Quincy Center Redevelopment

Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

They are or just did remodel the front entrance. Not sure if it's any better, haven't seen the final.

Either way this was a spur in Quincy Center's development, or maybe it was Stop and Shop.... but there's two new apartment buildings close by and I think this and Stopie paved the way for them. Albeit 20 some years later.

At least one of them is very 'urban' and street level friendly. The other boarders this fairly close and may or may not be beneficial but there's not a TON of 'open space' with it so it's not bad at all for the area.

The 'Adams Green' is really a bad idea... Quincy Center T is not a fun place to wait for a bus and adding more area for drunks/homeless/loud Quincy kids/mentally ill/possible sexual offenders isn't a good idea. I know there's a lot of half-way houses and the like in the area so adding open space for them isn't a good thing. Quincy library does a good job of keeping them at bay with bright lighting. So if you have that open space, why more? Pretty sure this is gonna make traffic worse and improve nothing pedestrian-wise.
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

Suffolk 83 said:
The 'Adams Green' is really a bad idea... Quincy Center T is not a fun place to wait for a bus and adding more area for drunks/homeless/loud Quincy kids/mentally ill/possible sexual offenders isn't a good idea. I know there's a lot of half-way houses and the like in the area so adding open space for them isn't a good thing. Quincy library does a good job of keeping them at bay with bright lighting. So if you have that open space, why more? Pretty sure this is gonna make traffic worse and improve nothing pedestrian-wise.
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It's not a bad idea as long as it is fully thought out. If you want to cut down on undesirable people then design a space which encourages a lot of people to walk around, shop, and hang out. If there is a critical mass of people then the bums and kids won't hang out as much since they only hang out in places where they won't be hassled in the first place.

If, however, all they do is increase the park and not encourage pedestrian oriented development then what you predict will probably come true.

It isn't a matter of "If you build it, they will come" but rather "If you build it right, they will come". Too much third tier city urban renewal predicated on the former and we all know how that turned out. How many formerly industrial small cities have empty malls in the center of town? They built a suburb when they should have built a city.
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

But whether you have a city or a suburb, isn't a central park (common) a good idea? Boston has one, Cambridge has one, Waltham has one, why shouldn't Quincy?
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

Love how commenter are complaining about parking.

Also the guy holding the camera really needs to learn how to hold a camera. I thought I was going to vomit with those fly throughs.
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

While Quincy Center agreement was hashed out, developer snatched up downtown development rights

By Jack Encarnacao
The Patriot Ledger

Lawyers and financial analysts have spent the past year vetting an agreement governing the $1.3 billion redevelopment of Quincy Center, and as that has been happening, Street-Works LLC?s property arm has been making deals.

A company subsidiary named Hancock Adams LLC has secured development rights to 75 to 80 percent of the Quincy Center property Street-Works needs to execute its development plan.

Street-Works controls much of the land ? beyond the parcels owned by the city and investors Stop & Shop and Quincy Mutual Insurance Co. ? under what are called ?contracts to close.?

These private agreements pay landowners to reserve their property until Street-Works is ready to buy and redevelop it. Ken Narva, a managing partner at Street-Works, estimates that the deals will represent a $100 million investment by the company when all the sales go through.

?We had to establish credibility,? Narva said. ?We?re in it for a long-term return. We believe Quincy will become the second-most relevant city in the state.?

Narva said the company has ?talked to everybody? downtown and that ?all the large parcels are acquired.?

The contracts, and the lengthy Land Disposition Agreement with the city ? now being reviewed by the city council ? show potential investors that Street-Works has the property and the support it needs to carry out its development plan.

The options agreements, which vary in duration and payments, contain confidentiality clauses, meaning there are legal ramifications if property owners publicly reveal too much about their deals.

Street-Works is targeting 38 parcels downtown. It does not yet own any of the properties. Company officials declined to specify which properties Street-Works has rights to and which ones it is still trying to obtain rights to, worried that its negotiating power would be affected.

Joseph Zink, CEO of Atlantic Management of Framingham, which owns two commercial parcels on the Parkingway in Quincy, said he signed a Street-Works development contract because of the reputation the developer has had since pulling off similar projects in Connecticut, California and Maryland.

?When people have done it, their credibility is higher,? said Zink, a Randolph native who as a youth made shopping trips with his mother to Quincy Center. ?We spent many hours speaking with these guys, reviewing what they?re doing, and we feel confident. They have the vision, they have the capital, they have the staying power to put this together.?

