Scott Oran, one of the developers of 28 Austin Street submitted this update in response to Bryan Barash’s Village 14 thread from earlier this week.
Thanks Bryan for starting this timely conversation.
I am writing as one of the developers of 28 Austin Street to share some facts.
We are so proud of how 28 Austin Street has rapidly become a new and welcoming addition to Newtonville exceeding even the expectations of its many supporters.
And yet we anticipate still more positive additions over the coming months:
- Later this month, installation of our rooftop solar array will be completed and provide over 50% of the building’s electric needs, making 28 Austin the greenest apartments in Newton
- In March, two retail tenants, Caffe Nero, the international café and bakery, and Henry Bear’s Park, a local toy store, will open, bringing new street life and jobs to a formerly crumbling stretch of Austin Street
- In April, the new Austin Street plaza will be completed, as designed, with new plantings, tables and moveable seating to delight visitors
- In May and June, working with the Newtonville Area Council and Newton Community Pride, our $10,000 gift will fund a Saturday music series and a new wall mural (details to follow!)
- Finally, in July, the City will start on their long awaited Walnut Street, Austin Street and Bram Way improvements which promise to make Newtonville more friendly to pedestrians and shoppers.
Only then will the transformation be complete.
This then should be viewed as just an interim report.
Since welcoming our first resident on October 1, four and a half months ago, we have leased 80% of the building’s 68 apartments creating an exciting and diverse community.
As we had hoped and predicted, our residents are both young and old, just starting out and retired. Some are single, some married and some divorced. Some have children.
But defying dire predictions, just three children to date have been enrolled in the Newton Public Schools. This is less than one-sixth the predicted number.
And as noted, one third of our apartments are income restricted. Over 125 individuals and families entered last summer’s state-mandated lottery for just 23 apartments. These income-restricted apartments are homes to, among others, municipal workers, employees of local non-profit organizations and many long term residents of Newton just needing a new place to live.
Much of the building was built last winter in a climate controlled factory and trucked to the site. This allowed us to minimize interruptions in Newtonville, ensure quality, reduce construction waste and create very quiet homes and a very high performance building envelope to reduce energy use. The building envelope is so air tight that every apartment has state of the art energy recovery ventilation to ensure healthy and fresh climate controlled air. Once on site, the building was clad with brick and cementitious siding.
124 new municipal parking spaces — including five accessible spaces — have replaced the crumbling old municipal lot. New signage on Austin Street and Bram Way welcomes municipal parkers.
The new playground is attracting young neighborhood kids, moms and dads.
While anecdotal, we have heard from local area businesses that business is up and they are pleased with the new customers from 28 Austin Street.
And we hear from residents that they are thrilled to live in the only place in Newton where you can walk to a supermarket (or three), a drug store, restaurants and public transportation to Boston.
This may account for the lack of car ownership. Again defying dire predictions, our 90-car underground resident parking garage is less than half full. Many of our younger and older residents don’t have cars. Instead, they use public transportation and ride sharing.
Given the availability of our underground parking, we expect to rent those empty parking spaces to area businesses and their employees, further freeing up street and municipal parking for Newtonville shoppers. This in turn, in a virtuous circle, should promote and support area retail business.
In sum, 28 Austin Street is exceeding expectations in every way after just four months. We look forward to sharing more good news over the coming months and years.
Scott, how many minors live in the complex? This is a different question than how many enrolled in NPS during the middle of the year.
Ding, ding, ding – word of the week is “cementitious”
Scott,
How much annual property tax does the development pay to the city?
The current accessed shows $1.4M for 2020, obviously before the development
$1,417,000 . Seems low for 74,000 sqft lot. maybe its incorrect?
How much property tax will the development pay in 2020?
This will be public information in several months, so I understand if you don’t want to answer now
Thanks @Scott. Your update is much appreciated.
You & your fellow developers are to be commended for setting the standard with 33% of the total units designated as affordable.
Can’t wait for the Sat. day music series and mural.
Good luck in the coming months and years.
According to the City of Newton, in addition to the three students enrolled in Newton Public School, there is one pre-schooler living at 28 Austin Street.
@Scott– By all appearances you constructed a great building that you, your staff and the entire construction team should be proud of. Many of us in the community truly value and appreciate the contribution you’ve made to the Newtonville landscape, and in particular the extra affordable units you were generous enough to add to the mix.
Thanks for the update. So I assume all 23 affordable units are rented? And are all leases for 12 months?
The municipal lot used to be free on Saturday. Is that still the case?
What’s your position on closing Bram’s Way to traffic to make that plaza area more enjoyable for those relaxing ?
Thanks.
@bugek after clicking the 28 Austin parcel from the assessor’s map, click “Show Related Units” to eventually reach an assessed value of $7,294,200 for 2020
@Arthur – Bram’s Way we agree on – the City really needs to find a way to close that down during daylight hours so the plaza can be enjoyed without fear of cars. It would be such an enhancement to the neighborhood.
