New T Stop in Boston Area Promises More Than Transit

How will “one of the largest construction projects underway on the East Coast” play out in Somerville, Mass.?

An MBTA Orange Line train at the new Assembly Square station on September 2, 2014 (Photo by Pi.1415926535)

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The Boston area just got its first new T stop in 27 years. Located on the Orange Line, which runs north-south through downtown, it is located in Assembly Square, a weirdly vacant corner of Somerville that is being transformed with transit-oriented development. Densely packed and woefully underserved by rail transit — only 15 percent of its population lives in walking distance of a T station — the gentrifying city adjacent to Cambridge is due to get five more stops. The rest will come with a Green Line expansion over the course of this decade.

Assembly Square has long been the least developed corner of the city. From 1928 to 1958, it housed a 145-acre Ford plant, and a variety of other tertiary industries. After the flight of manufacturing capital, it remained free of residences and cut off from the rest of the city by elevated Route 93. For many years, the tract’s only occupant was a rather bland mall, the Assembly Square Marketplace, housed in the husk of the old Ford plant. The area’s current transformation is due to a convergence of the Boston area’s strong economy, unusually active community groups and a real estate developer’s eye for underutilized space in a high-value market.

The developer in question, Federal Realty Investment Trust, is in the midst of spending $1.5 billion building a massive mixed-use development. The completed section is entitled Assembly Row, and much of the completed residential quarters are already filled, as is most of its existing commercial space. Denizens include a multiplex, a Lego-themed amusement center, and an absurdly high concentration of sneaker shops.

(Source: Federal Realty)

The end product is projected to include half a million square feet of retail and restaurant space, 1.75 million square feet of office space, and 2,100 apartment units with a (non-legally binding) commitment to mixed-income housing. It is “one of the largest construction projects underway on the East Coast,” according to the Boston Globe. The largest employer in Massachusetts, Partners HealthCare, plans to relocate 13 dispersed offices into one mega-complex in Assembly Square, and 4,700 jobs will be relocated from the suburbs, bringing a permanent base of weekday consumers to the area’s businesses. “Here Comes the Neighborhood!,” a brightly painted graphic crows.

This is not simply a tale of triumphant developers. Community groups have played a key role in shaping Assembly Square too. Ten years ago the Mystic View Task Force (MVTF) was still engaged in lawsuits against the city and Federal Realty over the direction of development. The group formed in 1998 around the belief that Somerville’s political apparatus was not allowing enough community input in the development of the post-industrial tract. Chief concerns included jobs, multi-modal transit and mixed-income housing for local residents. MVTF sued the city and Federal Realty numerous times, preventing more big-box development in the Marketplace mold. (Ikea was also a target of the suits, but has since left the field.)

In 2004, the recently elected mayor, Joseph Curtatone (who is still in power), announced his intention to make Assembly Square his chief area of focus. After three MVTF court wins, and backed by the supportive Curtatone, Federal Realty came to the table in earnest and eventually settled on contributing more than half of the costs ($15 million) of the Assembly Square station’s construction and agreeing to more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly development. Local groups including the Somerville Community Corporation, an affordable housing non-profit, worked together with politicians to establish local hiring goals and affordable housing percentages.

“Assembly Square will add the most new building space, by far, of any district, so the fact that they are including affordable housing is [very significant],” says Wig Zamore, a member of MVTF and another influential community group, Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership. “It’s really an important precedent that the housing on site be mixed income.”

But only 12 percent of the new housing is designated affordable and 252 affordable units isn’t much in the context of this rapidly gentrifying city. Somerville is already thoroughly developed, with most of its housing stock comprised of triple-decker houses split into rented apartments. Along with a few other ex-industrial areas, Assembly Square offers the most space for new housing in the city. But the sheer level of demand in the booming Boston real estate market (especially along transit lines) means that just building more housing, and designating a fraction of it affordable, is unlikely to preserve a community where working-class people can afford to live and share the fruits of enhanced public services.

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s “Dimensions of Displacement” report on Green Line expansion through Somerville predicts that monthly rents around the five other new T stops could increase by between 25 and 67 percent. The report shows that 67 percent of the city’s households are renters — 44 percent of whom are burdened by their housing costs already (spending more than 30 percent of their income). “Loss of economic diversity in Somerville is … a significant potential negative impact,” it reports.

Somerville’s political leadership is aware of the crushing market pressure that is being brought to bear on the traditionally working-class city. Curtatone promises 6,000 new units of housing in the coming decades, with 1,200 designated affordable. The Somerville Community Corporation and other local groups are hoping to push for even more.

It would also be nice if the retail and restaurant offerings weren’t limited to chain stores. Somerville is home to scores of interesting small businesses, including a notable hub on nearby Broadway. None of them are featured at Assembly Row, which feels a bit sterile by comparison. But Federal Realty is a luxury developer that just built a brand new upscale apartment complex — Avalon Bay owns and operates the complex and starts renting at $2,000 a month — where no housing existed before. Of course it feels different from the old houses and diverse eateries just across the elevated highway in East Somerville. The complex no doubt provides a welcome boost in property taxes to a city that isn’t home to many big businesses.

Assembly Square station, meanwhile, will be a welcome addition to a city where elevated and commuter trains have long traversed without stopping. Hopefully some of the people who stayed to fight for transit access, and others like them, will still be able to afford to live in Somerville to enjoy their success.

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Jake Blumgart is a senior staff writer at Governing.

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Tags: affordable housinggentrificationtransit agenciesboston

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