Westwood Station Developments

Crucial vote for Station project
Proposed limits called deal breaker
By James Vaznis, Globe Staff | June 14, 2007

A Special Town Meeting next Tuesday could drastically shrink the Westwood Station project by reducing building height, square-footage of stores, and the number of housing units.


Such a move would bring cheers from neighbors upset about traffic from the project, which they say would amount to a miniature city being built nearby. But town officials and developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes say the limitations, if approved, could make the project too small to be economically viable.

"There probably wouldn't be a project" if they pass, said Jay Doherty, president of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes. Yet he said he remained optimistic about next week's vote. "I'm not sitting here formulating plan B. I'm very hopeful voters will agree we should finish the work we've started with the Planning Board."

The Special Town Meeting comes as the massive development is in the final stages of Planning Board review for the special permit it needs. The articles to be presented at Town Meeting are widely considered a referendum on the project, which was first pitched more than two years ago, when town leaders approached Cabot, Cabot & Forbes about redeveloping the industrial area around University Avenue.

Project critics say they don't oppose having a Westwood Station, but they would like something smaller than what has been proposed: The $1.5 billion project, which would be anchored by an existing commuter rail stop, would create 1,000 housing units, 1.35 million square feet of retail, 1.5 million square feet of offices, and at least one hotel.

Construction would ideally start in the fall, if the developer receives a special permit and site plan approval this summer, with opening two years later.

"It's clearly going to permanently change the character of the town," said John Harding, a Forbes Road resident and attorney who filed eight petition warrant articles related to the Westwood Station project. "You are taking a mini-city and putting it right next to what is essentially a very small town. . . . It already can take you 45 minutes to go a couple of miles in town at the wrong time of day."

In recent days, worry over how much traffic the project would generate has intensified as opponents have circulated a leasing plan, a potential list of stores and restaurants for the project that includes Target, Best Buy, and other big-box retailers. The leasing plan is the first indication of what stores might be part of the project.

Cabot, Cabot & Forbes has declined to identify the retailers it hopes to attract, but opponents obtained the information from the web site of the developer's leasing partner, Robert K. Futterman & Associates, of New York City.

Doherty said the names on the leasing plan are not necessarily those that will be opening doors when the project is complete, and called the plan an "illustrative concept."

He stressed, however, that if a Target or Home Depot is built, it will be of high architectural quality with a parking garage.

"We are not going to build big metal boxes," he said, and later added, "Is a Border s at 35,000 square feet or a Whole Foods at 60,000 square feet a bad thing? Small is not necessarily better in the retail world."

The most controversial articles on Tuesday's Town Meeting warrant include:

Shrinking the number of housing units to a maximum of 500, from 1,000, which town officials say could cost the town $2 million annually in property tax revenue.

Keeping stores and restaurants to no more than 25,000 square feet, as a way to prevent construction of big-box stores, such as Target and Best Buy. However, the developer says large stores are necessary to draw in shoppers, who would then support the smaller stores and restaurants.

Limiting the height of a proposed hotel to six stories and other buildings to four stories. Currently, zoning allows hotels to be 10 stories and other buildings to be about six stories. The developer says tall buildings are necessary near the train stop because residents and workers need to be within 1,500 feet or so of the station to get them to use public transportation.

Other articles call for building an 8 -foot sound barrier and finding ways to prevent residential streets from being turned into short cuts to Westwood Station. The town and developer say they are negotiating those issues with residents, although residents say the talks are not going fast enough.

"I regret the articles became necessary for us to voice our concern," said Jim Fox, a director of the Whitewood Acres Neighborhood Association, a group representing one of the residential areas near the project, "but the developer has not taken one step to reduce the size of the project to retain the character of our small town."

The articles on the warrant are all proposed by citizens. Selectmen originally called the Special Town Meeting so that they could present two Westwood Station articles, to reconfigure a road and relocate a ramp for Route 128, which would connect to the station.

However, selectmen later realized the two articles would not be ready for a town vote on Tuesday and took them off the warrant. By then, it was too late to cancel the meeting because project critics already filed their petition articles.

"I respect what some of the residents are trying to do. I don't agree with it, but they are following the process," said Nancy Hyde, chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen. "I hope the articles are defeated."

The Finance Commission and the Economic Development Advisory Board both recommend votes on the petition articles Tuesday be postponed. The Planning Board will decide its recommendation at a meeting tomorrow evening.

Doherty said his company has been responsive to neighborhood concerns, noting, for instance, that it abandoned plans for a movie theater in light of resident protests.

Town Meeting voters have been supportive of the plan in the past, approving a series of zoning changes in the University Avenue area since May 2005 to allow for a project like Westwood Station.