@Jeremy,
Thanks for the clarification. I wondered what is considered “fair share” of paying taxes
If we compare 2 different rental housing options
1) 2 family in Newton, accessed at 1.2 Million. 2 units rented at $3000 each
2) 28 Austin. accessed at 7.2M. 68 units rented at average $2500 each (fair estimate)
1) will pay $10.44 * 1200 = $12,528
2) will pay $19.92 * 7200 = $143,424
The developer pays about 11x more property taxes but for 34x more units!
Or put another way, assuming 2 people per unit:
The 2 unit house will give the city $12,528 / 4 = $3,132 per person
the developer will give the city $143,424 / 136 = $1,054 per person
Clearly, the city not getting its money worth per person here.
Can someone argue why this is a “fare share”??
Bugek, I am hardly an expert on taxes, but I am pretty sure they don’t work that way (per person).
In addition, the parking lot didn’t produce any property tax revenus, and could never support two family units like you compare.
Mike,
My numbers were estimated, without knowing the total occupancy of 28 austin, we wont know the real numbers per resident.
At the end of the day, property taxes support services for the people who live here so taxes paid per resident is a reasonable metric to consider for a RENTAL building.
Perhaps an argument for a different tax rate for rental vs commercial
Newton has two tax rates: Residential and commercial. It does not tax per person, which I might add would be really horrible public policy. Taxing rental properties at a higher rate than owned policies is an even worse idea.
@bugek – all property is taxed based on its estimated ‘fair market’ value – i.e. what someone else would pay for that same property.
If I live alone in a $2 million house I pay taxes for a $2million house.
If my family of 6 live in a $300k house I pay taxes for a 300k house.
Would it be fair to ask if 28 austin is undervalued by the city?
It generates almost 2M annually in revenue but is only valued at 7M. With deprecation, it net profits are very good
Is it undervalued by the city?
The 2020 assessment for all properties in the City of Newton is based on the City’s estimate of the property’s value on January 1, 2019 — one year in arrears.
In the case of 28 Austin Street, the City estimated the value of the construction, which was approximately one-third complete on January 1,2019, to be $7,294,200.
Massachusetts law allows the City to reassess the value again to reflect the building’s subsequent completion in October 2019.
It really spruces up Newtonville. I hope that we can have something similar in West Newton.
Scott,
This explains the discrepancy. Looking forward to more transit oriented developments from you guys…
Love this update. Thank you, Austin Street Partners.
Scott,
Wanted to ask about your experience with “prefab” construction.
Are we close to having the average home owner “ordering up” an accessory unit or even a whole house and be cheaper than traditional construction?
How many more years do you think?
Hmm. There’s less residential parking use than planned for. Who woulda thunk?
Also very happy with the update, Scott. Will look forward to seeing the solar panels rise to the occasion. Also happy with how the property has turned out: Even I had been skeptical! Just goes to show how the process can work, given the addl factor that the developers seem to also be so conscientious of environmental concerns.
For those who fear that development will bring all sorts of vehicular traffic, this venture shows that a development in the right place, within steps of shops and public transit, indicates a new and forward-looking paradigm for Newton.
p.s. great bike racks out front, Scott!
Sorry to throw any shade on a project that seems to have garnered widespread acclaim and is clearly a major improvement to the neighborhood, but I regret that anybody has to live, work, or attend school within 500 meters of an interstate highway – particularly children.
https://www.lung.org/our-initiatives/healthy-air/outdoor/air-pollution/highways.html
I think when looking at Austin St., we need to remember that we are looking at the approved project negotiated by the city council and not the original proposal. The original project saw the nearly whole municipal lot as surplus, didn’t have underground parking, proposed putting cars on lifts, and didn’t provide for construction parking at Star Market — this at a time when there was obviously a lot of non-Star Market parking going on there and movement by Star to eliminate that.
I think the construction period was managed well. Our favorite businesses survived and I personally was never fully shutout of errand parking on a Saturday. I do know folks who were displaced from leased parking nearby by the displaced demand. I also imagine a lot of rail commuters had to find other 12-hour parking locations.
On the other hand, the city is now desperately seeking land for a new senior center, having handed over this large city parcel for $27.50/day in prepaid lease payments ($1M/99yrs). Can we get that deal elsewhere for Newcal?
I’d also be curious about the pro-forma provided to the city by Austin St. Partners that was cited as a rationale for the project as barely profitable 6.25% return, and just incapable of adding affordable units. This dropped to 6% with additional affordable units negotiated by Amy, using the pro forma calculations, although it has several errors led the return to be underestimated by 1.4% (so it dropped to 7.4%).
http://newtonwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/austin_st_sept2015_pro_forma.jpg
The proforma stated that the project’s 35 two-bedroom apartments would rent for $3255/month. They are renting for $4900-$5900. That would seem to raise the annual revenue by over ~$600K/year after factoring in affordable units, and increase the return by 66% to something north of 9.5%. Did the project also receive additional state subsidy not captured in the pro forma or this calculation?
