UPDATE: Globe story here
Newton Mayor Setti Warren will unveil a proposal on Friday at add housing, a restaurant and hotel in Newton Centre
Under the plan, the city-owned former Newton Centre Library at 1294 Centre Street (yes the same site that was proposed and rejected for MassChallenge) would be combined with adjacent 39 Herrick Road and redeveloped into a 57-room hotel with a restaurant, joined to a 3-story residential property for 5 – 10 affordable housing units. The historic facade of the old library would be preserved and community meeting space would be available in the rear. Parking would be underground and the green space in front and rear would be extensively landscaped.
The mayor and First Cambridge Realty Corporation will announce the project on Friday, May 12 at 8:15AM at 1294 Centre Street and the event will be live streamed here.
A hotel? Really? What Newton Centre really needs is a movie theater. What about redeveloping that site to a movie theater. Serve food and drink. It would be an awesome addition to the community.
I like the movie theater idea, but economically I believe a hotel would be a bring a bigger impact. Newton is minutes away from Boston on the T and Newton Centre has a lively restaurant scene and decent retail, making it an attractive location for tourists. With the N2 corridor a short distance away, this could also be a business hotel. I dig this idea.
In a galaxy far, far away that mirrors Newton Centre, (spelling by the post office), there was a movie theatre in Newton Centre!
I’m concerned that this is too large a project for Newton Centre. What about preserving the residential characteristics of our neighborhoods and Village Centers that our elected officials talk about? Is this what they call Smart Growth?
This would help preserve the village center. Right now the former library is just a deteriorating, abandoned building in the middle of some wonderful small businesses. A hotel, restaurant, and housing right next the Newton Centre T stop sounds like a great idea.
A picture’s worth a thousand words, so I’ll reserve judgement on this plan pending renderings. Conceptually though, it sounds like a fascinating idea. The hotel is particularly intriguing, since hotels pay both commercial property taxes AND a room tax assessed to guests. Double pay-day for the city. The 5-10 affordable housing units would be nice icing on that cake.
Um, speaking of revenue for Newton… It’s just plain idiotic that the city doesn’t charge for parking after 6pm in Newton Centre. Hardly a parking spot to be found last night, and every car is parked for free.
Peter, are you serious?
Is there a feature on V14 that automatically types his comment on every thread about anything new – just to get it out there?
Looking forward to the presentation. Excited about the live streaming.
For Newton’s tax base, the Hotel is the best idea.
Hotel rates will be cheaper than Boston downtown, yet can still hop on the T to there. A high quality hotel should have no problem with occupancy.
5-10 units of affordable housing doesn’t seem a like a good return on investment. Does the low number of units justify the upfront costs? There is no reason low income housing needs to be created in prime-A locations, nice but from a cost perspective it doesn’t make sense
It’s a perfect location for affordable housing units since it means that people won’t need to be able to afford a car to live there. If done right, this sounds like a great idea.
mgwa
Its makes no ‘business’ sense to build only 5-10 afforable units in such a prime location. The city would be better off selling that plot to developer for seveal 10’s of millions so they can build 50+ luxury apartments.
Take the 10’s of millions $$ and build at least 100 units of affordable units elsewhere in Newton, it would help so many more people. Help 5 people to live without a car or help 100 poor residents to have a roof over their head??
@bugek – the part that’s being used for the affordable housing isn’t worth 10th of millions of dollars. This is a little plot of land next to the hotel, which is what will be subsidizing building the affordable housing. And the point isn’t “helping 5 people live without a car” – it’s allowing people who can’t afford a car to have a place to live that’s transit-accessible. And there’s no way this project would subsidize 100 units of affordable housing elsewhere in Newton.
@bugek,
Are you suggesting the city sell the property, allow a developer to tear down the historic library, and then use the appx 1/3 of an acre to somehow recoup “10’s of millions $$?” I know they say “location, location, location,” but I don’t see how that property is worth more than every other lot in Newton Centre.
Randy
If the city allowed a high rise to be built on that lot, each 2br unit could fetch at least 700k because of its proximity to the T.
2 floors per unit, 25 floors = 50 units = 50 x 700k = 35 million potential sales. Only a 3000 sqft lot would be needed.
