Lynnport (Former GE Gear Plant) | Lynn

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Gear plant ‘ready to be sold’

By Thor Jourgensen / The Daily Item | Posted: Friday, January 31, 2014 3:00 am

LYNN — A 60-acre Lynnway site slated to be dangled in front of developers as early as next month is “probably the most valuable” land in Lynn, the city’s top development official says.

A General Electric gear plant once stood on the lot located near the General Edwards Bridge and the commuter rail tracks. The plant is gone, but Economic Development and Industrial Corporation Director James Cowdell said the site is a potential location for a 20-story development with a Boston skyline view.

“There will be a lot of interest in this land. It’s ready to be sold,” Cowdell said Thursday.

Cowdell said General Electric could advertise requests for proposals in February aimed at attracting developer interest in the gear plant land. River Works spokesman Richard Gorham on Thursday said GE is moving to advertise the land and work with the city to develop it.

In an electronic mail, Gorham said GE is not only going to seek development interest in the gear plant land through the request for proposal process.

“We expect to actively market the site,” he wrote, adding, “The Mayor (Judith Flanagan Kennedy) has expressed an interest in the site’s redevelopment and in touring the parcel, which we’ll schedule in the near future.”

Because it borders the commuter rail tracks, the gear plant site is located next to a train stop. Its location near the General Edwards Bridge — the major entrance to Lynn for drivers leaving Boston — any development on the land will help redefine what Cowdell called the city’s main gateway.

“You could build a high-rise there, and someone living in it could be in work in 20 minutes,” he said.

The plant was built in 1941 and, by 1971, had more than 800 workers employed in a 500,000-square-foot facility. The plant manufactured its last gears in December 2010, and GE executives briefly considered a plan in 2011 to manufacture locomotives at the gear plant before tearing it down.

Cowdell said initial environmental reports from the plant site are positive. Gorham said General Electric needs to “finalize some internal matters and ensure we have completed all agency/regulatory requirements” before marketing the site.

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Original Article Here.
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

"in an electronic mail..." is this 1994?

"Probably the most valuable land in Lynn" - I wonder what kind of brownfield clean up stuff will have to be done considering it had a manufacturing plant on it for 70 years.
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

"in an electronic mail..." is this 1994?

"Probably the most valuable land in Lynn" - I wonder what kind of brownfield clean up stuff will have to be done considering it had a manufacturing plant on it for 70 years.

Heh, they must have edited it because if you view the original article now it says "email."
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

Things are slowly moving behind the scenes:
http://www.itemlive.com/news/long-t...cle_13051eb2-5cf1-11e5-ae71-6b170d694a81.html

The developer can’t build shiny new transit oriented development unless Riverworks is a public station that people can use to get to work. The MBTA doesn’t want to build said transit station unless there are passengers there to use it. The article has plenty of optimistic quotes from officials and electeds, but someone’s going to have to pay to build a new station where the private GE stop now exists.
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

Things are slowly moving behind the scenes:
http://www.itemlive.com/news/long-t...cle_13051eb2-5cf1-11e5-ae71-6b170d694a81.html

The developer can’t build shiny new transit oriented development unless Riverworks is a public station that people can use to get to work. The MBTA doesn’t want to build said transit station unless there are passengers there to use it. The article has plenty of optimistic quotes from officials and electeds, but someone’s going to have to pay to build a new station where the private GE stop now exists.

Couldn't this be used somehow to leverage a BL extension? Why waste tax $ on a CR station? Invest in the BL instead.

...wishful thinking I know.
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

Couldn't this be used somehow to leverage a BL extension? Why waste tax $ on a CR station? Invest in the BL instead.

...wishful thinking I know.

We all know this would be the smart thing to do but that is not how things are done in Mass unfortunately
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

We all know this would be the smart thing to do but that is not how things are done in Mass unfortunately

What is the smart thing to do? Doubling the length of the blue line to serve one, maybe two additional stations? Where one of those stations has a 19 minute rail connection to downtown Boston already? At a cost of more.than a billion dollars?
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

Seems like a sad place for a residential tower. Sure, it will have a nice view of Boston and the ocean, but the surroundings are ugly and desolate. And what is the point of a tower when there is ample underutilized land at the site and all around it? I'm not sure what Lynn is going for here.
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

Lynn has big plans for their waterfront:

nG827kQ.jpg


Now, those plans were published eight years ago and haven't seen any progress, but they are out there. "Lynnport" would be the first, but if it's successful and already picked up the tab for the train station then there would be more money and development following it.
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

What is the smart thing to do? Doubling the length of the blue line to serve one, maybe two additional stations? Where one of those stations has a 19 minute rail connection to downtown Boston already? At a cost of more.than a billion dollars?

The line is only 6 miles long as it is, and there's no way the project costs more than a billion.Rapid transit isn't nearly the same thing as commuter rail, and considering the massive impact upon bus transfers and transportation on the North Shore, it's more than worth it. Planners have been recommending this since the fucking 20's, with plans calling for expansion to Lynn or beyond coming up every decade for almost 100 years.
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

Now, those plans were published eight years ago and haven't seen any progress, but they are out there.
These are still the guiding development docs in Lynn. I don't know if it'll ever get fully built out (definitely not anytime soon), but I know they're starting work on two of the parcels within the next year.
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

What is the smart thing to do? Doubling the length of the blue line to serve one, maybe two additional stations? Where one of those stations has a 19 minute rail connection to downtown Boston already? At a cost of more.than a billion dollars?

