Riverside Development | 333 Grove Street | Newton

^In Caddyshack, Rodney Dangerfield plays Al Czervik, owner of Czervik Construction.
 
Equilibria said:
There may be other reasons why the Riverside Center has vacancy - leasing rates, contiguity of available space, issues finding subletters if a company moves out before lease end... it's hard to extrapolate from one building.
Click to expand...

Leasing rates for sure an issue, it's very likely that Riverside Center is at the top end for 128. But it's also pretty nice. If you were interested in only hiring workers who have a car (ie: older) I would definitely recommend it. Being on the Green Line makes no difference, as I mentioned 95%+ drove when I was there.

Still think any office space built is going to have a tough time attracting tenants. Maybe the developer is banking on stealing some of the tenants at Riverside Center?
 
New planning memo takes less of a stand, but includes decision dates in September (the City Council would vote on 9/24):

http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=97822

The neighborhood is very agitated, but I'm not sure what they think the product of that will be - the City seems very motivated to make this happen, and the only cohesive argument the neighbors made was the alternate development proposal that the Planning Department determined was financially unfeasible (and likely intentionally so). If the position of RightSize Riverside (the citizen group fighting both this and the Needham Street development) is that the developer's proposal is a monolith and they won't engage with/compromise with it, then they'll lose and Korff will get to build what he wants.

Folks are getting unfriendly, but that's not going to win them anything.

Also, can I again request a name change to "Riverside Station | 355 Grove Street | Newton"?
 
I hope they require the Developer to fully replace the hotel rooms lost from the Hotel Indigo. It's not a great hotel, but the near suburbs desperately need hotel rooms. Waltham is putting up a few more (Marriot x2 and Hampton Inn), but there is a dramatic shortage in this area specifically.
 
For those looking to support the Riverside development (and development in Newton more generally) get in contact with Engine 6. The website hasn't been updated in a bit but I'm told that they are pushing for this development to happen.
 
navigator4 said:
I hope they require the Developer to fully replace the hotel rooms lost from the Hotel Indigo. It's not a great hotel, but the near suburbs desperately need hotel rooms. Waltham is putting up a few more (Marriot x2 and Hampton Inn), but there is a dramatic shortage in this area specifically.
Click to expand...

I'd be surprised if the new hotel doesn't expand on the Indigo. It extends to the Indigo's roof height and sits on much lower ground.
 
Olive branch from Mark Development to the neighborhood City Council - lopped the top of of the tallest building. Always was going to be the sacrificial lamb.


www.bostonglobe.com

Developerâs plan for Riverside Station site is scaled back, but the opposition isnât likely to end - The Boston Globe

Mark Development has a modified plan, scaled back to 1.2 million square feet on 15 acres, with offices, a hotel, residential units, and restaurants and shops. But the oppositions isn’t apt to end.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

All the documentation continues to be available from the City on a dedicated site:

Newton, MA - Riverside

www.newtonma.gov www.newtonma.gov

Apparently the neighbors want to put this to a referendum, which would be about the dirtiest NIMBY thing imaginable (since, well, the developer would lose). I'd be pleasantly surprised if Newton became the first White suburb to endorse new housing and density at the ballot box, but well...
 
The tallish low highrise tower was eliminated right?
The Empire Strikes Back.
Newton sucks.
 
I'm gonna call it now: high-end 55+ community, scaled to mimic a village, and the largest structure will be the commuter garage.
 
HarvardP said:
I'm gonna call it now: high-end 55+ community, scaled to mimic a village, and the largest structure will be the commuter garage.
Click to expand...

I think that's unlikely with this developer. He has no projects like that on his resume, and he got Washington Place through with a one-floor reduction.

If he gets too frustrated with this, he'll do what he's already done in West Newton and go 40B. Then the ordinances are irrelevant.
 
We've become a miniature San Francisco, in terms of the absolute breaking point that we're soon going to reach on the cost of living in the metro statistical area..... We're a decade and a half behind SF in this process, but it's coming. In San Francisco, the scale of everything is far more totally insane. They actually build big where and when they need to--but, because just about every tech business on Earth wants to be there, it's never enough. We build small where we need to build big, and it's never enough.
 
Equilibria said:
Apparently someone at LFIA saw the light and sat down with Korff to hammer out a settlement. Minor reduction to just over a million SF (as outlined in September).

www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/99760
Click to expand...

And the Globe article:

www.bostonglobe.com

Neighbors, developer reach long-awaited accord on Riverside project in Newton - The Boston Globe

It looks like developer Robert Korff has finally found the right size for Riverside.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

I'm actually impressed by the LFIA's preference to resolve this with the current City Council. It's a tacit acknowledgement that in an election cycle focused on stopping new housing at the ballot box, the LFIA isn't looking to do that.

No idea what RightSize thinks of this, but the LFIA's endorsement probably means approval.
 
What's the right size? haha
As past is prologue, i know better than to click.
i predict cut by 67%.
 
Last edited:
You have to focus on the results, not the proposals. This is over a million sq ft they agreed to, thats huge. Honestly things are going pretty well lately. Yea things are getting scaled back, but not by much and theyre pretty much all going through. Both sides feel like they win, people get to negotiate, and then at the end of the day things get built. Instead of focusing on the proposed 1.5 million sq ft, focus on the 1 million plus were going to get out of this... win win.
 
Over a million square feet in NEWTON?? In a much more urban style than the rest of the city? This is seriously a historic moment.
 
Knowing that Riverside is a vast surface-lot wasteland that is terribly integrated into the river encircling it, in the abstract I love this proposal and hope it gets completed with lots of bike/riverwalk path features. That said, I haven't read the planning documents, but, is there any reference to a transportation management plan with the MBTA? Specifically, leaving aside traffic congestion during the regular workweek commute, I imagine it's pretty intense leading into Red Sox games and Fenway Park concerts? And that would be one case where the NIMBYs aren't being hysterically rabidly NIMBY. Just curious (and of course, maybe I'm wrong; maybe during Sox games/Fenway concerts it's not so bad...)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top