Westwood Station Developments

Network Drive is the Sun Miicrosystems (now Oracle) office park.

A lot of what is shown in those photos, and listed in the left column, is in and around the Burlington Mall ... which is not reasonable walking distance to Network Drive.
 
Ron Newman said:
Network Drive is the Sun Miicrosystems (now Oracle) office park.

A lot of what is shown in those photos, and listed in the left column, is in and around the Burlington Mall ... which is not reasonable walking distance to Network Drive.
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Ron -- I don't think that the ad implies that you can walk to any of them

What the ad suggests is that all of those are easily accessible (on your way home driving)

If you recall back when Sun came east -- there was a huge commotion over how we were finally getting one of those self-contained glitzy west coast campus developments. It started off that way when they built a whole new road for the complex. Then after a few years Sun started to stumble on the hardware side as the power of PC's made UNIX workstations less viable and less high margin -- Sun then abandoned the expansion of the complex.

I think the complex which is likely to now be built-out and now will be combined with the rebuild of NW Park is a major improvement for Burlington -- no-one is suggesting it is Downtown Crossing or even Station Landing

from the Network Drive website

"Network Drive at Northwest Park sits on approximately 158 acres at the intersection of four major arteries: Route 128, Route 3, Route 62 and Middlesex Turnpike. Three campus entrances manage traffic flows to and from Network Drive itself. Convenient public transportation is available to and from Alewife (Red Line service) through the MBTA, and to Lowell via the Lowell Transport Authority. Network Drive offers 3,006 surface parking spaces, including 50 handicapped spots. In addition, Nordblom Company controls the adjacent Northwest Park, a 127-acre site zoned for 3.2 million s.f. of mixed-use development, providing additional amenities and expansion opportunities.



Built to institutional standards with an unmatched infrastructure, the properties at Network Drive at Northwest Park feature quality finishes throughout. The campus is dynamic encouraging interaction among tenants in the Amenities Center and within the beautifully landscaped grounds. The overall infrastructure is modern and robust, boasting redundant power feeds from Burlington and Bedford, large back-up generators and covered loading docks. Large tenants may take advantage of the campus’s unusually ample contiguous space, and have signage opportunities for corporate identity."
 
Another project back from the dead:
http://www.bostonherald.com/busines...w_owners_new_name/srvc=business&position=also
A group of top Hub real estate developers and investors has purchased Route 128’s long-stalled Westwood Station development out of foreclosure, with plans to finish part of it by 2014.

“We think we’re kind of the ‘dream team’ of the development world, and we’re going to take a fresh look at the property and come up with something really exciting,” said Ted Tye of National Development/Charles River Realty Investors, one of the 130-acre parcel’s new owners.

National Development teamed up with New England Development, Eastern Real Estate and Clarion Partners to buy the Westwood property for an undisclosed sum.


An old industrial park adjacent to the MBTA’s Route 128 Station, the site offers excellent access to Route 128, Interstate 95 and public transportation.

Amtrak’s high-speed Acela trains and other rail services stop at the Route 128 station.

So does the MBTA’s Providence/Stoughton commuter-rail line, which runs to downtown Boston in one direction and Providence’s T.F. Green Airport in the other.

The station also has a massive 2,600-space parking garage.

Cabot, Cabot & Forbes led the original effort to redevelop the site, with National Development serving as one of the project’s builders.

However, Cabot’s original plan to build shops, offices and residences stalled as the economy and real estate market tanked.

Construction of Dedham’s nearby Legacy Place shopping mall also cut into Westwood Station’s viability.

As a result, the project’s new owners have decided to reopen the development’s original plans and make changes to fit current market conditions.

“We know it’ll be a mixed use development that will include some offices, some retail and some residential,” Tye said. “But we’re going to take a fresh look at the property to see how it all fits together.”

New England Development chief Stephen Karp said Target, Wegmans and other big retailers have already “expressed strong interest in this location, and we anticipate that they will be key components of this new development.”

Reflecting the project’s fresh start, the new developers have also decided to rechristen the project “University Station.”

The new name reflects the property’s location at the intersection of Route 128 and University Avenue.
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More of this 'University' crap with now universities in site.


Whatever, interested to see what moves forward now. No mention of all the freight rail access, though? A pretty key component to Westwood's industrial park, I think.
 
BostonUrbEx said:
More of this 'University' crap with now universities in site.


Whatever, interested to see what moves forward now. No mention of all the freight rail access, though? A pretty key component to Westwood's industrial park, I think.
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The active business is pretty well tucked in on the Norwood side of the border at the very southwest corner of the industrial park. They can easily build mixed [whatever vaporware this umpteenth new developer wants before it stalls again] and the industry won't bother anyone. The two warehouses way back on Oceana Way are the most active shippers. The northern mini-yard tracks at Harvard St. abut 2 demolished lots. Not exactly a huge loss if those parcels go, but I have no idea how far back they want to build this utopia. It starts intermixing with other light industry the further back it stretches, and those are the companies that aren't moving so the easterly side of University Ave. starts becoming a more awkward coexistence after about 1/3 mile back of the station.

