Potential Exelon Mystic Station Redevelopment | Everett

Equilibria

Equilibria

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This could go in several threads, but I'll spare the poor soccer stadium thread for now:

www.bostonglobe.com

Everett, Exelon go to war over power-plant taxes - The Boston Globe

The vast Mystic power plant campus offers one of the most promising development opportunities on Boston’s doorstep, with that $2.6 billion Encore casino now open across the street.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

Among the info in here:

- Exelon wants to sell (potentially) the power plant land closest to the Casino, but not the whole plant. It can't do it at the moment because of ongoing litigation with the City of Everett about the value of the property and back taxes (sounds like Everett made a bad deal and is trying to claw money back through the courts).

- The Globe is now repeating rumors (from Reddit :)) that Bob Kraft has bought the Gateway Center. FWIW, that same thread on Reddit also says Wynn bought the Gateway Center to use as a golf course. Neither is currently true - the property is still owned by DDR.
 
Equilibria said:
Among the info in here:

- Exelon wants to sell (potentially) the power plant land closest to the Casino, but not the whole plant. It can't do it at the moment because of ongoing litigation with the City of Everett about the value of the property and back taxes (sounds like Everett made a bad deal and is trying to claw money back through the courts).
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Is exelon saying they can't sell or are they saying they won't sell as leverage against the city? ... I bet the latter is closer to the truth. Their waterfront eyesore is both very valuable now and holding back the city. As a taxpayer I hope the city plays hardball too and holds excelon to every one of their commitments.

Equilibria said:
- The Globe is now repeating rumors (from Reddit :)) that Bob Kraft has bought the Gateway Center. FWIW, that same thread on Reddit also says Wynn bought the Gateway Center to use as a golf course. Neither is currently true - the property is still owned by DDR.
Click to expand...

Given that Kraft and Wynn made some connections with their casino deal that fell apart I could definitely see something come together in the area for a soccer stadium/entertainment/retail complex. But so many false starts at so many potential locations I think it is counterproductive to speculate. Any Kraft deal would require a lot of pieces to come together, but would fit together with the entertainment district concept nicely.
 
Equilibria said:
This could go in several threads, but I'll spare the poor soccer stadium thread for now:

www.bostonglobe.com

Everett, Exelon go to war over power-plant taxes - The Boston Globe

The vast Mystic power plant campus offers one of the most promising development opportunities on Boston’s doorstep, with that $2.6 billion Encore casino now open across the street.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

Among the info in here:

- Exelon wants to sell (potentially) the power plant land closest to the Casino, but not the whole plant. It can't do it at the moment because of ongoing litigation with the City of Everett about the value of the property and back taxes (sounds like Everett made a bad deal and is trying to claw money back through the courts).

- The Globe is now repeating rumors (from Reddit :)) that Bob Kraft has bought the Gateway Center. FWIW, that same thread on Reddit also says Wynn bought the Gateway Center to use as a golf course. Neither is currently true - the property is still owned by DDR.
Click to expand...

Is it time to set up a dedicated "Potential Exelon Mystic Station Redevelopment | Everett" thread?

There's plenty of discussion that can be had on this site, and (as Equilibria notes) there's currently no good place for it.
 
You're telling me the mural didn't cover it up enough?!?


1572980062520.png

1572980169630.png

SOURCE: https://www.bostonglobe.com/busines...ound-encore/8LFTfHXKA9sGM7ZeoMVrEN/story.html
 
FERC dismissed Exelons' subsidization demand to ISO NE, and power plant closure will go on. The old house Unit 7 and Mystic Jet will cease operations May 31, 2021, while Units 8 and 9 will be closed when the cost of service agreement expires in May 2024.
1598543678828.png



Look at the size of that waterfront plot! Everett better hurry up putting together a Master Plan for the area. https://massgaming.com/wp-content/u...ansportation-Planning-Project-Application.pdf
 
