Porter Square Infill and Small Developments

The house two doors down, with Mind’s Eye Yarn in it, is slated to become a clone of its modern neighbor. Now they just need to rebuild the street wall that the Porter Shopping Center parking obliterated.
 
Somerville’s permitting process beats Cambridgeany day! ;)

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“Cambridge real estate developer is seeking to put a four-story lab building in Porter Square, literally feet past Cambridge city limits in Somerville.

SGL Development has proposed to demolish two homes and a one-story print shop at 32, 40 and 44 White St., across from the Porter Square Shopping Center, in order to build a 42,000-square-foot R&D site on the parcels.

The properties sit on the Cambridge-Somerville border. The shopping center is in Cambridge, as is the commercial building next to 32 White St., the parcel closest to Porter Square.

Some Cambridge city councilors have expressed concerns about the addition of lab space in parts of the city like Porter Square. A pair of councilors put forward legislation last year to prohibit new lab development outside Kendall Square, Alewife and Cambridgeport. This spring, however, the Council moved instead to set up a working group to consider size limits and other restrictions on labs in city neighborhoods, rather than an outright ban.

“There’s an advantage in having a permitting process that’s more forgiving in Somerville, in regard to life sciences development in squares,” SGL principal Adam Siegel said.

Porter has seen little in the way of life sciences activity to date. Earlier this year, another developer proposed converting a three-story office building on Somerville Avenue into labs.

Somerville’s Davis Square, located just north of Porter, has seen a few smaller-scale lab proposals, including one that won approval on Elm Street last year that would be built above and around the beloved Burren Irish Pub, while displacing several other small businesses.

This will be the first life sciences project for SGL, which has focused on residential development. (The firm is working with Avison Young’s project management team on the proposal, Siegel said.) SGL was drawn to the location by its proximity to the Red Line and commuter rail and the nearby shopping options, according to Siegel.

Somerville’s planning board has scheduled its first hearing on SGL’s proposal for July 20. The project, located within blocks of the Porter Square MBTA station, would not have any on-site parking.

The development’s size would be a good fit for startups exiting incubator space or for a growing company looking to establish an auxiliary location, Siegel said.”


Very much pro-mixed-use development on under-utilized land, especially the miserable area right around the Porter Sq station, but my mantra of "First do no harm to net housing units" seems to be violated here. Is a lab building zoned here by-right? I can't think of another example in the Boston area where housing was removed for a modern lab building. Mostly it's been on old parking lots and warehouses in industrial zones. Don't think I like this plan.
 
Awww I have a weird fondness for that creepy wood shack...

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Somerville’s permitting process beats Cambridgeany day! ;)

View attachment 40103

“Cambridge real estate developer is seeking to put a four-story lab building in Porter Square, literally feet past Cambridge city limits in Somerville.

SGL Development has proposed to demolish two homes and a one-story print shop at 32, 40 and 44 White St., across from the Porter Square Shopping Center, in order to build a 42,000-square-foot R&D site on the parcels.

The properties sit on the Cambridge-Somerville border. The shopping center is in Cambridge, as is the commercial building next to 32 White St., the parcel closest to Porter Square.

Some Cambridge city councilors have expressed concerns about the addition of lab space in parts of the city like Porter Square. A pair of councilors put forward legislation last year to prohibit new lab development outside Kendall Square, Alewife and Cambridgeport. This spring, however, the Council moved instead to set up a working group to consider size limits and other restrictions on labs in city neighborhoods, rather than an outright ban.

“There’s an advantage in having a permitting process that’s more forgiving in Somerville, in regard to life sciences development in squares,” SGL principal Adam Siegel said.

Porter has seen little in the way of life sciences activity to date. Earlier this year, another developer proposed converting a three-story office building on Somerville Avenue into labs.

Somerville’s Davis Square, located just north of Porter, has seen a few smaller-scale lab proposals, including one that won approval on Elm Street last year that would be built above and around the beloved Burren Irish Pub, while displacing several other small businesses.

This will be the first life sciences project for SGL, which has focused on residential development. (The firm is working with Avison Young’s project management team on the proposal, Siegel said.) SGL was drawn to the location by its proximity to the Red Line and commuter rail and the nearby shopping options, according to Siegel.

Somerville’s planning board has scheduled its first hearing on SGL’s proposal for July 20. The project, located within blocks of the Porter Square MBTA station, would not have any on-site parking.

The development’s size would be a good fit for startups exiting incubator space or for a growing company looking to establish an auxiliary location, Siegel said.”

Project is dead after Somerville determined lab space should only account for 50% of square footage. Developer subsequently pulled their plans.
 
That developer seems like the lab equivalent of an HGTV-inspired flipper. They aren’t even interested in trying for anything other than a lab.
 
That developer seems like the lab equivalent of an HGTV-inspired flipper. They aren’t even interested in trying for anything other than a lab.

If this is the same SGL, it's even more confusing why they went for lab in the first place, considering their experience in housing and lack thereof in labs. Maybe multifamily wasn't penning out on the excel sheet.
 
As first mentioned up-thread at the time of some earlier-stage community meetings,
Developer is proceeding with plans for lab conversion of an old brick building near the heart of the Porter Sq.


^From therein (1/19/24):
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How is the Porter Square shopping center economically viable unless the land isn’t zoned well? It’s wild it’s not been developed to a higher and better use…

18 hour supermarket and 24 hour CVS serve a substantial local customer base. I think there's also a hardware store, bookstore, and a couple cheap/counter restaurants. For better or worse, that shopping center has essentially anchored the square for decades.
 
18 hour supermarket and 24 hour CVS serve a substantial local customer base. I think there's also a hardware store, bookstore, and a couple cheap/counter restaurants. For better or worse, that shopping center has essentially anchored the square for decades.
All those uses are great. But you could have all them, plus, say 5 stories of residential on top. (Or as tall as you want, that's just the height of adjacent buildings.) At the very least, a massive surface parking lot next to rapid transit is bad land use and a sign of some historical zoning problem.

Just an odd story, the history of the site is interesting. From 1813, it was a big estate with a mansion, massive lawns, and gardens. Cambridge and Somerville densified around it, but the family held on until the 1950s. By the time they sold it off, it was the perfect open plot for a newfangled strip mall/shopping center/parking lot. And that's how it's stayed ever since.
 
The family also tried to offer it to the city for park land, IIRC. However, the city said no thanks. I wonder how many North Cambridge NIMBYs would love to have a mulligan on that one.
 
All those uses are great. But you could have all them, plus, say 5 stories of residential on top. (Or as tall as you want, that's just the height of adjacent buildings.) At the very least, a massive surface parking lot next to rapid transit is bad land use and a sign of some historical zoning problem.
I would build a parking garage on part of the existing parking lot, and develop the rest of the parking lot into 5-story residential, keeping the retail stores already there in place.

Btw, I was a kid in the 1950s in N Cambridge when the shopping center opened, and it was pretty exciting for everyone. It was the first full-sized super market in North Cambridge, and there were a couple of department stores as well (plus small businesses including an awesome record store). However, ithe new shopping center did steal the retail thunder away from Davis Square, unfortunately, because it lacked the parking capacity and large supermarket.
 
If they could work out a parking light redevelopment that put in multiple buildings, that would be ideal. Alternatively, putting the parking underground would be an improvement over the existing setup.

Unfortunately, the easement for the Red Line probably makes any substantive changes nearly impossible to achieve.
 

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