Somerville Infill and Small Developments

The Commons at Prospect Hill, McGrath Highway living at its finest
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Brad Plaid said:
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Looked at a 2-bedroom here at the beginning of Covid. $5,200 for a top floor 2-bedroom to overlook all 8 lanes of McGrath Highway. Place was nice... price was not realistic for the area, especially not with all amenities shut down and no outdoor common spaces at all. At least, not realistic until they redo McGrath down to 4-5 lanes.
 
That building runs right up to the city line and stays entirely out of Somerville. Trying to reconcile the different city regulations, plus having different units go to different school districts, was a bridge too far.
 
The Broadway frontage is in Somerville. I guess it’s pay Somerville prices for Medford property, which is a win-win for the developer.
 
I looked at a few of the units in there last year. I was skeptical based on the outside, but the units were actually pretty nice, thoughtfully laid out, and not too expensive, plus the roof deck is cool. It’s a family developer/owner and they seemed to take pride in what they’d built. I ultimately bought a place elsewhere, but for a while I considered this building to be my “back up” option if I couldn’t find a condo I liked in Somerville.
 
LtKije said:
I looked at a few of the units in there last year. I was skeptical based on the outside, but the units were actually pretty nice, thoughtfully laid out, and not too expensive, plus the roof deck is cool. It’s a family developer/owner and they seemed to take pride in what they’d built. I ultimately bought a place elsewhere, but for a while I considered this building to be my “back up” option if I couldn’t find a condo I liked in Somerville.
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I always worry about the build quality internally... really hard to gauge sound proofing and other stuff.
 
I find I like "random bullshit but symmetrical" facade a LOT more than the usual random bullshit facade. It's still not... you know... great, but the symmetry helps a bunch there.
 
erom said:
I find I like "random bullshit but symmetrical" facade a LOT more than the usual random bullshit facade. It's still not... you know... great, but the symmetry helps a bunch there.
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Walk by this every day... I think this is the right design for a street-facing small format mixed building: Large windows, integrated outdoor space, unobtrusive colors, decent sized retail storefront.

I can also say that at least the workmanship has looked far better than the creature down the street over the course of the project.

BeeLine said:
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Brad Plaid said:
The Commons at Prospect Hill, McGrath Highway living at its finest
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It's kind of funny, the materials for floors 2, 3, and 4 are solid and respectable but the ground floor is totally garbage and uninviting. Usually the developer goes all in on the VE rather than whatever they did there...
 
LtKije said:
I looked at a few of the units in there last year. I was skeptical based on the outside, but the units were actually pretty nice, thoughtfully laid out, and not too expensive, plus the roof deck is cool. It’s a family developer/owner and they seemed to take pride in what they’d built. I ultimately bought a place elsewhere, but for a while I considered this building to be my “back up” option if I couldn’t find a condo I liked in Somerville.
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Yeah, the Zamuttos. All the townies are up in arms over the family apparently aggressively working to kick out Pini's pizzeria so that their own business Premiere on Broadway can have better prospects. The family has a townie empire which apparently includes, the Mediterranean-ish building with the pergola at 568 Broadway down the street, as well, as Dark Horse and Wangs. I guess they may have also got tired of being the owners of the Broadway d*ck block.
 
thx for sharing the article JS38. The first tenant at The Engine will be Commonwealth Fusion?! Now that is cool - talk about the future of energy. Eveytime I walk by there I’m going to be even more proud that I live in this community.
 
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