Pemberton Market to be demolished and rebuilt

[ron_newman]

I received the following announcment from a Porter Square mailing list. Note that this is the "old" Pemberton Market at Mass. Ave. and Rindge Ave., not the "new" Pemberton Farms at Mass. Ave. and Day Street.

North Cambridge Stabilization Committee will address this project at their August 9 meeting. (2050 Mass. Ave, 7 to 9PM)
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The property owners hope to demolish the one-story Pemberton Market & Liquors building and replace it with a four-story structure that includes enclosed parking for 15 vehicles. The retail market would occupy the new ground-floor storefront, and the upper floors would consist of 15 one- and two-bedroom condominiums.

Consultant Linda Haar (formerly chief planner for the Boston Redevelopment Authority) will join us to present the proposal and take questions and comments. As currently envisioned, the project would be denser in terms of the number of condos, more massive in terms of floor space and height setbacks, and taller than city zoning regulations allow without a hardship variance.
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Here's a link to the project Web site, which is still under construction.

http://www.pembertoncorner.com/

Comments

[ellf.livejournal.com]

On the project page, there is a bit more detail in regards to intent: "It was determined that it is not economically feasible or physically practical to restore [the existing building]. The building is approaching the end of its useful life cycle, and the condition of the building is beginning to hamper the business.

In order to continue active uses on this site, consistent with the goals of the Massachusetts Avenue Overlay District, the Mudarri-Eisele family is proposing the Pemberton Corner Project. The project would provide new ground floor retail market space for Pemberton Market; fifteen residential condominiums with on-site parking. It will be an architectural asset to Massachusetts Avenue and continue to provide pedestrian amenities and enhance pedestrian activity. It will strive to be as environmentally 'green' a project as possible in an urban setting, having bicycle lockers, an environmentally friendly parking system, and using construction materials that match the LEED standards of priorities to recycled materials and low volatility products."

Bicyle lockers, recycling, trees, and a green building all sound pretty good to me.

[ron_newman]

All sounds great to me so far. If I lived on the Cambridge side of the line, I'd likely support it at the local meeting.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to have Pemberton Market closer to Davis.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

Interesting that they are building more condos when there are tons of half-built condos (Mass Ave and Harvey as well as halway between Davis Sq and that intersection on the bike path) ready to come onto an already deflating market. Who are they kidding? I mean, it's great for buyers, but they better prepare for this to be a losing money proposition.

I'd rather they put in the retail space and drop the zone-breaking money-losing extra stories.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

There is absolutely no way they will loose money. Here's why: I live in a multi-family house with a market value of roughly one million dollars, but it's insured replacement value is just less than half that amount. The rest of the market value is all due to the cost of land in and around Davis. How does this apply to Pemberton's? Pemberton's has been owned by the same family for generations. They surely own the land outright. The cost for the land was incurred 80 years ago. I'd be amazed if their construction cost per square foot exceeds $200-250. Market right now in that neighborhood for nice residential space is in the range of $375-400 per square foot. Let's say the market tanks to $350 per square foot and their costs go out of control due to numerous design changes required by neighborhood groups, driving their as-built cost to $300 per square foot. That's still a 15% return, though they'll surely levarage their investment through a construction loan. Say the project costs $10,000,000. Since they own the land, they could probably leverage constuction costs up to 90%, easily. So, they invest $1,000,000, and their land, and walk away with $2.5 million. I'd say that's the doom and gloom scenario, and that they in fact make a lot more money, a whole lot more.

The market may have cooled for condos, and people who just paid market for a condo will have a hard time making money when they sell, but while housing prices in our area have more than doubled in the last seven years, construction costs certainly haven't. There's plenty of cushion there.

With regards to the merit of the project, I think four stories is perfect. Mass Ave is much too wide to be framed by single-story buildings. A good streetwall of multi-story buildings that have shops on the ground floor with residences above is exactly what Mass Ave needs. The White Hen and the connected parking lot in Porter desperately needs the same treatment.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Thanks for the extra info. I don't know much about the real estate market and I hadn't though that things could still be built if construction is cheap enough. I guess the condo market will have to really bomb then.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

They could be betting that the market will recover by the time they're done building (which could take several years when you factor in the permitting, zoning exemption, crazed Cambridge, politics, etc.).

And hey, even if they are crazy? I am all about having more housing in the area, because that's the only way it'll ever be more affordable.

