South Weymouth NAS Redevelopment | Southfield | Weymouth

stick n move said:
Since theres a massive housing crisis in the state and this project has mostly stalled/failed, but theres a ton of open land here close to Boston ready for redevelopment and a commuter rail station, I dont understand why they cant just lay down a bare bones street grid and build 100 5 over 1’s. That little tech city thing they planned was cute, but not gonna happen, so why not just build a shit ton of dense housing? Hell they could even find a way to fit some public housing in here too. The state should be really pushing to try to get something going here. The ironic part is that if they just threw a square street grid over the airport and then filled it in with 100 generic 5 over 1’s it would end up being a much more enjoyable and livable city than the masterplanned city they had planned before.
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I mean, there's a reason this project was a failure.
 
stick n move said:
Since theres a massive housing crisis in the state and this project has mostly stalled/failed, but theres a ton of open land here close to Boston ready for redevelopment and a commuter rail station, I dont understand why they cant just lay down a bare bones street grid and build 100 5 over 1’s. That little tech city thing they planned was cute, but not gonna happen, so why not just build a shit ton of dense housing? Hell they could even find a way to fit some public housing in here too. The state should be really pushing to try to get something going here. The ironic part is that if they just threw a square street grid over the airport and then filled it in with 100 generic 5 over 1’s it would end up being a much more enjoyable and livable city than the masterplanned city they had planned before.
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You just described Alewife ..
 
The folks in the area wanted to ensure that the NAS could never be considered as a reliever airport for Logan, while simultaneously preserving their towns in amber. In that light, the project is a smashing success.
 
This is very much alive with credible new developers, but it definitely won't be called "Union Point".

@BeeLine suggest renaming the thread to "South Weymouth NAS Redevelopment | SouthField".



bankerandtradesman.com

New Southfield Plan Includes Potential for More Housing - Banker & Tradesman

The Southfield Redevelopment Authority supported changes that would give the new master development team flexibility to build more housing depending upon market conditions.
bankerandtradesman.com bankerandtradesman.com

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They should not build any single family homes here whatsoever. Single family homes have no problem being built and can be built anywhere as basically everywhere is zoned for them. They should stick to mixed use and apartments/condos/lofts. This is a pretty big area that could really fit a huge amount of units if it was built dense, theres no reason to waste a ton of space on sfh’s. Theres a ton of potential here, the fact that they actually laid out a grid style street grid in the above pic is a good start.
 
stick n move said:
They should not build any single family homes here whatsoever. Single family homes have no problem being built and can be built anywhere as basically everywhere is zoned for them. They should stick to mixed use and apartments/condos/lofts. This is a pretty big area that could really fit a huge amount of units if it was built dense, theres no reason to waste a ton of space on sfh’s. Theres a ton of potential here, the fact that they actually laid out a grid style street grid in the above pic is a good start.
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Basically agree --- in practice loose zoning allowing say 4 plexes everywhere and townhouses would lead to some sfh's being built but I don't trust any Boston suburb to design an sfh district that's not horrendously exclusionary.
 
I may be showing my lack of knowledge on this comment (I'm not in real estate or town administration) but when there is this amount of land involved for development, wouldn't you think it would be mandatory for the developer to provide buildings, or at least land, for a new school, fire dept/ police, or minor sewer treatment plant?
 
Given that development hasn't exactly gone well, it's not surprising that they are doing SFH. Even a mill+ SFH would be an easier sell than 700k condos there. There's still a very large contingent that only wants SFH.
 
curcuas said:
Boston suburb to design an sfh district that's not horrendously exclusionary.
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New Construction has to be expensive enough for the numbers to work that it's going to be exclusionary. Just by the price.
 
The point of any of the NAS development isn’t to build anything. It’s to put a Sherman’s necktie in the in the way using the old NAS as a reliever for Logan. </cynicism>
 
RandomWalk said:
The point of any of the NAS development isn’t to build anything. It’s to put a Sherman’s necktie in the in the way using the old NAS as a reliever for Logan. </cynicism>
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Maybe at one point, but since the airfield is functionally gone I'd say that earth is pretty well salted.

If a developer is putting time and money into this, certainly their goal is to build something.
 
Also, 3,000 to 4,000 new homes is nothing to sneeze at when various estimates put us tens of thousands of units behind where we need to be just to meet current rental *or* purchase demand.
 
Apparently theres a private sports academy that has been built here that focuses exclusively on preparing kids to become professional hockey players by having them live, study, and practice all in one place.

From the site:

“Lovell Academy is a boarding school that allows players to skate multiple hours a day, engage in sport specific off-ice training and conditioning and focus on both academic and athletic success.”​

https://lovellacademy.org/academy-life/

Lovell academy
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Lovell arena (3 rinks)
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West rink
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East rink
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Center rink
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https://integratedbuilders.com/lovell-academy-dorms/

Living at Lovell Academy​

“All 132 student-athletes live, train, and attend school on our 55 acre campus.
The Lovell Academy building contains our academic spaces, our student cafeteria and lounges, and sets of 11 double rooms and a chaperone suite for each of our six teams, grouped together on separate hallways on the second and third floor. All building entrances and dorm rooms feature individualized coded security access.”

https://lovellacademy.org/




How it interfaces with the site:
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-So overall it looks like a high quality facility. I cant help but feel though like the way it interfaces with the area is just more of the same suburban disjointed mess. Its built on its own dead end road out in the woods away from everything else and will hardly interact with the rest of the development even when its “eventually” built out.

I feel like this could have been a great anchor project if it was built on the street grid around where the rest of the development is (slowly) happening. Like a college in larger cities a school and some hockey arenas could have been an anchor in the new fledgeling downtown. The students, their friends and families, competitors who travel here to play and their friends and families…etc would create foot traffic that could start to get a couple small businesses going when combined with the other people who live in the neighborhood. The arena probably could have even rented out bays to have concerts, shows, movie nights, flea markets… whatever when the neighborhood grew out a little more.

It wouldnt have been THE catalyst that makes this place start to happen, but it could been another small piece that slowly starts to make this place start to turn into a neighborhood (after they fix the ridiculously stupid street grid and lay down one that makes sense). As this exists now its just more shitty suburban sprawl type development going into one of the most prime real estate parcels left in the state where there is room to build a shit ton of housing all at once. Seems like a wasted opportunity imo.
 
Do they also teach curling, or are they renting ice to a club?
 
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