Somerville Infill and Small Developments

JumboBuc said:
come on Somerville, don't give this site away.
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You're totally right that, for what the developer is getting, this feels like a $1 sale. But given the fact the building was generating $0 in property taxes and has been a neighborhood blight since the school closed, I think this is shrewd dealmaking by both parties. Developer gets a massive lot for very little, but creates a marquee new building, new open spaces, and has 15 of the 40 units priced at below-market rates.

City gets little on the sale, but now has new tax revenue and a big boost to one of its least noticed neighborhoods.
 
kjdonovan said:
You're totally right that, for what the developer is getting, this feels like a $1 sale. But given the fact the building was generating $0 in property taxes and has been a neighborhood blight since the school closed, I think this is shrewd dealmaking by both parties. Developer gets a massive lot for very little, but creates a marquee new building, new open spaces, and has 15 of the 40 units priced at below-market rates.

City gets little on the sale, but now has new tax revenue and a big boost to one of its least noticed neighborhoods.
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Right, I get that property tax and overall project quality are just as, if not more, important than sales price. A valid argument can be made that giving properties to the highest bidder does not necessarily always lead to the best outcome. This has been discussed in the 111 Federal St thread, for example. But still, $2 million here seems ridiculously low. Every time a property is given to a hand-picked developer for less than market value, the potential for corruption and underhandedness grows. And the City of Somerville does not exactly have the best track record in picking and choosing developers and tenants.

This site has sat as a tax-less blight for years at no fault of the private real estate development market. The blame for all of those years of unrealized potential should be placed on the city for dragging its feet in offloading the property, the neighborhood for resisting development, and Tufts for totally dropping the ball when they had the chance to turn this site into something positive. If the city had simply put the site up for auction years ago we'd probably already have close to 100 people living there today.

I'd put this school in the same category as the former Star Market on Broadway in Winter Hill and the Social Security Building in Davis. All of these sites have sat blighted for way too long because the city has taken active steps to prevent their improvement, blocking good proposals in order to hold out for their conceived perfect.

All this being said, I'm glad that this site is finally moving towards redevelopment, and the early renders look pretty awesome. I just wish the process was quicker and cleaner, and I think it could be if we let it be steered a bit more by the market and less by the City.
 
kjdonovan said:
You're totally right that, for what the developer is getting, this feels like a $1 sale. But given the fact the building was generating $0 in property taxes and has been a neighborhood blight since the school closed, I think this is shrewd dealmaking by both parties. Developer gets a massive lot for very little, but creates a marquee new building, new open spaces, and has 15 of the 40 units priced at below-market rates.

City gets little on the sale, but now has new tax revenue and a big boost to one of its least noticed neighborhoods.
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Kidonovan -- this sounds like one that US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz might want to have some one look into before it goes too far

let's see valued at $7M sold for $2M to someone with inside connections -- HMMMMM
 
Some stuff from around the Porter/Union area, a few of these are a couple weeks old:

Beacon Hotel (intersection of Beacon & Oxford):
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Prospect/Webster:
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53 Kent Street:
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263 Beacon Street...apparently this is going to become off-site parking for a restaurant at Park & Beacon:
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There's also site clearing & foundation work going on across the street for 260 & 266 Beacon.
 
The Beacon Hotel is being done by the same folks behind the Porter Square Hotel (ex-Kaya) and the residential building at Upland & Mass Ave. Based on the construction pace at those sites, I expect the Beacon Hotel to open just in time for NYE 2100.
 
It looks like it was built upside down.
 
A higher ratio of glass to cladding would go a long way to making it less fortress-like.
 
This building is better now than it was previously on an order of magnitude comparing the universe to Earth, but archBoston still isn't pleased.
 
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I thought that was a computer rendering at first and then realized it really existed. That's pretty unfortunate.
 
This may look bad, but the living there is creative.
 
Justin7 said:
This may look bad, but the living there is creative.
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And the cold storage insulation -grade wall thickness can withstand a Category 37 hurricane to boot! It's the perfect luxury loft for hip urban doomsday preppers.
 
Beds on walls, toilets of ceilings. Couch and TV are in the kitchen. All very avant-garde.
 
Oh shit I had no idea. I remember that old beast. In that case it is a good conversion.
 
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