And wow, if chumbolly is right about their owning the land, that really does change the economics that much.

[guttyelg.livejournal.com]

We need to support more projects like this. I'll be at the meeting supporting this project. Current zoning laws all around the country are completely broken. By restricting the height of the building at the expense of everything else, we only serve to decrease the density in an already urban setting. Increasing density (and the number of people per area) should be what we're doing in this area.

[ron_newman]

I hope Linda Haar is able to see this one to completion. She and her husband planned to build the Darwin Project for the Mass. Horticultural Society on several Central Artery parcels near South Station. The project seems to have totally stalled; I haven't heard anything new about it in a couple of years.

Yea! Mixed Use Development

[shana-lyons.livejournal.com]

Isn't it nice when people actually propose a mixed use project that fits the neighborhood, provides an amenity (a quality market), and adds housing? I hope this plan goes through.

[mattdm [typekey.com] (from livejournal.com)]

Out of curiousity, how does the "old" Pemberton Market relate to the "new" Pemberton Farms?

[ron_newman]

Both stores are owned by the same family.

[beezy515.livejournal.com]

The old store is owned by the cousins. The Saidneways own the new store outright. So they manage both markets, but only own one of the buildings. The Saidneways won't benefit from the construction of condos, but their cousins will, especially since they will be able to raise the rent on the market.

Although mixed use sounds like a great idea on paper, I am waiting to find out more about it at the meeting. Since the lot is only 6,000 square feet, it will be a tight squeeze fitting 15 parking spaces and the market onsite, unless they make the market smaller or put the parking below ground. The parking would empty out onto either Pemberton Street or Mass. Ave. That's a high concentration of cars pulling out onto an intersection that already has many accidents. The location of a driveway on either street, Mass. Ave or Pemberton, would be incredibly close to the corner, given the size of the lot. With the number of delivery trucks that need to access the market every day, that intersection is already quite congested.

I like the idea of having a four-story building at that location, but the increased number of cars is a big concern, especially if they have only one point of ingress/egress onto the street. Although the developers have been involved in some great projects, I have some doubts. I am interested in seeing their site plans at the meeting.

[ron_newman]

It's hard for me to see 15 cars a day as an increased burden of any real consequence. If it were 150 cars, then I'd start to be concerned.

[beezy515.livejournal.com]

In general, I would agree with you, but the parking access would be very close to the corner. Since three streets come together at this point, Pemberton Street is already a bottleneck without the addition of 15 additional cars, all coming from the same driveway early in the morning, each turning the same direction onto a one-way street, right at the same time the Pepsi truck pulls up to make its morning delivery to the market. As it is now, an 18-wheeler (many often make deliveries) takes up almost the entire front or side of the building when it's parked, so I don't know how anyone would be able to pull in or out of their parking space while a delivery is being made. Since Pemberton is a one-way street, the trucks often have to make a k-turn from Mass. Ave and back into the space on Pemberton. And believe me, the store receives alot of deliveries.

I'm not saying that this should doom the project, I'm just saying that the space is much tighter and more problematic than it first appears.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Ron, imagine if the project was proposed with NO parking, as I'm sure you'd like to see, as would I. Then the neighborhood would demand that parking be added. Maybe the developer really doesn't want parking, and, having a good feel for contrarian Cantabridgians, they're counting on neighborhood opposition to "force" them into eliminating it, thereby giving the developer a boost over another assinine zoning hurdle. Now I'm starting to sound like a conspiracy-minded LaRouchie....

[ron_newman]

That would be fine with me. Get rid of the parking spaces, and you can have a larger retail store. The 15 cars can easily be accommodated on neighborhood residential streets within a block or two of the development.

[beezy515.livejournal.com]

I also agree. It would be much better for the cars to be accommodated on the nearby residential streets. I do think this is a project with great potential and think that Mass. Ave would be greatly improved if there were four-story developments along its entire length. I wish the city would get rid of the parking requirement, though.

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

I would think that is more unrealistic. Right now developers should be required to provide additional parking for any increase traffic or parking deficiency that they will create with any new development. There is too many cars parked in street-parking as it is. It is a good idea for everyone to start thinking about time restrictions for truck deliveries and garbage pickups. Especially during dense commuter hours. As neighborhoods grow denser these are the kind of solutions we are going to need to discuss.