Suffolk Downs Redevelopment | East Boston/Revere

Equilibria said:
Globe with a render of the building:

www.bostonglobe.com

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 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.
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O'Brien said nothing about the current market being geared to life sciences "alone" . Last 3 paragraphs of the article:
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"HYM plans to start work this year on two other buildings as well, a 44,000 square-foot office building and a 465-unit residential building. Indeed, a majority of the project’s 1.7 million-square-foot first phase will still be housing, as will much of the larger portion of the project that sits in Boston, where city officials have viewed Suffolk Downs as a once-in-a-generation chance to tackle the city’s housing shortage on a large scale.

O’Brien agrees, even if the current market is geared toward lab space.

“We committed to building 10,000 units of housing at Suffolk Downs,” he said. “We will find ways to do that.”
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This doesn't sound like a turn away from housing at all in the grand scheme of things. In fact, it seems pretty smart. Maybe liven up the area first, get the roads and utilities up, then build the housing. I'm in the 'trust, but verify' mode at this point.
 
RE Life Sciences space--be it at Suffolk Downs or anywhere else in Boston--Boston Business Journal had an article about this recently: What lab glut? Boston’s 'only scratching the surface' of biotech demand, panel says

I know a lot of it's behind a paywall, but here are a few highlights:
  • "Developers say the region is just getting started — in fact, that it hasn’t grown fast enough for the nearly 7 million square feet of demand from life-science users. That's up from the 1.9 million square feet of demand from just a year ago, according to a panel this week hosted by real estate industry group NAIOP Massachusetts."
  • "The Greater Boston metro area has captured 31% of all venture capital dollars going to U.S. life-sciences companies since the start of 2020 — and more money was invested in the region’s biotechs in four months than in any other year before 2020, according to JLL research."
  • "Some 8.1 million square feet of lab development is in the pipeline in Greater Boston. For projects that will deliver this year, 73% is pre-leased."
The switch to life sciences space isn't speculative or some kind of bubble--it's market driven. And given the uncertainties for many employers on longer term traditional office space needs post-COVID, pivoting to more life sciences real estate is a fiscally responsible move for many commercial developers. In many cases, it's the only viable path for them to secure financing. To HYM's credit, if they are successful leasing these life sciences spaces quickly at Suffolk Downs, it will not only accelerate the pace at which new housing can come online there, but may have a spillover impact on adjacent, non-Suffolk Downs real estate demand in Revere and Eastie. Say what you want about gentrification, the fact is that there is no shortage of neglected, older housing stock in the neighborhoods around here and an employment cluster at Suffolk Downs will only concentrate more reinvestment in the community.

This is good planning.
 
dshoost88 said:
RE Life Sciences space--be it at Suffolk Downs or anywhere else in Boston--Boston Business Journal had an article about this recently: What lab glut? Boston’s 'only scratching the surface' of biotech demand, panel says

I know a lot of it's behind a paywall, but here are a few highlights:
  • "Developers say the region is just getting started — in fact, that it hasn’t grown fast enough for the nearly 7 million square feet of demand from life-science users. That's up from the 1.9 million square feet of demand from just a year ago, according to a panel this week hosted by real estate industry group NAIOP Massachusetts."
  • "The Greater Boston metro area has captured 31% of all venture capital dollars going to U.S. life-sciences companies since the start of 2020 — and more money was invested in the region’s biotechs in four months than in any other year before 2020, according to JLL research."
  • "Some 8.1 million square feet of lab development is in the pipeline in Greater Boston. For projects that will deliver this year, 73% is pre-leased."
The switch to life sciences space isn't speculative or some kind of bubble--it's market driven. And given the uncertainties for many employers on longer term traditional office space needs post-COVID, pivoting to more life sciences real estate is a fiscally responsible move for many commercial developers. In many cases, it's the only viable path for them to secure financing. To HYM's credit, if they are successful leasing these life sciences spaces quickly at Suffolk Downs, it will not only accelerate the pace at which new housing can come online there, but may have a spillover impact on adjacent, non-Suffolk Downs real estate demand in Revere and Eastie. Say what you want about gentrification, the fact is that there is no shortage of neglected, older housing stock in the neighborhoods around here and an employment cluster at Suffolk Downs will only concentrate more reinvestment in the community.

This is good planning.
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If anything, from the initial look too much market housing was going to be on the Revere side and not enough commercial. Revere could use the taxes and jobs for the locals of all income levels. Schools and cops gotta get funded!
 
Charlie_mta said:
Yeah, but most of the total development area appears to be inside Boston. So why can't the Boston portion have any affordable housing?
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It will, otherwise I'd be surprised to see them fit all 10,000 res units in Revere...
 