However nimbys will never allow a high rise to be built next to the T.
Like Mike, I’ll reserve judgement. This could be an exciting project.
What I think Newton Centre truly needs is a bank!!!
Sounds like a very interesting proposal, very much looking forward to the details.
We have inclusionary zoning in Newton because we believe in larger projects contributing to our affordable housing goals. The idea of including affordable housing as part of a hotel development is intriguing and to me very much in line with those goals. It does bother me a little bit that people have already started saying that affordable housing shouldn’t be built in attractive locations on this thread.
The city should never sell any public property.
Jane, I wish your words of wisdom were adhered to in the late 1970’s when the city sold so many elementary schools because they thought they would never need them again.
bryan
The issue about affordable housing in prime-A area is ‘opportunity cost’.
You don’t take a prime-A lot worth tens of millions ONLY to build 5-10 units on it, that’s the worst value proposition.
You either build many tens of units to maximize the cost or you sell it for an obscene amount and use that money to build ‘tons’ of affordable units in another area. My point is to ‘build ALOT’ of units or sell for a high price to make best use of the money
here’s an example:
If you have parcel on land on 5th Ave NYC. Do you build a townhouse with 5 units, to house 5 low-income ppl, or do you sell it for hundred of millions and help everyone?
I want to have some of what Bugek is smoking. As Randy pointed out, if the city were to sell the property, there is no way 1/3 of an acre in Newton Center would sell for “$10’s of millions”.
The potential for $35M in sales, does not mean that we could sell the property for $35M. I believe the standard here for developers is 3X, meaning they want to sell for 3 times what they purchase the property for. This covers carrying costs, financing, design, construction, and a very complicated and expensive special permit and public process. So now we’e talking about $12M to build “elsewhere.” Looking at the information available on the city’s website, it appears that over the past 10 years the per unit cost of affordable housing with land acquisition, and without all of the potential subsidies is between $500K and $1M. Considering we don’t know where in Newton this land would be acquired, and we’re talking 2020 costs, and not 2010, I’d say that the $1M is a good conservative per unit budget. This means that we could potentially get as many as 12 units of affordable housing elsewhere in the city.
I would think that if we were to allow a 250-300ft high-rise building on this property, you would simply condition the special permit such that 12 of the units need to be affordable.
That said, it seems like allowing a building of that size to get 6 more affordable units, above what’s currently proposed, is just not worth it. Not nimby, just numbers.
Marti Bowen, I drive through Newton Centre several times a day so I think I can provide commentary.
Have you ever tried to drive through Newton Centre around 8 am or after 3:30 pm coming down Parker St. from Oak Hill?
Please try it sometime and you will be in a better position to judge about further development in Newton Centre.
What is it with people who live in Newton thinking they are the only ones who know an area? It’s not that big.
What Marti said.
@ Dreamer & Kevin Mitchell
Been there, Done that.
There was a movie theater in Newton Center
called The Academy.
There was also one in Newton Corner-
The Paramount.
I feel so very fortunate to have enjoyed
the city at a much simpler time.
The trend is to build things,
cramasmuchasyoucanintoanyspaceavailable, so I say hotel, restaurant, and- to honor our commitment to be as welcoming a city as possible- housing,
lots of it- affordable of course!
I hesitate to ask because it exposes me as someone too lazy (I plead busy) to take a ten-minute walk, but what is 39 Herrick Road?
@Paul Green
Yep, the Academy Cinema, right on Beacon Street near the T: “Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster,” “The Poseidon Adventure” and “Blazing Saddles” (snuck in to that one because I was way too young). And at the Paramount, “The Exorcist” and “Carrie” (too young for both of those also… how did I get in? Oh yeah…) Great memories!
It would be terrific to have a theatre once again in Newton Centre. The SuperLux isn’t my style, even though it is a very good place to see a film. Maybe the Northland project could have a cinema? Doubtful, but one can dream.
UPDATE: Globe story is here.
This concept seems to address a lot of needs: commercial development (adding to the tax base); hotel close to public transit; affordable housing close to public transit; an addition to the nightlife scene in Newton Centre — sounds like a win to me. I am excited to hear more details.
