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Developer proposes large office center, stores, restaurants in marine industrial park

Parcel T and T-1

Millennium has plans for parcels T and T-1 at western edge of the industrial park.

Millennium Partners told the BPDA this week it hopes to build a 900,000 office building with shops and restaurants on two parcels it now leases off Northern Avenue in the Raymond Flynn Marine Industrial Park in South Boston.

In a letter of intent, the developer - better known for its downtown towers, including Millennium Place - says it will soon file more detailed plans for its "South Boston Innovation Campus," which would replace "a vacant deteriorated warehouse building and truck parking." It wrote that the basics of the project will include "general office, research, parking and related retail, restaurant and other uses."

The proposed campus is large enough that the company will file a proposed "planned development area," under which it and the BPDA can toss the site's current zoning and come up with a master plan better suited for the proposal.

Although state law requires that most of the jobs in the 191-acre industrial park - formerly an Army and Navy base - be related somehow to the sea - and a 2017 master plan for the park called for improvements to make it even more sea-worthy - in recent years the BPDA has allowed non-marine uses on the land not directly on the water. The proposed Millennium Partners campus, for example, would be kitty corner from Harpoon Brewery - but also right next to a Stavis Seafood facility.

South Boston Innovation Campus letter of intent (366k PDF).
2017 master plan (19M PDF).

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Comments

When is the Brain Trust going to come up with plans to ease motor vehicle traffic congestion and completely overturn the MBTA before they stop any more development?

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Awesome! More development that is nearly impossible to reach in the seaport! Are they planning a levitation device to move people in and out?

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Do you live or work there? Why do you even care???!

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I work on Dry Dock Ave. and can tell you that it sucks getting down here at times, with the constant construction. Add the tourists from the cruise ships and the unreliability of the MBTA and you have a pain of a commute.

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Can it, John

Old people wandering to boats and saying goodbye, backed up buses, zero parking, i could go on...

There are studios (or were) that moved simply due to the lack of anything down there.

And god forbid an emergency vehicle needs to get through.

Dont chastise those of us that have/had to deal with the complete disaster at that end of Mahtys Seaport.

Just keep quiet, dear.

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I work down there, and the transportation sucks - the roads are way too wide and cars drive way too fast so it's not comfortable to walk or bike, and the cars drive way too fast until they get to the huge (and unavoidable) congestion at every bridge. Meanwhile the Silver Line is over capacity and has to deal with traffic and streetlights. What we need to start doing is requiring these developers to pay directly into projects that will improve transportation and people movement, and more substantial improvements than just adding a couple token bike racks and calling it a day.

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But those parcels are literally across the street from Silver Line Way.

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Maybe they'll actually build a sidewalk on that side of the Haul road with a crosswalk. Right now with construction at Parcel K everyone just walks in the middle of the road because there's no way to get to that area without spending 10 min walking the opposite way around the construction.

It's really one of the least pedestrian friendly areas of the city, and I'm surprised they were allowed to just shut down those sidewalks for years without any mitigation.

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Talk about some low-hanging fruit...

Free the Ramp at all times -- not just weekday afternoon rush hour.

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2019/05/21/silver-line-ramp

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The South Boston Transitway tunnel was built for Green Line trains, not buses. Have the tracks run right down Northern Avenue to the I&D building. The MBTA will have a pile of new Green Line cars once the now $3 billion GLX is cancelled by the feds. Boston needs to plan ahead. Get ready

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to light rail, the GLX is not going anywhere, and is another much-needed project.

If I recall correctly, the T has only ordered around two dozen of the Type 9 cars to cover the additional needs of the GLX until the Type 10 order, which will replace most of the current fleet.

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The developers could create a direct busway corridor between Silver Line Way and Northern Ave through their campus. Right now Silver Line buses have to make that awkward SLW, Massport Haul Road, Northern Ave jog. The direct path would have a new sheltered busway station that serves the complex and replaces SLW. Remember. This project originally had a gondola connection. An on-site sheltered busway station that turns into a future Green Line station is a better solution for the entire inno campus

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Can't wait for the far-off day when the users of this future development bemoan the reactivated railroad tracks that run right through it.

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Until developers demand action from the politicians they contribute their funds to the MBTA will continue to collapse and their workers will cost them bundles in lost time.

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On the massive fish warehouse next door, you know what a genius idea this is. Only a matter of time before maritime uses are deemed bad for business and relocated.

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There's not much of the fishing industry down there left. At the rate things are going the owners of these plants will just cash out and the facilities will be demolished to build another skyscraper.