Aside from the Westwood Station articles, the warrant contains one other article, which seeks an unspecified amount of money to build an artificial-turf field at the high school.

The Special Town Meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the high school gymnasium.

James Vaznis can be reached at jvaznis@globe.com.
 
which they say would amount to a miniature city being built
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Isn't that sort of the idea?


This is right next to a highway and has a train station. How silly one would think. Anyways, it will be a true shame if this project is canceled. It is my favorite project in MA outside of Boston.
 
10.jpg


^ What the Rose Kennedy Greenway should have looked like.
 
Voters support Westwood Station project
A developer of Westwood Station said that efforts to downsize and delay the project were defeated at a special Westwood town meeting last night by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.

Developers propose to replace the University Avenue industrial park in Westwood with a transit-oriented community with 1,000 residences, 1.5 million square feet of office space, retail shops and restaurants and two hotels; the project is near the MBTA's Route 128 Station.

"Residents voiced their overwhelming support for Westwood Station once again," Jay Doherty, president of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, a Boston real estate firm, said in a statement.

Besides Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, the project's development team includes New England Development and Commonfund Realty Inc.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)
 
Wow. What rare and excellent news.
 
Huge development set to get state OK
Westwood Station complex will boast residences, retail

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | November 2, 2007

The Patrick administration is expected to give its blessing today to the largest suburban development project ever in Massachusetts, the 4.5-million-square-foot Westwood Station.

The ambitious complex at the corner of Route 128 and Interstate 95 will include 1,000 residences, a hotel, up to 10 office buildings, and popular retailers Target, Eddie Bauer, Barnes & Noble, Coldwater Creek, Chico's, Talbot's, J.Jill, and Aeropostale, according to the developers.

Restaurants will include McCormick & Schmick's Seafood, Italian fare from Brio, a new Japanese concept by Benihana, California Pizza Kitchen, Fleming's steak house, RA Sushi, and the locally based Not Your Average Joe's.

Although some traffic and other issues remain to be worked out, Dan O'Connell, state secretary of Housing and Economic Development, said the issuance of a key environmental certificate "marks another step forward . . . but does so in a way which insures that the project will be accompanied by appropriate mitigation including significant transportation upgrades."

Ramps will be reconfigured at the developer's expense along Route 128 and I-95.

Westwood Station is also considered a so-called transit-oriented project because it is a compact, dense development that takes advantage of its proximity to a major transportation hub - the MBTA's 128 Station, with commuter rail and Amtrak service.

The office of Ian Bowles, secretary of energy and environmental affairs, said it could not confirm that the project will be approved, but executives on the development team said they expected a positive outcome.

Developer John J. Doherty, the president of Cabot Cabot & Forbes of New England Inc., said yesterday the years of planning to turn the 140-acre former industrial property into a lively 21st-century suburban village are nearly over.

One more comprehensive permit from the town of Westwood is expected by Thanksgiving, and then construction on a retail town center with three floors of condominium residences above can begin, he said.

Added Stephen Karp, the president of New England Development, which is handling the 1.3-million-square-foot retail element of Westwood Station: "It's a really great tenant mix, driven by all the great restaurants. We don't think there's anything like this in this part of the country, certainly of this scale."

Doherty said his company, along with partners Commonfund Realty Inc., and New England Development, are getting tax forgiveness from the town of about $20 million over 20 years to help offset the approximately $140 million in road, sewer, and other improvements they will make over the next two years.

The total development cost is expected to be about $1.5 billion over a decade. At full build, Westwood Station will pay about $15 million a year in taxes to Westwood, up from the $1.1 million the land is generating now.

The developers will demolish 1.2 million square feet of existing industrial and office buildings in about six months.

In their place will be: an eight-building town center with condos over retail stores; five more residential buildings as high as 10 floors each; nine office buildings ranging from 125,000 to 200,000 square feet each; eight parking garages with 12,500 spaces; and a Commons, a green space called "The Meadows," and other public areas totaling more than 40 acres.

The development will have direct access to the 128 Station platforms. University Avenue, now a straight-arrow road, will be replaced with a curved Westwood Station Boulevard.

Westwood Station's developers are aiming for a designation for environmentally friendly design and construction from the US Green Building Council, an influential industry group. Located on the site of four groundwater wells for Dedham and Westwood, the development will collect water from roofs and other surfaces to recharge the aquifer, and reuse some for irrigation.
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http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/11/02/huge_development_set_to_get_state_ok/
 
Westwood Station approved by town
Boston Business Journal

The mega mixed-use development called Westwood Station received unanimous approval from the town on Tuesday night.

Developers of the $4.5 million project will begin construction next month.

