambridge.

"I think it has the interest of a lot of people," said Paden. "It's big buildings on big lots."

Another potential snag could be Novartis' preference for owning the real estate it occupies, and MIT is unlikely to sell its property outright, according to real estate sources familiar with the Swiss company's real estate strategy.

Recently, MIT sold everything but the land underneath the 1.2-million-square-foot, seven-building complex called Technology Square, where Novartis is a tenant.

If Novartis and MIT cannot strike a deal, sources indicated there are few existing alternatives in Cambridge -- the vacancy rate is 9.8 percent for lab property but in East Cambridge the lab vacancy drops to 6.3 percent.

Rents for lab space are rising as space evaporates, with lease rates approaching $70 per square foot in Class A buildings, according to a recent market report issued by Richards Barry Joyce & Partners LLC.

"In East Cambridge, in particular, the out-of-town companies are lining ups to be near each other," said Greg Larson, senior vice president at NAI Hunneman Commercial.

Michelle Hillman can be reached at mhillman@bizjournals.com.

http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/othercities/boston/stories/2006/11/13/story2.html?b=1163394000^1374368

And the site in question-
 
^ Just look at all those parking lots. What a depressing use of land.
 
I agree. I believe they are owned by MIT and essentially land-banked for future buildings. At least one of them has already been built over (the McGovern Institute).
 
REITs, limited supply drive lab space investment boom

Boston Business Journal - November 24, 2006
by Michelle Hillman - Journal staff

The real estate investment community has figured out the specialized life science market is the place to be, leading buyers to pay more than they ever have for lab property in Cambridge.

Two main factors have driven the five-fold increase in investment in life sciences property over the past three years: the limited supply of lab buildings on the market and the competition between two major life science real estate investment trusts.

This year alone, $823 million has been spent on 2.1 million square feet of lab property in Cambridge, said Brendan Carroll, director of research at Boston real estate firm Richards Barry Joyce & Partners LLC.

"We've seen a maturation of the investment industry surrounding the biotech industry that has created an accelerated pace," said Carroll.

Carroll said that until last year, the life science real estate investment market was insignificant. But just over the past two years, a total of $1.8 billion has been spent on 4.8 million square feet of lab property in Cambridge -- with $1.3 billion of that in 3.2 million square feet of lab space in East Cambridge, according to Richards Barry Joyce & Partners.

Before 2005 the only lab building sold in Cambridge was at 620 Memorial Drive, which sold for $46.5 million, or $508 per square foot. Now state-of-the-art lab buildings can sell for up to $1,000 per square foot. (note: class A and B office building 75-101 Federal St sold for $300/sf)

Two REITs -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. (NYSE: ARE) and BioMed Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: BMR), both California-based -- have forked over larger and larger sums of cash to acquire lab property in prime locations.

Over the past year, owners of life science property in Cambridge saw unprecedented interest in their properties, starting with the intense competition for Lyme Properties LLC's portfolio of seven properties, including Genzyme Corp.'s East Cambridge headquarters.

BioMed Realty pushed the market to new heights when it purchased the portfolio for $531 million in April -- the largest such sale of life science space in the country.

This week, BioMed confirmed it paid $507 million for Lyme's Center for Life Science in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area.

The building, at 3 Blackfan Circle, won't be finished until 2008.

By the time the building opens, BioMed plans to spend more than $700 million on the building or about $1,000 per-square-foot.

"It's more acceptable as an asset class, and that's why so many people are bidding on them," said Robert E. Griffin Jr. of Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts Inc. "People didn't understand it before."

In June of this year, Alexandria paid $600 million for the 1.2 million-square-foot Technology Square campus in East Cambridge, an indication of how high buyers were willing to go for one-of-a-kind assets in unbeatable locations.

As life science companies such as the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research Inc., Genzyme and Biogen Idec Inc. continue to expand and absorb what little new lab space is being constructed, lab property in Cambridge will continue to command high prices.

Griffin, whose company sold both the Technology Square campus on behalf of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Center for Life Science on behalf of Lyme Properties, said lab properties are expensive to build and therefore command high rents; the short supply of lab property makes for an attractive investment.

"Lab space gets more expensive, not less expensive," said Griffin about the resale potential.

As a result, just as many bidders are entering the race for lab property as they are for office space. The field has become crowded with as many as 20 bidders looking at lab property that five years ago may have only attracted two or three, said Frank Wuest, senior vice president at the Boston office of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc.

"The market today mirrors the overall capital market," said Wuest.

Michelle Hillman can be reached at mhillman@bizjournals.com.

? 2006 American City Business Journals, Inc.
 
Ron Newman said:
...land-banked for future buildings...
Click to expand...
"Land-banking" is corporate double-speak for trashing the city. You can plan for future expansion without tearing down buildings for parking lots.

Maybe we should land-bank Harvard Square for a glorious future.

Or we could land-bank the North End.
 
They land banked the Seaport for years and look how glorious it is now. They can land-bank my ass in hopes that it will grow.
 
Construction at Brookline and Green. It will be beige with red trim, as can be seen at the lower left corner of the building:





Excavation under way at 225 Prospect St.



Lastly, three buildings are/were in various states of demolition at ~190 Prospect. A one-story commercial building was already gone, the pile you see was a triple decker, and the building in the background has its siding removed





And at roughly 150 x 100 feet, it's a pretty big site

 
It's three lots assembled. The footprint will probably be too big, which is likely to make the building out of scale.

I might have advocated keeping the three-decker and the house and projecting the single-story building's footprint --along with the space of its four adjacent parking spaces-- to, say, 11 levels, maybe a bit higher. Ground floor commercial and one unit per floor. A slender slab with stairs and elevators as external elements, 1800 square feet per floor (3 BR or 2 BR "loft" units). Zoning and NIMBYs would have killed it.

Judging from the aerial, the ground plane of this part of Cambridge is becoming an asphalt wasteland.
 
Ron, I did google searches on everything from 194 to 178 Prospect Street in hopes of finding information for my post.. nothing came up.

And Ablarc, the "asphalt wasterland" you see is not felt from the ground level. I've walked that area many times (going to Inman Square) and there's no lack of enclosure to be seen walking that stretch. The office building at the intersection helps to give off the impression that there's a ton of paving around, but from the ground you don't notice it -- if anything the intersection consumes your attention. And elsewhere the gaps between buildings are narrow enough that it's not felt when strolling on by.
 
kz1000ps, if this site had a payroll, you'd be on it.

You need to get outta Berlklee and into a college with an architecture/urban planning program.
 
First, thanks for the gesture, lol.

Second, I started out at SUNY Buffalo as an arch major, but I hated the time consumption aspect to it and got out before the first semester was over. Maybe I'm lazy, but I really didn't like having no time to do anything but architecture. I've always been a music kid (I'm much better at music than I am at arch), and all of the sudden not having the time to enjoy some new music or be able to shed wood in a practice room for an hour or two really, really irked me.

So, after some convincing from a best friend who was also transferring from UB to Berklee, it is to here I came. And since I still have a buildings+cities obsession to satisfy (not to mention that I'm here in wonderful Boston), I walk around and take pictures, and you all benefit from it. :D
 
^ You wouldn't think Boston was wonderful at all reading this forum. :wink:
 
Is there a height limit in Cambridge or do high rises there top-out at what is economically feasible?
 
I'm sure it depends on the zone; you could not put a 20-story building in Porter Square, for instance.
 
225 Prospect



And ~190 Prospect



And just because I like it, here's yet another picture of the almost-complete Novartis building

 
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