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Starvis still has a large plant there. I interviewed for a job there, I was told NOT to wear a suit.

I threw the clothes out after the interview they stunk so much.

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I'm pretty sure Stavis and the Boston Seafood Center are actually expanding.

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Tell that to the Fish Pier.

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have yo do with Maritime use?

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What does Google have to do with Woven Rubber Hose

What does biotech have to do with wires?

What does Partners have to do with Cars

All of the above are adaptive reuse of abandoned areas in Cambridge and Sommerville:

American Biltrite Rubber Co, Kendall Boiler and Tank, Simplex Wire & Cable, Ford Motor Company and of course Boston Woven Rubber Hose*1

Things change -- if you don't adapt to the tide -- you become King Canut or Detroit

Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Company circa 1960
https://cambridgehistory.org/research/boston-woven-hose-part-2/

....where the Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Company fits into the picture today. It must be admitted that our Cambridge plant is inefficient by modern standards. Most of our buildings are four-story, long and narrow, with elevators of too-limited capacity. The efficient plants today, such as our own newer ones outside Massachusetts, are all on one level, with raw materials coming in at one end and flowing through automatically from machine to machine with little or no handling until the finished product comes out the other end. This efficiency is not possible in our older buildings.

In 1954 our company’s operations resulted in a loss of close to $1,000,000 before tax credits. In 1956 the American Biltrite Rubber Co. of Chelsea, Massachusetts, a highly successful manufacturer of heels and soles and floor coverings, acquired the controlling interest in our company. In 1957 Boston Woven Hose was merged with, and into, Biltrite, and thereupon Woven Hose ceased to be a corporate entity. Since then BWH has been a name only, or style under which our industrial products are marketed.

But the future of the American Biltrite is bright. It operates a dozen plants, most of them new, in five different states. Its growth pattern is impressive. Its stock is listed on the American Exchange, symbol ABL. Fortune magazine includes it in its list of the five hundred biggest companies in the U.S.A. It is a company with a promising future.

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Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Company , wow that is a blast from the past, knew people that worked there.

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demand $$ and land set-asides for transit improvements! stop blanket approving massive development in an area where transit has reached capacity and car traffic was a bad idea from day 1!! replace the SL with real trolleys and create ACTUAL transit!!!!

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NO

The Silver Line can be real transit if its primary route is isolated from the surface traffic

There is not much of a difference between rubber tires on a Silver Line bus and steel tires on a Green Line Trolley

The one big difference between Silver Line in South Boston Seaport and a real transit line is the fact that all of the the Silver Line Service from South Station to and through South Boston Seaport surfaces and crosses D Street en route to Silver Line Way

This was the result of Mega-Stupid-lack of Coordination between elements of the Mass Dept. of Transportation -- specifically the T and Massport with the Turnpike thrown in for good measure.

However it is not too late to fix this problem -- very valuable land is about to be developed behind the relatively new [but now already old] John Hancock [aka Manulife] building located at D and Silver Line Way

Here's the solution in steps:

  • Start building an underground Silver Line Way super station [a la Harvard Square on Red Line] supporting Silver Line and regular buses
  • Start digging a tunnel under D street and providing a replacement for the ramp out of the World Trade Center Station [probably needs a new name anyway]
  • Open the under D connection and start high frequency all underground service from South Station to Silver Line Way
  • Get the legislature to approve use of the Emergency Ramp to the Ted for Silver Line vehicles
  • Connect the Silver Line Way Station to the Ted ramp allowing all restricted ROW service from South Station to Logan -- here buses have a huge advantage over trains as they can climb and turn much much easier than railed vehicles
  • Replace all of the Silver Line vehicles with those that will run on battery power when off the wire -- compatible with Massport going to battery powered busses at Logan
  • Expand the number of Silver Line routes all based at Silver Line Way Station
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IF WE HAD SUPPORTED THE GONDOLA WE WOULDN'T BE HAVING THIS PROBLEM.

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Why would we pay for an overly expensive system with a low capacity designed primarily for tourists when there are a lot bigger gains to be captured by investing in the existing Silver Line infrastructure and improving walkability/bikeability? Let's start with that, then once we think we've actually pushed those to their limits we can start talking about pie (literally) in the sky ideas.

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Wooooooooosh!

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But given the dude's other "I'm going to assume you don't live or work there and so shouldn't care" comment though, I don't feel too bad for assuming he also thought a gondola was a good idea.

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900,000 what?

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