Pretty poor ground floor activation in that render. Looks like how we used to build in Kendall 20+ years ago. There is a big fancy plaza across the street with a little kiosk. That would be a decent amenity for an office park, but pretty bad urbanism in my opinion. Do better please.

Maybe, if this is the back corner of the whole development area, it’s not so bad. But if it is remotely near the T or on the main street, it would be a real shame.
 
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Went digging for Suffolk downs updates...

BEACHMONT SIDE: Lab Approved

$500M+ Life Science Development Approved for Construction at Suffolk Downs

$500M+ Life Science Development Approved for Construction at Suffolk Downs
www.bldup.com www.bldup.com

Some new renders on the website:
1635963145092.png

1635963167744.png

1635963199369.png
 
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Here we go!

www.bostonglobe.com

At last, work begins on huge re-do of Suffolk Downs - The Boston Globe

Construction is finally underway on the first building at Suffolk Downs, the 161-acre former horse racing track straddling East Boston and Revere set to someday hold 16.5 million square feet of new development.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

A $280M biomanufacturing facility in Revere is the first building to break ground in massive redevelopment of former horse track

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I read somewhere recently that 1A North through this area has some of (if not THE) worst rush hour traffic in the state. Are we just dooming ourselves at this point by adding all these new buildings to a logistical nightmare of a neighborhood?
 
DZH22 said:
I read somewhere recently that 1A North through this area has some of (if not THE) worst rush hour traffic in the state. Are we just dooming ourselves at this point by adding all these new buildings to a logistical nightmare of a neighborhood?
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Two words- public transportation. My best friend lives down the street from here in Beachmont and he doesn't own a car for that reason. This neighborhood is being built around the idea that people working there will either live in or around there or rely on buses and/or the T to get in and out for work. As with all of these new urban neighborhoods, people who plan on living and/or working there have to understand the car constraints and that's certainly not unique to Boston.
 
gac108 said:
Two words- public transportation. My best friend lives down the street from here in Beachmont and he doesn't own a car for that reason. This neighborhood is being built around the idea that people working there will either live in or around there or rely on buses and/or the T to get in and out for work. As with all of these new urban neighborhoods, people who plan on living and/or working there have to understand the car constraints and that's certainly not unique to Boston.
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There's $41 million committed to improvements to 1A, and $20 million committed to improvements at Beachmont, Suffolk Reconstruction, Better Bus funding, as well as operational costs for additional blue line cars. Frankly, those numbers should be flipped if they are banking on public transit being the prime mode of transportation here, and those investments should already be committed by now, not later when they're earning cash by the truck load, which is what I presume is going to pan out. Suffolk Downs has to be among the worst stations in the system. How are you going to attract thousands of new residents and workers to use public transit that is generally good throughout the system but nearly decrepit by its doorstep?

HYM has committed $20 million in funding for public transit improvements in East Boston and Revere, including Blue Line subway enhancements, upgrades to Beachmont Station, the reconstruction of Suffolk Downs Station and Better Bus improvements. The company has also committed $41 million in funding for Route 1A upgrades and intersection improvements, and will fund the annual operating costs of an additional Blue Line train for 15 years.
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DZH22 said:
I read somewhere recently that 1A North through this area has some of (if not THE) worst rush hour traffic in the state. Are we just dooming ourselves at this point by adding all these new buildings to a logistical nightmare of a neighborhood?
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This building is literally next to the Blue Line Beachmont Station. Then there's also this from the article:

"...... Beyond the life science space, HYM plans to start construction within about a month on a 470-unit apartment building at Suffolk Downs. Both the first lab and residential buildings are expected to wrap up construction by the end of 2023, with tenants moving into the biotech facility by mid-2024......"

Perhaps the rest of the Suffolk Downs megalopolis will be a traffic nightmare, but this first part looks like Smart Growth to me.

The next obvious strategic traffic mitigation move to make is to finally execute the Blue-Red Connection. There's a Russian Madman pointing nukes at us. it's time to build our fucking society.
 
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shmessy said:
Perhaps the rest of the Suffolk Downs megalopolis will be a traffic nightmare, but this first part looks like Smart Growth to me.
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None of it should be a nightmare. There are two Blue Line stations serving the project area. People need to stop using cars where there is good transit.
 
HenryAlan said:
None of it should be a nightmare. There are two Blue Line stations serving the project area. People need to stop using cars where there is good transit.
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I don't know if this is reasonable vs crazy, but perhaps pull 90 north/east ~1 mi to Suffolk Downs, Make 1A the Frontage Road on either side and put up another toll gantry somewhere in the neighborhood of Bennington Street.

Keeps things moving and pulls in some cash to help offset the expense and also hopefully encourage people to think about Transit as a viable alternative? Maye a pipe dream it would curb driving behavior...
 
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