It doesn't seem like it's ever going to be possible to fill all that massive acreage with the hex this site is under. The article only mentions 130 acres. There's way more open space than that around it, so it sounds like this is centered mostly between the station driveway and Rosemont Rd. 130 acres is still a tall order at the rate this is going. They might as well just draw the line at Rosemont, concentrate on building up immediate density right by the station, plant a thick band of vegetation and maybe a sound-buffering grassy knoll separating the zones, and concede the backlots to being continued zoned industry. At some point they gotta choose between utopia that's never going to happen on the scale they want (if at all) and getting the biggest development space in town kicking in some viable revenue instead of being a property tax black hole for decades on end. That is the single-best open industrial location in the entire 128 belt for companies that have to do shipping. 128/1/95/24...bam!...right there. Norwood Airport...bam!...right there. CSX out of Readville...bam!...right there.

Home Depot sank some good coin 10+ years ago into their big warehouse on Oceana for a reason. But then again...that's right over the Norwood side of the border where that town was actively wooing industrial park business on their share of U Ave. Most of their non-wetlands lots are full and active and the empties are sandwich space between businesses...not the barren moonscape as far as the eye can see of the Westwood side. If Westwood weren't so stubborn holding out for the Landing utopia-or-bust they could've advertised and filled most of that rear space with similar-ilk industry by now and still been able to keep the northerly parcels abutting the station for mixed use. I mean, it is what it is...an island disconnected from the entirety of the residential street grid, backended by a half-mile of active-use industrial park that ain't going anywhere, and surrounded on 2-1/2 sides by the region's busiest highway interchange, miles of Neponset Reservation, and buffer land for the airport.


2014 target is laughable even if these developers can get something going. But if it all sits as dirt patch for the balance of the decade even the most stubborn 'burbs have to come to grips with reality...and the more expedient paths to tax revenues.
 
How did this street get that name, when there is no university anywhere near it?
 
But Westwood town meeting members are finally ready to get development at the 130-acre property near the town’s train station back on track.

The 2 million-square-foot project by New England Development, Eastern Development, and National Development will eventually include tenants Wegmans and Target, each occupying 130,000-square-foot anchor locations. The plan also calls for as many as 650 apartments and condos, other stores, offices, a hotel, and an assisted-living facility. About 550,000 square feet of retail space and 350 apartments will be built in the first phase of development.
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If approved, construction for the project would start over the summer with retail stores slated to open in the fall of 2014, and the apartments opening in spring of 2015
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http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/search/results?q=westwood
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
This is the development equivalent of 10 years of "Duke Nukem Forever's release is right around the corner!" :rolleyes:
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haha hopefully whenever this happens it's of higher quality than Duke Nukem Forever...otherwise we could be looking at some really, really bad development. Bluth Model Home type of bad.
 
God don't remind me of DNF. What a let down. Hopefully Half Life 3 doesn't match it.
 
tmac9wr said:
haha hopefully whenever this happens it's of higher quality than Duke Nukem Forever...otherwise we could be looking at some really, really bad development. Bluth Model Home type of bad.
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Oh boy, do I ever have some bad news for you my friend!!

getin.001.gif
 
But in all seriousness...

Premiums associated with structured parking and increased density made the previous project significantly more costly than the latest version. While New England Development Vice President Paul Cincotta said the scaled-down design does make the plan more palatable to residents, the reduced size was really a result of dampened demand. “We didn’t believe the development density that was proposed in the earlier Westwood Station project is a feasible plan today,” Cincotta said.
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This paragraph, and especially the part I emphasized, ought to give everyone cause for alarm.
 
Should it? I can think of a number of reasons why demand would drop for a suburban "fake neighborhood" development and most of them don't bother me at all.
 
Hutchison said:
Should it? I can think of a number of reasons why demand would drop for a suburban "fake neighborhood" development and most of them don't bother me at all.
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For a manufactured suburban neighborhood, sure.

But Route 128 is 15~20 minutes away from Boston, with great highway access, great rail access, the project to fix the 128/95/93 junction should in theory reconnect the area to the park land on the other side of the highway, and with the current political/development situation in Boston, having a literal wasteland in that particular location should be generating ridiculous amounts of demand to develop anything at all on the property.

The "hotel" part of this project is pathetic and I am stunned that nobody has apparently even put forth a plan for a more dense hotel - particularly since Boston's starting to have a real problem with hotel space as well, and a 1000-room hotel adds exactly 0 children to the school system, which seems to have been a constant refrain from the "concerned citizens." But, nope, we can't manage more than 160 rooms.