Jack’s right there were a lot of negotiations which mostly improved this project (still think it should have been one story taller). Reminds me a lot of all the negotiations that lead up to the 17-7 Northland approval that have made that project a lot better too.
Greg, as you may recall, what got me engaged in Austin St, and subsequently more engaged Newton civics, was my shock at some of the non-representative imagery displayed by the developer and the city while promoting the project:
https://village14.com/2015/03/02/open-thread-austin-st-project-community-meeting/
Today I got my 4th mailing from the Northland group but noticed it included a new aerial photo of the “Current Conditions at Northland Newton Project Site.”
http://newtonwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/northland-20200223.jpg
While there are many cars visible in parking lots, I see only two cars parked on Oak St and none on Needham St.? Is that representative of current conditions on Needham St?
According to the traffic study for the project, Needham Street has a weekday daily volume of 20,500 cars, with 19,600 on Saturdays:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5be49ff4b40b9d99966a453a/t/5bff313a6d2a73b98eaed086/1543450946819/10-19-18+Transportation+Impact+and+Access+Plan.pdf
Satellite images from the online mapping companies don’t show traffic jams, but they do show at least a dozen cars along Needham St at any given time. Did this shot just get taken at an unusual moment, or am I just missing the vehicles? Is this photo available from the Yes group at a better resolution?
Personally, my concern with the Northland project is that I don’t think it meets the special permit criteria requiring appropriate road access. The site’s 1600 parking spots with two arrivals and departures each would translate to an additional 6400 transits of Needham Street each day. This project could add 30% more total volume onto Needham St.
The Traffic Demand Management Plan calls for limiting it to a total of less than ~900 trips at peak weekday hours. The evening limit translates to an average of one car every 15 seconds for two hours. That seems like a lot to add to Needham street, and the volume will likely come at a higher rate in the 5-6 pm period rather than 4-5 pm.
https://needhamstreet.rightsizenewton.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Board-Order-426-18-Traffic-Conditions-Right-Size-Newton-10-25-2019.pdf
The alternatives could yield more traffic, but if the other options were likely to be that active, they would likely be more profitable as well, and Northland would have gone that route in the first place.
@Mike allow me to introduce you to Newtonville, where those of us that live within +- 100 yards / meters of the pike get to experience 70dB of noise ( on my front porch ) and wipe the soot off our outdoor widow sills every six months.
Now, I knew of this when I bought the house, ( although it has gotten worse) so, I’m not complaining about that here- but to add insult to injury we’re going to have 1000 more units ( +- ) + retail / services on Washington street when all is said and done.
And yes my son had asthma as a boy.
And people have the unmitigated audacity to call us that acronym that start with N and ends in Y!
Which brings me to today’s Boston Globe editorial, which was completely misleading because it treated allo& newton as one homogeneous city. It’s a bunch of Villages , 14 apparently, and they are not going to be zoned equitably in the new plan. The majority of places ( if not all) that are zoned single family will stay that way. The others will become more dense, splitting the city into a further extremes of wealth ( and environmental/ health costs ) than it already is.
Oh and Greg, you really need to update the graphic on the main page of this blog. You need to include at least a couple of 6 story and 10 story buildings into the drawing of the quaint little villages. It’s not going to look like that any more.
@Scott: So glad you agreed with me to increase the percentage of affordable units prior to the Full Council’s vote. Clearly, it has made such a remarkable difference in the project’s overall success.
Scott, I know you said details would be forthcoming, but interested to hear more about this Saturday music series you mentioned. Local (Newton and vicinity) performers? Different genres or mainly pop/rock/jazz?
I appreciate the update. Interesting that thus far school enrollment is lower than some expected. Nice to hear that many of those who have signed up don’t have cars also.
“thrilled to live in the only place in Newton where you can walk to a supermarket (or three), a drug store, restaurants and public transportation to Boston.”
Not the only place in Newton – West Newton has these amenities, too. (Which is why we need to improve West Newton Square and increase density)
There’s also two grocery stores on Needham Street that are in walkable distance to many in Upper Falls (including, fingers crossed, all our new Northland neighbors) and will be even more walkable once the state’s $30 Million Needham Street renovation is open.
Just to drive home @Mary’s point, I see a lot of people walking from my W. Newton neighborhood over to Russo’s for weekly shopping. With 7 food markets within 2 miles of my house, I can do a lot of shopping by bike. And it’s all flat, some are accessible without going on on a busy street. Some (Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s) require a bit more daring.
Better bike infrastructure could extend the reach of those stores so more people can get there, and shop, without relying on a car trip.
I think this is a good project but I don’t think the fact the residents are using ride sharing apps instead of private cars should be touted as a positive. Ride sharing apps generate 2 trips vs what would be one trip in a private car (i.e. more traffic impact). To come and go by private car is two trips. To come and go by rsa is 4 trips.
We need more public transportation, and better public transportation, and reliable public transportation, and green energy public transportation if we want these housing projects to be successful for the city.
What Rick said.