UPDATE: TAB story here
My wife reported that the shortcut through Clark’s parking lot, that everyone in the Upper Falls neighborhood uses to get from Oak St to Tower Rd (Baza) was blocked by a police line last night. We were wondering what was going.
I just saw an Instagram post from Chris Steele, with the photo above, reporting that the roof of the old warehouse there had partially collapsed. It’s not terrible news. The warehouse has been vacant for years and the property owner had already applied for and received a demolition permit for that building. So mother nature’s just decided to get the demolition project moving I guess.
I don’t believe that the warehouse is actually Clark’s property, though everybody refers to it that way. As I understand it, Clark is a rental tenant in the big mill building on the property. The property itself, including the warehouse, belongs to Northland, a commercial real estate company.
I walked by there on Wednesday afternoon and the FD had a couple of trucks out, including the giant ladder truck checking out the roof. Let’s all hope that the shortcut doesn’t stay closed. It’s used by enough people that it should be a right of way by now.
While I’m at it, who do I have to know to get one of those “will not clear man on side of car” signs for my still snow-filled driveway?
You can find them here, @Bill. (Pretty cheap, too.)
What does the message on that sign mean?
In the case of the warehouse in question, the signs were meant to warn workers to not stand in the doorway as railroad cars were moved into the warehouse. Squishy-squishy.
In my case it means there’s so much snow in the driveway that I can’t get to the car without destroying the hedges.
I heard a while back that there were plans in the works to redevelop the Marshall’s Plaza along with some of those old mill buildings into a Legacy Place style plaza. Does anyone know if that is still in the works? If so I hope they install a monorail and tunnels on Needham Street so people can access it and a heliport and boat dock on the Charles.
@Alison Haran – The property owner received a demolition permit some ago (last spring?) to knock down three buildings on the Clarks parcel – between the Marshalls Plaza and Oak St. The beautiful old mill building that houses Clarks is not one of them. That will remain. The three building scheduled for demolition are junky old buildings that surround the old mill, including this one who’s roof just fell in.
At the time they applied for the demolition permit, the property owner said they would use the space occupied by those three buildings as additional parking space for Clarks. I think it’s pretty clear that more parking is not the ultimate purpose of that land. As far as I know, beyond what was in the demolition permit, the property owner has not publicly proposed building anything on that land yet.
That said, it hasn’t stopped any of us in Upper Falls from endlessly speculating on what they’re planning or what we’d like them to plan. Whatever they do plan, I’ll now be looking for your monorail/heliport/boat dock as part of it.
By the way, the roof collapsing on this building just put an end to these 2012 dreams for the Village14 World Headquarters.
@Jerry: We should follow the Nomadic Theater’s lead and move Village 14 World Headquarters to Steve Siegel’s house.
Clarks is moving to Waltham so there won’t be a huge need for extra parking spaces unless some other big company opens in that space.
For those of you who weren’t in Upper Falls in 2008-2009, Northland Development had a huge plan for that space, with retail, restaurants, and housing. The only problem was that the loading docks, parking, and truck routes were planned to face Chestnut Street and be an eyesore to Upper Falls, and ignore the village’s wishes for green space, benches, (and the railway – which wasn’t even proposed back then).
Thanks to Alderman Brian Yates and the members of the Upper Falls Community Development Corporation, we were able to stop it. There was absolutely zero effort to contact the village or hold community discussions.
Then the commercial real estate market fizzled, and the developers withdrew their plans. This is still an amazing parcel, and I would love to see it developed. However, when the next proposal is announced, it must include serious conversations about increased school enrollment, traffic considerations, and looking at Tower Road for loading docks and truck routes. There is no doubt in my mind that this parcel will be redeveloped.
Thank you Jerry and Jo-Louise for taking the time to answer my question. I believe that Mitt Romeny’s Bain Capital owns The Northland Group which also owns the Marshall’s Plaza I believe. I am sure that some developer has their eyes set on that piece of property as it is the last vast undeveloped piece of property that I can think of in the area. They are just waiting for the right time to pounce. Does anyone remember the old drive up photo booth that used to be in the Marshall’s Plaza? What did they call those things? They had a catchy name.