On the retail half of this fool's errand, we're promised half a million square feet of the latest and greatest in strip malls, anchored by - of all things - a Wegman's. Oh, and Target. Can't forget the Target, that's integral to this project's "success"!

Demand and opportunity abound here. The location at least should be generating far more noise, offers to buy/assume control of the project as a result of the fact that it's been languishing in development hell for so long we can make Duke Nukem Forever jokes about it. Instead, the best we can manage is a send-up for Anywhere, USA circa 1950 and even THAT is losing its attractiveness? The jokers running this project surely realize by now that the current model for what the project is going to become won't and can't work. Why are they pushing forward with "the same thing but less of it?" Why has nobody proposed something different?

Either Westwood NIMBYs have far more teeth than I thought, or we've got a huge problem.
 
Commuting Boston Student said:
For a manufactured suburban neighborhood, sure.

But Route 128 is 15~20 minutes away from Boston, with great highway access, great rail access, the project to fix the 128/95/93 junction should in theory reconnect the area to the park land on the other side of the highway, and with the current political/development situation in Boston, having a literal wasteland in that particular location should be generating ridiculous amounts of demand to develop anything at all on the property.

The "hotel" part of this project is pathetic and I am stunned that nobody has apparently even put forth a plan for a more dense hotel - particularly since Boston's starting to have a real problem with hotel space as well, and a 1000-room hotel adds exactly 0 children to the school system, which seems to have been a constant refrain from the "concerned citizens." But, nope, we can't manage more than 160 rooms.

On the retail half of this fool's errand, we're promised half a million square feet of the latest and greatest in strip malls, anchored by - of all things - a Wegman's. Oh, and Target. Can't forget the Target, that's integral to this project's "success"!

Demand and opportunity abound here. The location at least should be generating far more noise, offers to buy/assume control of the project as a result of the fact that it's been languishing in development hell for so long we can make Duke Nukem Forever jokes about it. Instead, the best we can manage is a send-up for Anywhere, USA circa 1950 and even THAT is losing its attractiveness? The jokers running this project surely realize by now that the current model for what the project is going to become won't and can't work. Why are they pushing forward with "the same thing but less of it?" Why has nobody proposed something different?

Either Westwood NIMBYs have far more teeth than I thought, or we've got a huge problem.
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I would much rather that location get a Target (the 128 belt's first, BTW - it's a huge pain to go to the one in Framingham) than another "lifestyle center" with a fake main street lined with bling outlet stores. Target is where actual people buy actual things, and the company seems genuinely open to some pedestrianization and transit access for their stores. Scollay Square isn't walking through that door, guys.
 
Vote passed, construction to begin later this year.

Paul Cincotta, vice-president of New England Development, said equipment and trailers will be brought to the site over the next couple of months to begin site preparation work for the first phase of the development. This will include 600,000 square feet of retail and service businesses, 350 residential units, and 16 acres of open space. This portion of the project received approval at the spring Town Meeting. Along with New England Development, National Development and Eastern Real Estate Partnership are the proponents for this project.
Cincotta said the first phase would include moving Rosemont Road, along with all the adjacent utilities, closer to Blue Hill Drive. No homes are on this road. “Rosemont Road has vacant land on either side of it,” said Cincotta. “It needs to be physically moved, that way it makes room for the residential which will be built and the Wegmens’ which will be built.”
Wegmans, a chain of grocery stores launched in 1916, is one of the two major retail companies which will be part of University Station. Target is the other. Cincotta said the actual construction won’t begin until later this year or early 2014.
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Full article:
http://www.wickedlocal.com/westwood...ion-could-begin-later-this-year#axzz2YCAZCOPe

I'd provide pictures but I drove by this morning, no activity yet.
 
The Current Project includes development of approximately 2.1 million square feet in multiple buildings and therefore is less than half the size of the Prior Project. Specifically, the Current Project includes: (i) approximately 750,000 square feet of retail/service or restaurant/entertainment uses; (ii) approximately 325,000 square feet of office or research and development space; (iii) approximately 650 residential units;
(iv) a hotel with approximately 160 rooms; and (v) an assisted living/memory care facility with approximately 100 units. Parking will provided on surface lots and in garages. A mix of uses is proposed in key development areas: the Core Development Areas 1-4; and Development Areas A-C (Figure S.3). Refer to Chapter 1, Project Description for further details.
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from the ENF. http://www.env.state.ma.us/mepa/mepadocs/2013/071013em/nps/npc/13826npc.pdf
 
I pass this site daily on my morning commute... there appears to be some heavy construction equipment on the outskirts of the project.
 
meddlepal said:
I pass this site daily on my morning commute... there appears to be some heavy construction equipment on the outskirts of the project.
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Yeah all that showed up just last week. They need to move the road that goes up to the NSTAR/State Street office (I think Rosemont Rd) before they do anything else so that is what most of those are for. Should start to see some actually activity in the next week or so.
 
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