Street-Works? plan calls for more than 1 million square feet of new office space, more than 700 housing units and 570,000 square feet of new retail and restaurant space. The development area encompasses about 2.7 million square feet.

Many of the uses will be under the same roof. The plan calls for street-level retail space with condominiums and offices above. A ?big-box? retailer is envisioned for the Ross Garage space, and a residential tower of 15 to 20 stories is planned for what is now the Hancock parking lot.

The first stage of development would take place on parking sites owned by the city. Quincy will not convey those properties until Street-Works has met requirements satisfied guarantees spelled out in the proposed Land Development Agreement.

When the construction plan calls for it, Street-Works will obtain properties, redevelop them and bring in investors, builders and tenants to occupy the new space. Boston-based construction giant Suffolk Construction has been hired to be the master builder.

Street-Works might sell or mortgage downtown property to successors, but it wouldremain the master developer. The company would establish joint corporations with companies that want to purchase new buildings instead of leasing them.

Street-Works first put down stakes in Quincy Center in 2005, when its Georgia-based financial partner, Village Place I Inc., purchased the landmark Granite Trust building for $8 million from Quincy Mutual Insurance Co. Quincy Mutual announced last year that it had joined the venture as a ?minority equity participant? in Hancock Adams LLC. Street-Works has an office in the art-deco Granite Trust building, which will be renovated into a residential building with street-level retail space.

The deal for the Granite Trust building was made as part of Stop & Shop?s search for a new headquarters site. Street-Works plans a ?state-of-the art medical wellness center? and retail in the supermarket chain?s current headquarters.

It is hoped that Stop & Shop, which has been moving employees out of the Quincy location in recent months, will elect to move workers into a 15-to-20-story corporate officer tower that Street-Works envisions at Hancock Street and Cottage Avenue.

?The plan is not hinged on whether they?re here or not but certainly it?s important,? Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch said of Stop & Shop.

Street-Works also envisions three residential towers of 15 and 20 stories in the district, as well as two hotels, a movie theater, a big-box store such as Target, and a food market such as Trader Joe?s.

http://www.patriotledger.com/multimedia/videos/x1594959833/Street-Works-plan-for-Quincy

Video
http://www.patriotledger.com/multimedia/videos/x1594959833/Street-Works-plan-for-Quincy

Other Video
http://www.patriotledger.com/multim...rks-presents-vision-of-downtown-Quincy?page=0
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

Sounds ambitious.

I like what I hear, minus the big-box retailer.
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

I have mixed feelings about this one; I like that the empty lots are being filled, but the built part of Quincy Center has character, and this sounds like it will turn it into Anyplace, USA...
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

but the built part of Quincy Center has character
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From the map, it certainly seems like they're planning to keep some of the buildings and go with adaptive reuse. So hopefully it won't end up looking like Legacy Place.
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

I'm cautiously optimistic. This sounds like a downtown mall but at the same time one which will integrate itself better into the urban fabric.
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

Center of attention
Quincy OKs $1.3b plan to modernize downtown
An aerial view of the heart of downtown Quincy, which approved a $1.3 billion development plan yesterday to remake its struggling center and shopping district into a new urban destination. (Matthew J. Lee/ Globe Staff)
By Casey Ross
Globe Staff / December 21, 2010
Quincy is getting its downtown back.

The city approved a $1.3 billion development plan yesterday to remake its struggling shopping district into a new urban destination, with more modern homes, restaurants, and retail stores.

The developer, Street-Works LLC of White Plains, N.Y., is seeking to rebuild Quincy Center essentially from scratch. The area will get new roads and parking garages, up to a dozen new buildings, and a four-acre public green connected to a new historic and cultural center.

The development, one of the largest pending construction projects in the state, is designed to reclaim what many mid-sized Massachusetts cities have lost: A reason for people to return to the downtown streets that were abandoned long ago for the climate-controlled convenience of suburban shopping malls.

?This is going to become a commercial district with tremendous vitality,?? said Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, a fervent backer of the effort. ?There will be beautiful public spaces, wide sidewalks, and cafe-style seating. It will be a place people will be proud to go.??

The City Council yesterday approved a development agreement calling for Street-Works to pay upfront for $227 million in road upgrades and other public improvements.

The city will reimburse that money but not until the project begins producing tax revenue. Construction work, including the relocation of Quincy Town Brook, is scheduled to begin in 2012.

