Boston's Gigantic Mass+Main Tower Project

City lawmakers have approved zoning changes that will allow construction of a 195-foot tower overlooking Jill Brown-Rhone Park in Central Square, citing the need for more housing and affordable housing. To ensure passage of the special zoning, developers Normandy Real Estate Partners and Twining Properties offered to make 47 of its 232 units available for rent below market rate. The builders plan to raze the existing single-story Quest Diagnostics laboratory later this year in favor of the 19-story residential tower. Ground breaking is expected in early this year with a goal of first occupancy beginning in spring 2018. 

Twining Properties and Normandy Real Estate are preparing to construct Mass+Main, a 19-story residential tower located at the edge of Central Square, near the Red Line stop. The development will also a seven-story, mixed-use building.

Community benefits range from highly sustainable mixed income housing, to new retail with a local emphasis.

The builders plan to  convert  the  former  Quest  Diagnostics  lab  buildings  and  lots  on  the  block  bounded by  Douglass Street,  Massachusetts  Avenue, Columbia  and  Bishop  Allen Drive, into  a  mixed income  residential  community  with vibrant  ground floor  retail and  new  public  passages  connecting  Lafayette  Park  to  Bishop  Allen  Drive.

Constructing the taller building (195 feet) along Massachusetts Avenue will minimize  any  shadows    cast over the  park  on Columbia  Street, and  will  cast  no  shadows  on  Lafayette  Square Park. The  second  building  along  Columbia  Street  would  be just  70  feet  high,  and cast no shadows.

Office  buildings  up  to  80  feet  tall  are  allowed  under  existing  zoning with  a Special  Permit. Kendall  Square  allows  up  to  300  feet  and  North  Point  is  above  220  feet  in  certain locations.

In order to secure a vote in favor of their special zoning request, developers Twining Properties and Normandy Real Estate Partners agreed to make 47 of its 232 units available for rent below market rate. Of that 20 percent, most would be considered affordable; the remaining seven would be considered middle-income.

• Project sweeteners offered include:Permanent affordability for three additional housing units through Affordable Housing Trust Funds, bringing the total to 50.

• Giving the city the front part of 65 Bishop Allen Drive for the creation of even more affordable housing when the city identifies a “transferee,” and so long as the developers get to keep the rear portion of the lot for parking and get their special permit. 

• Promises to set up an advisory committee to give input on which retailers get ground-floor shop space created by the Mass+Main project, and programming for the seasonable public market that would be given a home. 

• At least 8 percent of units in the proposed tower will be “micro-units” between 350 and 550 square feet, whose tenants won’t get to apply for a residential parking permit for a car.

Twining  Properties  specializes  in  mixed use,  urban, transit oriented  development with  a  strong  emphasis  on housing and  is  well known  in  Cambridge  and  Boston. Twining, working  closely  with  the  East  Cambridge  community developed  two  apartment  buildings,  local restaurants along  the  Broad  Canal  in  Kendall  Square. 

Normandy  Real  Estate Partners  is  a  leading  real estate owner  and  operator,  with  deep  local  ties, and  invests  in  properties and  communities  for  the  long term.  They are committed partners with the neighborhoods they work in.

The partners  hope  to  break  ground  in  summer  2016  with  first  occupancy beginning  in  spring  2018. Their goal is to reach full occupancy by early 2019.