Mmm I wonder if the Newtonville Orr block could end up as a mega hotel with retail at the bottom?
Peter Karg writes:
Please recognize, then, that you are part of the problem. (So am I) As much as people would like to blame traffic lights or placement of some curbstones, at least twice a day, demand exceeds supply, and even if you could add supply, this would just induce more demand. Local and regional traffic patterns (e.g. limited options, congested route 9) are more likely to blame at rush hour than Newton Centre’s businesses, most of which aren’t even open at 8am! Here we have a proposal for a hotel and what I’d hope would be transit-oriented affordable housing. That seems to be a smart use of the property, a win for the city, both for the limited impact on resources and the extra hotel tax revenue. Traffic congestion shouldn’t be used as an excuse to leave vacant lots in our village centers.
To answer Amanda Heller, I believe 39 Herrick road is the address of the facility at Andover-Newton Thologoical School where the Zoning Reform discussion will be held Thursday at 6:30 P.M. It’s at the far end of the campus and was the site of the Historic Preservation Awards this year. The full Pattern Book draft will be presented by the consultants.
If that’s not correct, I can only repeat the immortal words of Emily Litella: “Never Mind.”
Thanks, but the property, which backs up to the old library, is apparently owned by the developer, First Cambridge. If memory serves, it used to be a somewhat shabby apartment building. Online city records show some years’ worth of special permit activity at that address, suspended a couple of weeks ago when the developer got the hotel gig. (A business hotel in a village center? Seriously? Well, I’m relieved to see that the project involves a restaurant. We could really use one of those in Newton Centre.)
Just read the Globe article Greg posted above. Love the concept, but the proposal does not include enough parking.
Adam, maybe the hotel can have a circular driveway drop off to minimize traffic impact.
Mike, It is my understanding that the Hotel will propose underground parking for the hotel.
Wonder what the impact of blasting on the site to create underground parking will be to neighboring businesses?
Which leads to one of your favorite topics, Mike… The property is immediately adjacent to the MBTA tracks. The idea of decking over the tracks has been floated in the past. I wonder if anyone considered the cost vs. undergrounding parking? It’s obviously a much smaller span than the Pike.
There’s not enough parking including the proposed underground lot. Decking over the tracks may be one solution, but it’s likely cost prohibitive in that location, for that use.
Mikes Correct – they need more parking. You cannot have a 57 room hotel and only 33 parking spaces.
If it’s valet parking, they could have double-decker parking spots, which would mean that 33 spaces could accommodate 46 cars and 10 SUVs/trucks (that won’t fit in double-decker spots).
The Globe article indicates a total of 33 parking spaces, with 24 of those being underground. I really like this proposal, but it’s not going to work with just 33 parking spaces.
I’d like to assume that the folks who would be investing their money in this know how much parking they need more than us armchair experts do.
Perhaps if you’re arriving with three kids in a mini van, you go to the Marriott. But perhaps if you flew into the area on business or arrived by other forms of public transportation, you might choose this place because its on Green Line, less expensive than Boston and near great restaurants. (Although those ZipCars in Newton Centre might be handy too).
@Mike Striar – that’s why I made the suggestion above (speaking as someone who’s work parking uses lifts). In the same amount of space, and slightly more expensive construction cost, they could accommodate almost twice as many vehicles. And at hotel parking rates, many hotel guests will decide it’s cheaper and easier to use Uber/Lyft or tax instead of renting a car – especially those nervous about Boston drivers.
Thank you, Greg. The point of having the hotel on the Green Line is that it’s readily accessible to Boston without the expense of a Boston hotel or the need to rent a car.
Look at what’s happened in other communities that are close to a major city. Hotels in locations with easy access to public transportation and good restaurants thrive.
The proposal is for much more than a hotel. It includes six housing units and a 90 seat restaurant. While I also “assume that the folks who would be investing their money in this know how much parking they need,” I’d personally like to see that “need” substantially addressed onsite. The suggestion by mgwa might be part of the solution. Again, I really like this proposal. But I think it’s clear that parking is going to be a major concern of residents and other businesses.
The key to Newton Centre’s parking problems isn’t building more private lots, it’s finding more complementary uses.