This is a big cross-thread topic, which I don't hope to master, but note that it plays out in all of:
1) This thread
2) The casino thread
3) Electric Transmission Woburn to Mystic which is the big power line running from the 'burbs to the core so as to bring in "replacement watts" to supplement / replace the core generation
 
Vagabond said:
FERC dismissed Exelons' subsidization demand to ISO NE, and power plant closure will go on. The old house Unit 7 and Mystic Jet will cease operations May 31, 2021, while Units 8 and 9 will be closed when the cost of service agreement expires in May 2024.
View attachment 6879


Look at the size of that waterfront plot! Everett better hurry up putting together a Master Plan for the area. https://massgaming.com/wp-content/u...ansportation-Planning-Project-Application.pdf
Click to expand...

This is HUGE news. Between Wellington, Assembly,Encore, Chelsea etc. from both sides - the Mystic is beginning to turn into quite the busy river cruise. This area is becoming so fascinating to watch.
 
How does the Opportunity Zone status of this area factor into any potential real estate development opportunities that will need to remediate the site first?
 
Please comment on my understanding of the parcels at stake here:

From Left to right
Burgundy = City of Boston territory; ancient bridge landing point

Blue = Power management & transmission. Probably PCBs galore. Landfill creation sometime around 1940

Lime = Oil fired generation; also 1940s era landfill

Red = Gas fired combined cycle generation (center) with cooling units (top & bottom); ancient brownfield side. Was coal piles in 1938 aerials

To me it is a bit strange that the super-efficient, gas-fired, combined cycle stuff (which is about as "decarbonized" as fossil generation gets); and built atop what may be the most coal-runoff polluted brownfield would be allowed to be retired before, say 2035.

mystic_station.png
 
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Semass said:
If you thought the Encore site was polluted...
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Yeah. Unless Wynn-world is the buyer and they're feeling uncharacteristically frisky after taking a big bottom-line dinger in COVID, I think we're going to be waiting a long-ass time to play SimCity with any of these parcels. Units 7, 8, 9 currently onsite were preceded by long-gone units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 built on the same footprint occupying the current units...and those were about eleventy times more polluting than these current plants which are already Top 5'ers statewide. No remediation was done to the footprint between demo/rebuild of the old-to-new units, so you're talking a century of dirty dirt cleanup. And possibly Superfund status since we won't really know how dirty it is until the current units are leveled.

Not only are site plans premature because of that...it might almost be better to assume they're 10+ years premature until proven otherwise by a full MassDEPA report showing exactly what we're dealing with. Also...before we get too far gone with crayon-doodling a playland here might as well get an answer as to how close to Alford the deepwater port access goes because that could get Massport involved stirring the pot on the dock space. Schnitzer Steel's ginormous scrap metal facility next door at the SW corner of the Everett Terminal property line does contribute daily Harbor barge traffic, so if DPA considerations rule we could be looking at a partitioning of "fun blocks" vs. "dirty-working blocks" with an extended Robin St. as demarcation point. Depends on whether a split-the-difference on future barge berth capacity is seen worth protecting next door to Schnitzer while pleasure boats dock physically closest to Alford.

But any which way, not the stuff of fast-developing timetable.
 
Arlington said:
To me it is a bit strange that the super-efficient, gas-fired, combined cycle stuff (which is about as "decarbonized" as fossil generation gets); and built atop what may be the most coal-runoff polluted brownfield would be allowed to be retired before, say 2035.
Click to expand...
Agreed, Mystic 8 and 9 (your red highlighting) are relatively new and clean. They were only brought online in 2003! They are planned to be replaced with Eversource and National Grid's "Ready Path Solution", but it's not immediately clear to me where the power behind that will be generated. I wonder if this is a "short term pain long term gain" situation, where it may lead to relatively dirtier energy in the near-term mid-2020s but set us up on a path for cleaner energy in the long-run.