The project still faces hurdles. Street-Works must get state and local approvals for individual phases of work, attract new tenants, and generate funding for construction in a shaky economy.

Kenneth Narva, the company?s managing director, said yesterday he is already in discussions with potential retail tenants and residential developers who would build the homes planned for the development.

?There is tremendous demand for this kind of dense urban living,?? Narva said. ?We are looking to take the best of the past from American and European cities and apply it here.??

The redeveloped Quincy Center will contain up to 1,200 new apartments and condominiums, more than 1 million square feet of offices, two hotels, a health and wellness center, and about 600,000 square feet of new restaurants and stores. The retail component is equivalent to an average-sized shopping mall.

But the key to the project, Narva said, is that the new Quincy Center will not feel like a shopping mall, but a dynamic urban downtown, with residents living above and around the new stores and other features.

One of the chief attractions will be the planned restructuring of the Adams Visitor Center and Adams National Park, the historic homes of presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

Street-Works has built similar urban redevelopment projects, including a $220 million project to remake several blocks of West Hartford, Conn., with new restaurants, a five-screen movie theater, and stores such as Crate & Barrel and REI, the outdoor sports retailer. Along with projects in Bethesda, Md., and San Jose, Calif., Street-Works helped create plans for a 66-acre development under way at Assembly Square in Somerville.

The first phase of the Quincy project will be the relocation of the brook and other infrastructure work, to be followed by the retail, offices, hotels, and finally, the residences.

Work on some residential units may begin earlier, but most will be built toward the end of the project.

Quincy officials estimate the project will create 4,100 construction jobs and 5,700 permanent jobs, and $17 million in annual tax revenue when the development is completed. Suffolk Construction of Boston will manage the construction of the project.

Casey Ross can be reached at cross@globe.com.


http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/12/21/quincy_oks_13b_plan_to_modernize_downtown/
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

As someone who has spent many an hour gridlocked (and often lost) in Quincy Center, I just hope to god they improve the vehicle flow too. Quincy Center is a nightmare to drive through. I like the idea of closing off that main "rotary" in front of the burial site as they call it and only allowing ped. traffic. I know they've proposed infrastructure upgrades, but closing off that through-way is going to dramatically increase the traffic load on the surrounding streets.

I completely agree that the city center needs a revitalization though and it's not misdirected by any means. Hopefully they can rebuild the QC T parking garage bigger and with a better entry location too. I can never find it.
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

I wonder where their financing is coming from. I can't imagine anyone willing to piss away a billion dollars on a well-established dump like Quincy while projects in better parts of Boston are struggling for a few hundred million. I'm betting this turns out a lot like Plymouth Rock Studios where their billion in financing was promised by some dubious Indian entity barely capable of financing a stand alone cell phone store.
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

kmp1284 said:
I wonder where their financing is coming from. I can't imagine anyone willing to piss away a billion dollars on a well-established dump like Quincy while projects in better parts of Boston are struggling for a few hundred million. I'm betting this turns out a lot like Plymouth Rock Studios where their billion in financing was promised by some dubious Indian entity barely capable of financing a stand alone cell phone store.
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^^^
Agree who would invest a billion dollars in Quincy. Must be some govt stimilus funds heading their way.
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

My main concern is Street-Works' ability to execute. They've already failed in Quincy with a much smaller project, buying and saving the Wollaston Theatre.
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

Well it certainly looks nice enough. My main concern is that traffic artery they are building, the Granite St Connector or whatever it's called. I just worry that it will cut off the "center" from the neighborhoods to the east and south. If this project is to succeed then it needs to integrate into the existing urban fabric (or improve it). I worry that it will still have the trappings of a suburban mall.

So, cautiously optimistic.
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

Kind of a Universal Studios Orlando approach to downtown development (although not as good in the detailing.)

The thing that killed downtown Quincy was the flight of big retailers to Braintree Plaza. This will flop too unless the developer has some commitments from some anchors. Downtown Westfield NJ this ain't.

Anyway, will Quincy have a bigger skyline than everything in NE except Boston, Hartford, Providence, New Haven, Worcester, Springfield, Stamford?
 
Re: $1 billion development proposed to reshape downtown Quincy

The new portion of the road isn't that long at all, maybe an 1/8th a mile. Most of it already exists and the traffic flow will be greatly improved around the new road. Traffic might be more gnarly around the church because they're cutting out some roads.

The neighborhood to the south is already cut off so it doesn't make a difference
 
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