As the new Arsenal Yards begins to take shape, developers have changed plans for the last building in the project, shifting the 130-foot Building G from condos to a lab and office building.
In December, Boylston Properties withdrew a request to the Town to allow them to make Building G a 197 foot apartment tower, 67 feet higher than allowed by Watertown’s zoning rules. They will soon submit plans for a new building that they hope to lease to biotech companies.
Bill McQuillan, principal of Boylston Properties, believes Arsenal Yards will be an attractive place for biotech companies to be, noting that they have had strong interest for research and development space on the second floor of Building A.
“Lab technology companies are hiring highly educated, pretty high income folks,” McQuillan said. “Those folks want what Arsenal Yards has: coffee places, restaurants, prepared food from Roche Bros., apartments to live in.”
Watertown has become an attractive place for biotech and other R&D firms, with new and renovated facilities such as Linx off Arsenal Street, 65 Grove Street and the Riverworks on Pleasant Street housing those sorts of companies.
Along with the amenities that Arsenal Yards will be able to offer, McQuillan said they will offer lower rents than the biotech hub of the area, Kendall Square in Cambridge.
“Our rents will be two-thirds of Kendall Square,” McQuillan said.
Switching Directions
While he heard from some designers who live in town who favored the taller residential building, McQuillan quoted his mother when asked why Boyslton Properties made the switch to a biotech lab building: “You have two ears and one mouth. We listened to community consensus.”
He added that Boylston Properties will keep control of the building, rather than selling it to a residential management company as planned if it had been a condo building.
The switch from residential to lab/office also came about because developers did not think they could make money off a shorter apartment building, said Andrew Copelotti, principal with Boylston Propertes.
A 130 foot building with the same number of apartments as a 197 foot one would have created a donut like design, and the apartments on one side would be close to Building F (a garage, with apartments on top and Roche Bros. and other retailers on the bottom).
“The problem with a 130 foot tall building is the first nine floors (don’t work),” Copelotti said.
They also explored a 130-foot building with a smaller footprint, like the 197 foot proposal, but Copelotti said that would not have been economically feasible. At only 12 stories, it would have missed out on the higher rents that can be charged for the units on the floors 13 and above.
The newest rendition of Building G will have a similar size and shape as the 130 foot apartment building, Copelotti said, and will likely have more glass on the exterior.
“It will have the same massing,” Copelotti said. “The gross square footage will drop 48,000 sq. ft.”
Biotech labs require taller ceilings to accommodate all the mechanical systems, including air ventilation, so it will have eight floors instead of 12.
Boylston Properties will have to go to the Planning Board to amend their masterplan.
“It is an allowed use in the RMUD [Regional Mixed Use District],” Copelotti said. “The height is allowed, it reduces the square footage, and traffic is reduced.”
Before going to the Planning Board, Boylston Properties will hold a community meeting about the new plan. The meeting is tentatively planned for Jan. 30, 2019 at the Arsenal Yards Offices, next to The Gap.
Construction Progress
Work is well underway on the former Arsenal Mall site, with construction of the new garage set to begin Monday, Jan. 7, and work on the foundation of the Hampton Inn Suites hotel has recently gotten underway. The insides of the historic buildings, A and E, have largely been gutted, and holes for new windows have been punched into the brick exterior.
From Arsenal Street, passers by can see through the corner of the former Old Navy building. The windows harken back to when the Arsenal was a U.S. Army manufacturing facility. The space on the right side of the west end of Building E will soon be turned over to City Works, an upscale sports bar with a large range of beers on tap, Copelotti said. There are two other spots on the end of the building, including a prime one 16,000 sq. ft. right on Arsenal Street.
“We think this is the prime spot,” Copelotti said. “We think it is pretty special — a potential anchor space.”
To the east of City Works and the other corner spot is the location of the Majestic Movie Theaters, which will have several screens. The cinema and City Works are expected to open in the fall of 2019, Copelotti said.
Work on Buildings C and D will not begin until the parking lot in Building B is complete. Once the parking lot is done there will be parking for Marshall’s, and the current parking lot will make way for C and D, which will have retail on the ground floor and apartments on top.
The prefabricated concrete sections of the garage are expected to begin to arriving on Monday, and the structure is expected to be compete in about three months, Copelotti said. Then the elevators and other systems must be installed.
“We will start working on C and D once the garage is done. We think it will be done in June 2019,” Copelotti said.
In early 2020, developers expect to start construction on Building F, which will have Roche Bros., and likely a restaurant and other retail, McQuillan said, along with parking and apartments.
Marshall’s and Home Depot (not owned by Arsenal Yards) are the only stores remaining open through the construction. Chipotle and The Gap Outlet will remain in the new Arsenal Yards, but in new locations. Other new additions to Arsenal Yards include the Shake Shack burger chain, Hawaiian food eatery Pokéworks, and Condesa Restaurante Mexicano.
One thing out of the control of Boylston Properties is the abutting Arsenal Park. Watertown officials have been planning the renovation of the park, which sits just south of Building A, and continues westward. A 25 percent design has been created by the Town, but it has not been approved for final designs, nor to start construction.
Copelotti said if work is not done by the time the new building are ready to open they will have to put up some sort of barrier.
“We will have to put up some sort of wall. We need to protect tenants. We don’t want dust blowing in,” Copelotti said. “We are trying to work on the town to see how we can help.”
Is any of this going to reduce our taxes now that overflow biotech from Cambridge comes to Arsenal? Would be nice to see big reductions and get a similar rate to that of our less expensive neighbor.
They would bring in more tax money than currently comes from the Arsenal Mall (or when it was completely open). However, from following the tax hearings for several years, it seems often the taxes don’t rise as fast rather than seeing them drop. The other factor, of course, is that property values are rising which makes taxes on the homes rise.
What a bummer. I was hoping that condo residents would increase foot traffic and breathe new life into the neighborhood. Looks like that won’t happen now.
I’m hoping that some of the abandoned lots and empty factories in the neighborhood are turned into residential spaces of some type. With the housing shortage happening throughout the Boston area, I’m not sure why developers are sleeping on East Watertown.
There will still be a few hundred apartments included in 3 of the new buildings.
Ah, good to know. Thanks for the info.
In an August 30 article (http://www.watertownmanews.com/2018/08/30/arsenal-yards-developers-proposing-limiting-area-where-increased-height-would-be-allowed/), in regards to the request for additional height, Copelotti is quoted as saying “If they support it, we’ll pursue it…If not we’ll go ahead with the original proposal.” Now he says they won’t “…because developers did not think they could make money off a shorter apartment building”. This would have been obvious before, but yet they still claimed they were going to stick to the original plan for Building G to be a residential building, regardless of the Town’s decision on the Amendment Request. They didn’t suddenly realize that it wasn’t going to work for them. Regarding Arsenal Park, Copelotti states “We are trying to work on the town to see how we can help.” One thing that would help is if Boylston Properties gave the Town the $500,000 towards opening up and revitalizing Arsenal Park they promised back in January 2017, which they seem to have forgotten. Bill McQuillan handed out a document that listed it as a one of the Town’s Benefits of the Arsenal Yards project.
Ann Taylor closed yesterday. Only Marshall’s and Home Depot will remain open during construction.