(The Boston Globe published the following article by Anthony Flint on June 27.)
BOSTON — The MBTA wants to see a major housing complex built over the sunken Fitchburg commuter rail line near the Red Line’s Porter Square station, opening a new front in the development of lucrative air rights in the Boston area.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is accepting proposals from developers for the Porter Square project for 50,000 square feet of residential development — about 80 units — straddling the train tracks that run along the Cambridge-Somerville border. Officials set the minimum bid at $4 million for an 85-year lease, which would produce badly needed revenue for the agency.
The complex would be the first built solely above railroad tracks, reflecting the MBTA’s eagerness to join the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority’s leasing of air rights over the turnpike extension through Boston and over the submerged Central Artery.
The project is the first of several land and air rights parcels the T wants to lease to developers, including space above the Orange Line by Northeastern University, parcels near the FleetCenter once the Green Line is underground, above a railyard on the Boston-Dedham line, and over parking lots at the Blue Line’s Wonderland Station in Revere.
MBTA officials say they are moving aggressively both in speed and in the number of projects because Governor Mitt Romney asked them to jump-start the development of the agency’s extensive real estate holdings so that more housing can be built in urban locations near transit.
”This is just the beginning,” said Dennis DiZoglio, director of planning for the MBTA. ”We hope to re-create what’s happening at Porter Square. This is the wave of the future.”
The T has dabbled in land and air rights development in past years, chiefly through a private company, Transit Realty Associates. The MBTA board last month approved a 99-year lease at the North Quincy Station for a 240-unit residential complex plus 500 new parking spaces, a deal worth $2.7 million.
But the agency is now going full throttle in the real estate business. At the request of the state Office of Commonwealth Development, the T is conducting a comprehensive inventory of all buildable parcels near stations, DiZoglio said. ”This is a two-fer. It promotes smart growth and it allows us to generate nonfare revenues,” he said.
The T has doubled its estimate for revenues from real estate deals in the 2004 fiscal year budget, to $15 million.
In view of neighborhood resistance that a developer encountered for a project at Columbus Center over the Massachusetts Turnpike, and mindful of local resistance to new building near rail stations, the T and Transit Realty Associates held an informational meeting with Cambridge and Somerville residents on the Porter Square project last week. Officials hope to persuade the communities that air rights development will bring in tax revenue. They also told neighbors there won’t be major traffic problems because people living there will be steps from the T, and that there probably will be parking in the building.
Residents in the area of the proposed development said they were surprised to hear about the plans.
”There was no awareness that this would be happening, so people were concerned about that. Some people wondered if their view would be blocked,” said David Reed, president of the Porter Square Neighbors Association. ”We had concerns and we put them on the table right away. We just want something that fits well with the community.”
Residents are worried that the T will pick a winner from the bids it receives that will be the most financially viable, rather than one chosen with community input, Reed said. The deadline for bids is July 16.
Whoever is chosen to design and develop the project will be asked to spruce up the Porter Square station and ensure a good pedestrian environment along Somerville Avenue, Reed said.
Mark E. Boyle, director of real estate for the MBTA, said the project will probably not rise more than a few stories because the parcel over the train tracks stretches for about three blocks along Somerville Avenue, from the Porter Square Station to Beacon Street.
The Porter Square project would be the first time in Massachusetts that construction has been attempted directly and solely over a busy rail line, in a dense residential neighborhood. Boyle said there would probably be parking at the street-level portion of the building, which would help buffer noise and vibration for those living above in the building.
Developers and engineers have fine-tuned their building designs as urban parcels near railroad tracks become more valuable, Boyle said. The proposed North Point development near Lechmere Square in East Cambridge abuts the rail lines emanating from North Station, for example. The developers there plan to put structured parking closest to the lines, also as a buffer.
The developers of Columbus Center over the Massachusetts Turnpike along Columbus Avenue between the South End and Bay Village plan to use similar techniques, putting a parking garage directly over the sunken highway and train tracks, with housing rising all around it. A recent air rights project proposed for the Kenmore Square area of the Mass. Pike also calls for a parking garage with development above. The existing air rights development over the turnpike is the Copley Place/Prudential Center deck.
The other areas the MBTA wants to develop are a mix of air rights and land. The agency recently discussed the construction of dormitories and athletic facilities over the Orange Line near Ruggles Station with Northeastern University, Boyle said. New air rights parcels will be created when the Green Line is submerged beside Canal Street and along Causeway Street near the FleetCenter, he said, creating valuable developable land where the elevated viaduct now stands.
That MBTA-driven development will be in addition to the air rights parcels to be leased by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, on roughly one-quarter of the 30-acre corridor of the surface of the Big Dig.
The MBTA is also moving ahead with plans to redevelop a 37-acre rail yard in the Readville section of Hyde Park, on the Dedham line, as well as sites at two Newton locations: Woodland Station, where 175 apartments have been proposed, and Riverside Station, where a 1,500-car garage is planned, in addition to the parking already there.