Waltham Infill and Small Developments

JumboBuc said:
^ Right, but it's on some back road in Waltham. It's nowhere even close to a prominent location. This is the exact sort of situation that calls for an inexpensive box that gives people a place to live.
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Oh, it wouldn't be cheap at all.

They are kind of right that it wouldn't really fit the area. However I do think they are more afraid of additional traffic on Winter Street which is still a disaster even after the changes. And yes it is not transit friendly. The businesses there do run a shuttle but it's mainly for reverse commuters.

Still, if the apartment manages to attract people who work at the Office Parks on Winter or Wyman - that's got to be better than the alternative.
 
_prw_OI1fl_cl8llxV2.jpg


Low resolution render for the 20 Cooper St development. 5 stories with 264 units. Construction started in February and should be complete by December 2017.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...ng-development-near-boston-usa-300230155.html
 
Kirsch Realty has begun utility work on the future Kirsch Place development project. A 3 Story building will be built on the property between Cherry Street & Myrtle Street. The building will contain 1st floor retail space with 2nd & 3rd floor office space with 4 residential units. 2 additional 3 story 6-unit apartment buildings will be built in the rear for a total of 16 units for entire development. The historic house at 550 Moody Street will be renovated and restored.
 
matredsoxfan said:
Kirsch Realty has begun utility work on the future Kirsch Place development project. A 3 Story building will be built on the property between Cherry Street & Myrtle Street. The building will contain 1st floor retail space with 2nd & 3rd floor office space with 4 residential units. 2 additional 3 story 6-unit apartment buildings will be built in the rear for a total of 16 units for entire development. The historic house at 550 Moody Street will be renovated and restored.
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It's not a /bad/ looking house and restoration would do it good but I'm not sure if I would call that historic...
 
Some slight movement on the 1265 Main project (sounds like this is for the upcoming Phase II):

http://www.lincolntown.org/Index.aspx?NID=791

A public meeting will be held on to receive advice and comments from the public on Thursday August 25, 2016 at 10:00am at the Flank Steak House Community Room, 74 Tower Road, Waltham followed by a site visit.

badb65_da3c5e07600e42dcb3b3b43640d02b62.png


More renderings here:
http://www.1265main.com/phase-ii
 
tjrileymass said:
A public meeting will be held to receive advice and comments from the public
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It still feels like some kind of absurd prank that there is both a Jake & Joe's and a Not Your Average Joe's within 1265 Main St., essentially abutting each other and with both their names on the wayfinding signage at the main entrance. I have no other comments.
 
DBM said:
It still feels like some kind of absurd prank that there is both a Jake & Joe's and a Not Your Average Joe's within 1265 Main St., essentially abutting each other and with both their names on the wayfinding signage at the main entrance. I have no other comments.
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I have gotten them confused too, you're not the only one.
 
It looks like 1265 Main Project construction has started. I worry that if this project contains lots of restaurants it'll hurt the restaurants along Moody street and Main street.

Merc on Moody and Main is doing well. Still no retail besides the banks though.

eqtv6v.jpg
 
tysmith95 said:
It looks like 1265 Main Project construction has started. I worry that if this project contains lots of restaurants it'll hurt the restaurants along Moody street and Main street.

Merc on Moody and Main is doing well. Still no retail besides the banks though.
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Phase I of the 1265 Main project finished in late 2014- as I understand it, there will be a series of road improvements around 128 that need to start construction before Phase II can begin.

More here:
http://waltham.wickedlocal.com/news/20160907/whats-next-for-1265-main
 
I meant to say phase 2 of the project. Prelim construction is occurring there, or at least it looked like it from Market Basket.
 
mass88 said:
I wonder how long it will take them to replace the 117 bridge over 128?
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Mass -- if history is any guide -- a long long time -- the bridge carrying Winter St / Totten Pond Rd. over Rt-128 took over 7 years from start to finish

of course if history is our guide it could be really quick -- the much more complicate bridge and ramps carrying Rt-2 over Rt-128 took less than 2 years start to almost finshed
 
mass88 said:
I wonder how long it will take them to replace the 117 bridge over 128?
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I don't think they're offering to pay for it, I think they're trying to enlist the public in lobbying MassDOT to do it. I don't believe that any redo of that interchange is in the current CIP, so unlikely before 2021, at least.
 
I checked the searchable MassDOT project list, and the 117 bridge doesn't even have a project entry. So the mention in the article is sitting at total ground-floor as a conceptual/advocacy proposal. It's yet to hit unfunded mandate status with an entry on the official project list, let alone get graduated to the real TIP.