After three years of planning and permitting by the developers, Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, Commonfund Realty Inc. and New England Development, the Westwood Planning Board voted to approve the master plan special permit needed to build the project. Westwood Station is located on 140 acres of land adjacent to Route 128 and the Westwood Massachusetts Bay Transportation Area commuter rail station.

Earlier this month, Westwood Station received state approval when the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Agency issued a Final Environmental Impact Report. The development is a $1.5 billion project that includes 1.5 million square feet of office, 1.35 million square feet of retail, 1,000 residential units, two hotels and 40 acres of landscaped, green space. In July, the U.S. Green Building Council recognized Westwood Station for its sustainable design by choosing the project for its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) pilot program.

The first phase of Westwood Station, which includes approximately 90 retail shops and restaurants, a 125,000-square-foot office building and 500 residential units, is expected to open in the fall of 2009. Approximately 90 percent of the retail space is committed to high-end retailers and restaurants across the country looking to locate in the new development, which will be a destination for shopping and dining.

All contents of this site ? American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.
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Link

Has it really been three years since first hearing of this project? Man time has been flying by.
 
ooh, thats a bad typo. They mean its a 4.5 million square foot development, not that its going to cost 4.5 million dollars!
 
Everything's feasible, but an extension of the Orange Line to Westwood would be prohibitively expensive given the number of riders it would serve. The MBTA would probably need to purchase at least 5 more trainsets just to provide current headways during rush hour. If you turned some trains around at Forest Hills to reduce vehicle needs you'd just end up losing more of the likely very low ridership to commuter rail (which takes at least 10 minutes less to get downtown and operates at close to 15 minute headways during rush hour).
 
Looking at the impressive multimedia website for the Westwood station development www.westwoodstation.com -- it looks like the developer has done at Westwood Station what Station Landing should have done and what Assembly Square, Seaport Square, North Point, Southfield, River?s Edge, etc can still do ? the developer seems to have created what is essentially a traditional New England-style town / village center that is focused on the embedded Rail Station and also takes full advantage of the site?s being adjacent to Rt-128.

However, they should seriously encourage the T to take advantage of the electrification of the Amtrak main line to enable frequent single car self propelled commuter rail from Westwood Rt-128 Station to Back Bay and South Station. Since the ROW is used by Amtrak only about 10X each way per day ? the Commuter Rail shuttle could run about every 10 minutes all day long ? at the same degree of connectivity as the Green Line to North Point.

Westy
 
whighlander said:
Looking at the impressive multimedia website for the Westwood station development www.westwoodstation.com -- it looks like the developer has done at Westwood Station what Station Landing should have done and what Assembly Square, Seaport Square, North Point, Southfield, River?s Edge, etc can still do ? the developer seems to have created what is essentially a traditional New England-style town / village center that is focused on the embedded Rail Station and also takes full advantage of the site?s being adjacent to Rt-128.

However, they should seriously encourage the T to take advantage of the electrification of the Amtrak main line to enable frequent single car self propelled commuter rail from Westwood Rt-128 Station to Back Bay and South Station. Since the ROW is used by Amtrak only about 10X each way per day ? the Commuter Rail shuttle could run about every 10 minutes all day long ? at the same degree of connectivity as the Green Line to North Point.

Westy
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The ROW is used by 15+ AMTRAK trains each way on a weekday, plus perhaps double that number of MBTA trains. When they were scoping the electrification of the Northeast Corridor between New Haven and Boston, there was talk of four-tracking the Route 128 Station, and putting in a center island platform. But that was never done. Without four tracks between 128 and Readville, you cannot run the shuttle you propose.

Single car self-propelled commuter trains no longer operate in the U.S. Budd, which made such units, I think they were called RDCs, is now a long vanished business. The T refuses to spend money to buy electric motors for the commuter rail trains on the Attleboro/Providence route, which would help provide significantly faster service on that line, and perhaps even increase its capacity.
 
I live not too far from this area and could provide periodic progress pictures (pardon my Dr. Suessian word selection) to anyone with the ability to post them (I am unable/to stupid to do so).
 
I can't offer to take the responsibility of posting them with regularity, but i can give you the easy solution: go to www.picoodle.com, click "browse," select your photo, click, "upload," and copy and paste the link here. You don't need to be a member (but you can sign up if you want and they'll store the photos in an album for you), and you don't need to know any of the codes and jargon used in the forum. Simply copy the link and paste it here and you're done.

In anycase, I hope you work it out, I'd love to see the pictures of this, alliteration and all.
 
I've been working on this project for the better part of 2 years. We're about 4 weeks into construction right now, things are moving at a nice pace.
 
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