Business

Watertown Company Helps Keep the Lights On

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The electricity keeps running smoothly through your power lines, and more than 90 percent of power lines in the United States, thanks to the help of Watertown’s Doble Engineering. The Boston Globe featured the company, located on Walnut Street, in Thursday’s edition. The company was founded nearly a century ago and now provides technology, analysis and expertise to power providers, including NStar and National Grid, according to the Globe article. The report also includes details about the company’s history and some of it’s major inventions. Click here to read the Globe article.

Business

Plans for New Hotel in Watertown Coming into Focus

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Details about the proposal to build a hotel on the former Charles River Saab site are emerging and residents will have the chance to sound off on the project. The new owners of the Arsenal Mall (now known as the Arsenal Project), Boyslton Properties, also purchased the former car dealership, across Arsenal Street from the mall. The new hotel will be a Marriott, according to a report in the Watertown Tab, and will be designed by the same architecture firm behind the Marriott in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston. (Read more details by clicking here). A proposal to change the zoning for the areas including the property where the hotel is planned, would allow a building as high as 79 feet tall or six stories.

Business

Item Made in Watertown Will be Featured in Red Sox World Series Celebration

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When the Red Sox celebrate the 2013 World Series championship on Friday, a special item made in Watertown will be featured. The banner that will be unfurled during the celebration comes from New England Flag & Banner, according to a piece in the Boston Globe. The Dexter Avenue-based business provides banners, flags and other items for pro and college sports teams, according to the company website. This will not be the first championship banner made by New England Flag & Banner. They produced items for recent Celtics and Bruins championships and they also made banners used by Boston College and other teams, both local and around the nation.

Development

Town Council Looking to Change Rules for New Developments in Watertown

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The Town Council seeks to change the rules for new developments proposed to be built in Watertown. 

On Tuesday, the Council voted to recommend changes to the town’s Zoning Ordinance, and requested that Director of Economic Development and Planning Steve Magoon start the process to change the rules. Under the recommendation from the Rules and Ordinances subcommittee, a public meeting would have to be held for any residential project with four or more units and any non-residential project of more than 10,000 sq. ft. before it could be submitted to the Planning Board. The proposal would require meetings to be advertised at least two weeks before the meeting, and the district councilor for the area where the project is proposed must be notified.

Around Town

Town Council Turns Down Request from Watertown Small Business Group

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A group representing local, independent groups spoke to the Town Council on Tuesday and asked them to consider adopting measures to support local businesses, but their request was denied. Members of Watertown-Belmont Local First include locally-owned businesses and while the group is modeled on other similar groups, spokeswoman Rena Baskin said the group is independent. Members must be located in town, owned locally (headquartered in Massachusetts), must not be publicly traded and must be independent – not franchised, Baskin said. Supporting locally-owned businesses can have benefits, Baskin said. “They are the largest employer and provide the most employment to town residents,” Baskin said.

Around Town

Council Opens Way for Multi-Story Hotel in Watertown’s East End

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The Town Council opened the way for a multi-story hotel to be built in town, but only in a small area on the east side of town on Arsenal Street by unanimously voting to change a town zoning ordinance. The change of the zoning ordinance allows a hotel of up to 79 feet and seven stories tall, and it will be limited to the Industrial 1 (I-1) Zone. The Council also considered extending the changes in the zoning to I-2 and I-3 zones. One such hotel  has been proposed at the former Charles River Saab site which is in the I-1 zone. Other changes to the zoning include a reduction of parking requirements to .75 cars per room and one for each employee at peak times, and allowing employees to park one behind another blocking them in.