Suffolk Downs Redevelopment | East Boston/Revere

[whighlander]

Whigh, Your view of Americans moving all the time is outdated. Housing costs and low wage growth/underemployment for most Americans is trapping people in place.

Brookings report from November 2019:
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-...d-fewer-than-10-of-americans-moved-in-a-year/

Jeff -- Brookings often finds exactly what they need to fit there thesis
Besides that kind of bias is widespread in a field where most of the measurements are based on questionnaires and interviews -- no hard data

However -- even assuming the data was on-the-mark -- We are still experiencing the repercussions of the very long slow climb out from the Great Recession -- witness the recent low birth rate. This recent period [US as a whole] is much like the birth-dearth that gave us the "Silent Generation" in the aftermath of the Crash and the beginnings of the Great Depression. Families, couldn't afford to or just didn't trust the economy to have many children and marriage was often delayed as well. It took the end of WWII to recover the positive feeling leading to the boomers.

Anyway -- all the above is generic to the US. Boston CSA has a quite different population dynamic -- as: if they weren't moving in, well we wouldn't be growing. We can't produce a sufficient workforce just due to our existing families. The Boston / Cambridge Knowledge economy depends on an a continuing influx of young professionals [pre-family and house in the suburbs] and also a smaller cadre of senior professionals as we constantly lose mid-career young professionals to the cost of housing and general cost of living.

 

[whighlander]

Whighlander outdated? No way-dude is cutting edge, up with the trends, has the pulse of the country!

Suffolk -- it doesn't take an advanced degree to read the local business related journals and some blogs -- I do it as a hobby -- it always amazes me how crappy is a lot of what passes as scholarship in the social sciences

 

[Javier]

Horse barns are gone

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

You can now self-teach a crash course in meteorology by studying the vortex patterns of blown bags and trash across that moonscape. Watch out for the squalls...they dump accumulation fast!

 

[Arlington]

Will they be raising the ground level to future proof this area?

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Will they be raising the ground level to future proof this area?

The area is well-buffered by the highlands at adjacent Orient Heights and Beachmont. Flood maps put immediate SD in the low/low-moderate flood stage, with biggest vulnerability being the Chelsea River side opposite 1A and ironically not the Belle Island Marsh side with the immediate-adjacent wetlands because of the marsh having multiple drainage points. To protect here you need to mound up flood barriers either by 1A or inside Global Petroleum's tank farm...not onsite @ SD. So it's doubtful they'll be building up the ground level onsite at all, as that's nowhere near the point of attack for stopping a major inundation.

Probably wouldn't cost much at all in resources or disruption to do up a stiff berm through the middle of the Global site.

 

[Equilibria]

Grievances resolved, looks like this is getting approved in two weeks:

Agreement on civil rights complaint may let massive Suffolk Downs project move forward - The Boston Globe

The BPDA is set to resolve a federal civil rights complaint, filed on behalf of two community organizations. It alleged that BPDA community meetings about Suffolk Downs failed to take into account the variety of languages spoken in East Boston.

www.bostonglobe.com

After all that bellyaching about "another White unaffordable Seaport", looks like the neighbors settled for translation services.

 

[Hydrobus]

Woohoo!

 

[HelloBostonHi]

It was approved tonight at 12:30am after a 7 hour mega meeting, with over 5 hours of public comment alone.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1309350357089353731

And the press release: https://mailchi.mp/boston/suffolk-d...s-and-affordable-housing-units-to-east-boston

 

[Vagabond]

This is going to be one of the first major developments designed from a clean-slate Post-Covid. Let's see how the new neighborhood will incorporate the often competing design goals of sustainability, resilience, energy efficiency, and now a focus on ventilation and personal space.

 

[type001]

This was all over WBZ 4 news today for what appeared to be a long segment.

 

[stick n move]

Not sure how much its changed but heres the Bbj render and article

 

[Vagabond]

First design I've seen in awhile of the Beachmont Station side - looks like they're going with a timber construction first building.

Leers Weinzapfel Associates breaks down how it got started with mass timber and current projects

Over the past ten years, Leers Weinzapfel Associates has emerged as a leader in the United States’s burgeoning mass timber design industry.

www.archpaper.com

 

[Vagabond]

Revere construction update [Can't find the presentation]:

"O’Brien gave a 40-minute presentation and update on the project, during which he announced the change in plans to build a five-story, 133-feet tall, life science center on Parcels R/10 and R/11, instead of the residential building that had been originally proposed. The plan to build two other residential buildings (with retail space on the first floor) and a hotel on the Revere portion of the site will go forward.

After updating the Council on the 60,000-square-foot commercial office building (innovation building), and the 25,000 square-feet of retail and 475 units of residence planned for Phase I of the project, O’Brien offered the specifics of the life science center proposal.

“Those two parcels, Parcels R/10 and R/11, were originally envisioned as residential parcels,” said O’Brien. “R/10 and R/11 are [now] projected to be lab and office and manufacturing facilities.”

According to O’Brien, the construction of the life science center could be completed by 2023."

http://reverejournal.com/2021/06/09/hym-proposes-to-build-500-million-life-science-center-at-suffolk-downs/

 

[Equilibria]

Globe with a render of the building:

More lab space coming, this time at Suffolk Downs - The Boston Globe

The plans originally called for housing, but the developer wants to capitalize on the strong demand from life sciences companies.

www.bostonglobe.com

Ugh. You know what's really an unmet need, Tom? AFFORDABLE HOUSING. I know you claim to still be building it, but the "current market" isn't geared toward life science space alone - that's BS. The development community is addicted to lab buildings like crack, and every municipality wants a cut of the tax revenue, and it will be the underprivileged who suffer.

 

[Blackbird]

Where are all the new scientists, engineers, and technicians supposed to live?

 

[Equilibria]

Where are all the new scientists, engineers, and technicians supposed to live?

In the renovated former homes of recent immigrant families in East Boston.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Globe with a render of the building:

More lab space coming, this time at Suffolk Downs - The Boston Globe

The plans originally called for housing, but the developer wants to capitalize on the strong demand from life sciences companies.

www.bostonglobe.com

Ugh. You know what's really an unmet need, Tom? AFFORDABLE HOUSING. I know you claim to still be building it, but the "current market" isn't geared toward life science space alone - that's BS. The development community is addicted to lab buildings like crack, and every municipality wants a cut of the tax revenue, and it will be the underprivileged who suffer.

Doesn't Boston have a requirement that x % of a development like this has to go to affordable housing?

 

[jklo]

Doesn't Boston have a requirement that x % of a development like this has to go to affordable housing?

% of residential units perhaps?

 

[Equilibria]

Doesn't Boston have a requirement that x % of a development like this has to go to affordable housing?

Yep, Boston does. These blocks are in Revere.