You mean Lynn? The city that bus data tells us is just screaming for rapid transit? Yeah, that is actually the smart thing to do. But we don't do smart things like think long-term in this city/state/country/world.
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

Lynn has big plans for their waterfront:

nG827kQ.jpg


Now, those plans were published eight years ago and haven't seen any progress, but they are out there. "Lynnport" would be the first, but if it's successful and already picked up the tab for the train station then there would be more money and development following it.

Now that they have the seasonal have Pumpkin Spice Lattes, then I'd call this progress: http://www.starbucks.com/store/1010019/us/821-lynnway/821-lynnway-lynn-ma-01905
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

What is the smart thing to do? Doubling the length of the blue line to serve one, maybe two additional stations? Where one of those stations has a 19 minute rail connection to downtown Boston already? At a cost of more.than a billion dollars?

Population of Lynn: 90,000
Lynn station to State Street station: 10 miles
Braintree to DTX: 12 miles
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

You mean Lynn? The city that bus data tells us is just screaming for rapid transit? Yeah, that is actually the smart thing to do. But we don't do smart things like think long-term in this city/state/country/world.

Increasing frequency of service with DMUs would be the smart thing to do in the near term. And also extending that more frequent service up to Salem so Lynn could hitch its economic progress to Boston AND Salem. I think even the MBTA plans called for more frequent service terminating at Lynn which I think fails to realize the reality of the good things that are happening in Salem.

I was a proponent of Blue Line extension for a while until the prospect of DMU service was on the horizon. On the minus side of a blue line extension... A Blue line extension has been opposed in Revere because it is disruptive and would require at least several eminent domain takings without any local benefit. Which itself has been enough to kill it. It would require at least one fairly big bridge and probably a couple overpasses near or across wetlands which increase cost and red tape quite a bit.

I think the only thing that could justify the cost of a blue line extension would be a route that took it directly up to the Lynn Waterfront in combination with a truly massive redevelopment there along the lines envisioned in their waterfront planning, but maybe even more so.

The more practical route of a blue line extension that would cut over/under Rt 1A to follow the ROW of the Commuter Rail wouldn't add nearly as much value to downtown Lynn compared with the value added with a new station closer to the waterfront redevelopment area.
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

Things are slowly moving behind the scenes:
http://www.itemlive.com/news/long-t...cle_13051eb2-5cf1-11e5-ae71-6b170d694a81.html

The developer can’t build shiny new transit oriented development unless Riverworks is a public station that people can use to get to work. The MBTA doesn’t want to build said transit station unless there are passengers there to use it. The article has plenty of optimistic quotes from officials and electeds, but someone’s going to have to pay to build a new station where the private GE stop now exists.

Just need to make the development big enough to justify it. But there is already a station there and I think the State should be trying to keep GE at their remaining facilities or even try and get them to create an innovation campus where they still have quite a large campus for the manufacturing of jet engines. GE Riverworks is just 45 minutes by CR/Green/Red Line to Kendall. And less than 20 minutes from North Station. I know they like their security over there, but I am surprised that GE and MIT don't make more (publicly) of the proximity to Kendall and MIT of these high tech facilities.

God knows we need more starbucks and condos, but there is truly something unique and strategically important in the GE Riverworks.
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

Let's keep this focused on the old GE plant, mods can you switch these posts over to the Blue-Lynn transit thread.

Now I'm going to break my own rule.

I was a proponent of Blue Line extension for a while until the prospect of DMU service was on the horizon. On the minus side of a blue line extension... A Blue line extension has been opposed in Revere because it is disruptive and would require at least several eminent domain takings without any local benefit. Which itself has been enough to kill it. It would require at least one fairly big bridge and probably a couple overpasses near or across wetlands which increase cost and red tape quite a bit.

That's not entirely true - if the MBTA goes with the old BRB&L ROW, then there will likely be some ED taking. But the state could just as easily (actually it'd be easier in the grand scheme) to spur out along the Eastern Division to Lynn. The ROW is wide enough to accommodate a BL extension. There will be some bridge work and some pretty steep environmental mitigation. Those are just extra costs, not engineering impossibilities. There is no better solution for the North than Blue-Lynn. DMUs won't run frequently enough to move people off the Wonderland busses and even the walk-ups might prefer just to hop the bus to proper rapid transit. F-Line has covered this somewhere, DMUs only stand a chance if you send them out to Salem - terminating at Lynn is begging failure.
 
Re: GE Gear Plant - Lynn

Just need to make the development big enough to justify it. But there is already a station there and I think the State should be trying to keep GE at their remaining facilities or even try and get them to create an innovation campus where they still have quite a large campus for the manufacturing of jet engines. GE Riverworks is just 45 minutes by CR/Green/Red Line to Kendall. And less than 20 minutes from North Station. I know they like their security over there, but I am surprised that GE and MIT don't make more (publicly) of the proximity to Kendall and MIT of these high tech facilities.

God knows we need more starbucks and condos, but there is truly something unique and strategically important in the GE Riverworks.

Tangent -- exactly -- GE Lynn has been a major source of innovation for generations [no -- well ok small pun intended]

It should be a priority to help GE stay as a working manufacturing facility in Lynn -- not just another place for software developers to hangout -- if you've seen the recent GE Software ads on TV

Perhaps a substantial complex with office space for the software types, some state of the art manufacturing / R&D facilities, and a "Google-Amest St.-type" residential tower with a couple of shops -- just might help keep a vibrant GE in Lynn
 

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