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Spaulding & Slye selected for 45-acre rail yard mixed-use redevelopment in Cambridge, MA |
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Spaulding & Slye selected for 45-acre rail yard mixed-use redevelopment in Cambridge, MA |
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Boston, MA -- (May 17, 2001) -- Guilford Transportation Industries yesterday announced that they had selected Spaulding & Slye Colliers of Boston to act as their development manager for their controversial plan to transform 45 acres of rail yards in East Cambridge into a new mixed use neighborhood of upscale residences and office space.
The project site, in an area of Cambridge known as North Point, is the last large parcel left for development in East Cambridge. Except for a six acre out-parcel (at the intersection of O'Brien Highway and Charlestown Avenue) it forms a triangle bordered by Somerville, the Museum Towers apartment complex, and the Monsignor O'Brien Highway.
Spaulding & Slye is currently the development manager on the Fan Pier development, another large mixed-use project on South Boston's waterfront for the Pritzker family from Chicago.
"This site is the largest piece of land available for development in the City of Cambridge," said Cambridge Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio. "With thorough and thoughtful planning that includes the East Cambridge community, City leaders and planners, the development of this unused industrial railway site presents enormous opportunities for housing, open space, transportation improvements and other improvements."
"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Guilford Transportation and the City of Cambridge on this exciting new development," said David Vickery, Spaulding & Slye's principal in charge, who will serve as project director. "This project promises to be a gateway to the City of Cambridge and, in partnership with Guilford Transportation, our goal is to create a project not only of outstanding design and enduring quality, but one that is an integral part of the fabric of Cambridge. I see just enormous opportunity in creating something that integrates the area into the rest of East Cambridge.''
In reflecting on the project, Guilford President David A. Fink said: "As a transportation company, we are excited about the potential which this project holds for integrating public transportation with the creation of a neighborhood where people now live, work, and enjoy everything that Cambridge and Boston have to offer."
"Working with this development team and the people of East Cambridge, we have the opportunity now to shape the future of the last large tract of undeveloped land in Cambridge," said Cambridge City Manager Robert W. Healy. "The potential for housing and open space is enormous and in conjunction with office and retail space, will transform the North Point area into an exciting and vibrant neighborhood."
The Portsmouth, N.H-based transportation firm headed by Tim Mellon and David Fink, whose affiliates own the newly launched Pan Am airline and a major New England and New York rail transportation business, plans to build thousands of housing units and more than a million square feet of office space on the site.
In 1999, Guilford proposed building a giant residential and commercial project near the Lechmere MBTA station. City officials and local residents who were caught by surprise at that announcement reacted negatively to their proposal. Subsequently a building moratorium on new development that was placed on the East Cambridge neighborhood until a planning review of the effects of new development for the entire neighborhood could be completed. The earlier development effort fell apart after ssignificant conflict of interest questions were raised about its previous development partner, Farmer & Flier Associates.
Ultimately a state probe cleared Farmer & Flier for its work on Guilford's East Cambridge project, which includes building a Lechmere station for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, while also managing projects for the MBTA at the time as participants in the development advisory firm Transit Realty Advisors.
David Fink, president of Guilford, said yesterday ``what we are trying to do is come up with something that is acceptable to the community.''
The project is expected to face serious opposition from Cambridge anti-development activists, who have been battling to curtail new construction across the city. There are at least two proposals in the works to reduce development that can be built on the East Cambridge rail yards.
Cambridge Mayor Anthony Galluccio has said he wants a number of units to be set aside for working- and middle-income renters, sources say. This would be in addition to current city requirements that 15 percent of all new residential projects be reserved for lower-income tenants under the City of Cambridge's inclusionary affordable housing ordinance.
State Rep. Timothy Toomey (D-East Cambridge) said he also wants residential units set aside for working- and middle-class tenants. Toomey said he wants the developers to build a large park, several acres in size, that would include playing fields.
``What I am supportive of is a mixed-use development,'' he said.