It would be nice if this direct 128 access were configured as an extension of Bear Hill Road down Green St. by all the auto chop shops, feeding into the 20 rotary. Take the tiny brick-hut office building on the corner to square up the intersection for straight traffic, then compensate the junkyard for the easterly edge of their property (they'll probably take cash rather than strips of land-swap, since they don't even use their current westerly acreage). That would string together a complete west-side frontage road between the Totten Pond and 20 interchanges spanning all the office parks and Polaroid, take all that back-tracking traffic off residential Stow St., and open up the chop shop properties on Green to more valuable redev than the off-center dead end street currently accommodates. Reconfig of the 20 rotary would be mandatory, but I'd rather see a frontage that can serve more real estate development than 2 more legs of 128 ramps direct to 117 on an Exit 26 that already has an octupus-like 6 arms touching 128. It would be a simpler and vastly better-functioning rotary even with the plug-in frontage from Bear Hill/117 if they just cleaned up the geometry and busted down the 128 ramps to an even 4.

FWIW...that neverending joke of a Totten Pond interchange rebuild is a giant vat of FAIL itself with 3-4 legs too many. The traffic suffers greatly here because of all that development being bookended by two unnecessarily convoluted interchanges with too many moving parts turning too many separate directions. If even one of them got reconfiged into a more coherent layout things would be way better throughout the area even as absolute traffic volumes continue to increase from the new development.
 
tysmith95 said:
It looks like 1265 Main Project construction has started. I worry that if this project contains lots of restaurants it'll hurt the restaurants along Moody street and Main street.

Merc on Moody and Main is doing well. Still no retail besides the banks though.

eqtv6v.jpg
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Well, I see that the Biaggio Express right at the train tracks in downtown Waltham just closed--was probably premature in thinking it could capitalize on the pending opening of the Merc and its 100s of relatively affluent tenants. At least Gustazo's is still open, along with the relocated (from Harvard Sq.) Leo's Place. Brelundi's at the train tracks still doesn't seem to do any business, but the 2nd one just opened at the Watch Factory and I think they both might be vanity projects.

Finally--and I'm absolutely not making this up--I saw that a so-called "Rhino Lounge" just opened at the old Marcellino location on Cooper St., abutting the very large apartment complex build-out at 20 Cooper St.

http://rhino-lounge.com/

https://www.facebook.com/RhinoLounge.bar/

Just looks batshit bonkers cheeseball tacky but maybe it'll catch on?!?

No matter what, a tough tough location, even if they're betting on assistance from the apartment complex opening in... a year-plus...
 
tjrileymass said:
Phase I of the 1265 Main project finished in late 2014- as I understand it, there will be a series of road improvements around 128 that need to start construction before Phase II can begin.

More here:
http://waltham.wickedlocal.com/news/20160907/whats-next-for-1265-main
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Those are some pretty major infrastructure upgrades... About time. 117 has always needed better connection to 128 - the current connection is stupid. Also glad they're going to make alternate ways out of that office park - they should actually BUILD a proper road between Main and Totten Pond.
 
DBM said:
Well, I see that the Biaggio Express right at the train tracks in downtown Waltham just closed--was probably premature in thinking it could capitalize on the pending opening of the Merc and its 100s of relatively affluent tenants. At least Gustazo's is still open, along with the relocated (from Harvard Sq.) Leo's Place. Brelundi's at the train tracks still doesn't seem to do any business, but the 2nd one just opened at the Watch Factory and I think they both might be vanity projects.

Finally--and I'm absolutely not making this up--I saw that a so-called "Rhino Lounge" just opened at the old Marcellino location on Cooper St., abutting the very large apartment complex build-out at 20 Cooper St.

http://rhino-lounge.com/

https://www.facebook.com/RhinoLounge.bar/

Just looks batshit bonkers cheeseball tacky but maybe it'll catch on?!?

No matter what, a tough tough location, even if they're betting on assistance from the apartment complex opening in... a year-plus...
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Never heard about this Rhino lounge. And the images do make it look rather tacky to me too.

Brewer's Tap and Table will be opening in the old Watch Brewery place any day now. Dozens of beers on tap, 250 seat restaurant. These guys look pretty serious.

The Moody's Delicatessen guy will be bringing even more tasty meat to the area (a processing plant to bring up his production volume and a new storefront two doors down from the current one), and supposedly an oyster bar someday.
 
FK4 said:
Those are some pretty major infrastructure upgrades... About time. 117 has always needed better connection to 128 - the current connection is stupid. Also glad they're going to make alternate ways out of that office park - they should actually BUILD a proper road between Main and Totten Pond.
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Are they planning on connecting 3rd/5th Aves. to Tower/Border Rds. when the northern Polaroid parcels are fully graded? Based on the dirt truck access roads to that dig site there seems to be a template developing for a contiguous street grid connecting those roads together, but I can't tell if that's part of the final plan. Would bridge the gap between the 70, which stops inside the 117-facing grid, and the Alewife Shuttle bus, which stops inside the Totten Pond-facing grid.
 
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