It'll be interesting to see if Exelon also gives up on their LNG facility in Everett, which is just to the E out of picture in Arlington's screen shot. A closure of the Mystic Generating Station wouldn’t totally obviate the need for that infrastructure, but it would definitely decrease its importance. My understanding is that with domestic natural gas prices falling, Everett and Cove Point, MD are pretty much the only US facilities importing LNG.
F-Line to Dudley said:
Units 7, 8, 9 currently onsite were preceded by long-gone units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 built on the same footprint occupying the current units...and those were about eleventy times more polluting than these current plants which are already Top 5'ers statewide. No remediation was done to the footprint between demo/rebuild of the old-to-new units, so you're talking a century of dirty dirt cleanup. And possibly Superfund status since we won't really know how dirty it is until the current units are leveled.
Click to expand...
Very minor quibble: units 4, 5, and 6 are still standing on this site, even though they're out of comission.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Also...before we get too far gone with crayon-doodling a playland here might as well get an answer as to how close to Alford the deepwater port access goes because that could get Massport involved stirring the pot on the dock space. Schnitzer Steel's ginormous scrap metal facility next door at the SW corner of the Everett Terminal property line does contribute daily Harbor barge traffic, so if DPA considerations rule we could be looking at a partitioning of "fun blocks" vs. "dirty-working blocks" with an extended Robin St. as demarcation point. Depends on whether a split-the-difference on future barge berth capacity is seen worth protecting next door to Schnitzer while pleasure boats dock physically closest to Alford.

But any which way, not the stuff of fast-developing timetable.
Click to expand...

Out of morbid curiosity, I looked up the clearance beneath the Tobin Bridge... it's only 135 feet. Even if there is deepwater access to the site, that bridge clearance won't be letting any Panamax ships through (190') or even your run-of-the-mill 90,000-ton/2,000+ passenger cruise ships through anytime soon. So even though a "fun blocks" vs. "dirty-working blocks" could be a potential outcome based on your considerations, the vessel considerations rule out some prospective "crayon-doodling playland" scenarios (at least ones I had in mind).

Still... a "fun blocks" bound by water, Robin, and Alford Streets here amounts to a real estate footprint on par with the current Encore Boston Harbor. My suggestion: throw a couple thousand hotel rooms, actual waterfront dining, a retractable roof expansive resort swimming pool (akin to the Wynn Vegas pool), and a multi-purpose entertainment venue (theatre/boxing arena). Looking at Lechmere Canal in Cambridge for inspiration, maximize the waterfront at the site here with a similar canal and dedicated ferry terminal at Robin Street. Construct a Tangiers Outlet-style sky bridge over the shuttle bus entrance, a minor section of landscaping, and the intersection of Dexter Street & Broadway... given that the resort footprint is already elevated here, this would actually offer a relatively seamless connection from existing resort to the Exelon site.
 
I Drove by the power plant on R99 and saw guys building something next to the fence, I will see if can take pictures tomorrow
 
Here's a possibly dumb question.
Does the level of site remediation depend on the intended use of the planned project.
Say a certain mr. Kraft wanted to build an open air stadium, would the site require the same remediation as if it was earmarked for residence and hotel rooms?
 
At the very least I would like to see the tallest smokestack remain. At a full 500' it has really stood out as a landmark for my entire lifetime, particularly from my most attended view (Robbins Farm Park, Arlington, off Route 2). You know whatever replaces this will never come close to 500'.
 
DZH22 said:
At the very least I would like to see the tallest smokestack remain. At a full 500' it has really stood out as a landmark for my entire lifetime, particularly from my most attended view (Robbins Farm Park, Arlington, off Route 2). You know whatever replaces this will never come close to 500'.
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What is it about a tall smokestack makes it so great for a world class city in the 21st century? Is it just height? Baltimore has some really tall ones.
 
shmessy said:
What is it about a tall smokestack makes it so great for a world class city in the 21st century? Is it just height? Baltimore has some really tall ones.
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Yup, just a visual landmark is all. Historic reminder of Boston's industrial past. Plus, I just like tall things in general. I like the sense of awe and the sense of place of something that visually dominates its area.
 
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