The downturn in the life science lab market opened an opportunity for the City of Watertown to purchase a site in West Watertown where a lab building had been permitted but never constructed.
Tuesday night, the City Council voted to allow City Manager George Proakis to sign an agreement with the owners of the 2-acre site at 148 Waltham St. for $9.2 million, and approved an initial payment of $500,000.
When the Sterritt Lumber site was sold neighbors strongly opposed proposed new uses for the property, which included an apartment building and later a lab, which was approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals and permitted, but construction never started.
City Council President Mark Sideris said that led to an opportunity for the City.
“As we all are aware the life science boom has become a bust at this point, and so having done some due diligence the Manager was able to contact the owners of the site,” Sideris said.
After multiple meetings, Proakis said the City and the owners came to an agreement for the City to purchase the land.
City Manager George Proakis said he was frequently approached by residents who suggested that the City purchase the site, and use it for a municipal purpose. When the land was permitted for a lab building, the price of the land rose from the single-digit millions of dollars to $30 million to $40 million, Proakis said.
“That was certainly out of the world where we could do that,” Proakis said. “Then the market for labs changed and shifted. … Our fiscal year 2024 appraisal on it was about $9.3 million and that was as the lab market was starting to slide. I heard there were conversations about them possibly selling it and suddenly started talking about numbers that were under $10 million instead of over $30 million. It became a very different type of conversation — a very appealing type of conversation for the City.”
The City negotiated a purchase and sale agreement to buy the land for $9.2 million, Proakis said. He asked the City Council to approve spending $500,000 as an upfront payment to lock in the deal. The City Council will be asked to approve funding for the rest of the cost at the next City Council meeting.
Proakis said the land will be purchased without borrowing more money. It will come from the City’s Free Cash. The City has more than $43 million in Free Cash, and Proakis said about $22.6 million has been committed to the General Stabilization and Rainy Day fund, and $14.7 million will go to the Watertown Middle School project. About $9 million would be left, he said.
“As I have noted when we talked about $9 million, it should be used to pay for opportunities that come up to fund some of the unfunded programs in our capital plan and now we have the possibility to purchase 148 Waltham St.,” Proakis said.
Councilor Emily Izzo, who represents the West End, thanked Sideris, Proakis and the City administration for their work to make the land purchase a reality. She noted that residents of the area have been vocal about the future of the Sterritt Lumber site since 2020, which was before she became a City Councilor.
“The Sterritt lumber site was one of the first issues I worked on when I became a City Councilor and I got to work with a lot of the residents,” she said. “In 2022 there were multiple meetings and the consensus was the neighborhood was not satisfied with the lab and this purchase by the City is an opportunity to again work with residents of the West End and hopefully make it a space that will compliment the neighborhood and serve the community.”
What will go on the site is not clear, Proakis said.
“Going forward there are a couple of possibilities which include looking at it as a site for an affordable housing development, looking at it as a site that could be used by the DPW, looking at it as a site that we could potentially slice up into a number of uses, looking at possibilities that we haven’t even identified yet,” he said.
Vanasse & Associates
A map showing the property at 148 Waltham St. and the streets in the area surrounding the property.
One option for multiple uses on the site could be having the senior center and affordable housing for seniors on the site, Proakis said. The one item on the list of unfunded projects that would not work is a new location for the East End Fire Station, Proakis said, because it is not located in that end of town.
Also, Proakis said he does not see it as a spot for new open space, because Bemis Park is located right across the street.
In the short term, he said, the City will likely put up some fencing and screening around it to make it a little bit more palatable for the community. It could also become a place for snow storage or for overflow from the DPW. Currently, the DPW uses an area next to Walker Pond for that, but the City is working on constructing a new park on that site.
The land will be purchased through a taking of land, Proakis said, but added that it is a “friendly negotiated agreement.”
I don’t understand land prices but it seems like a lot of money for a rather undesirable location.
It is currently a rather industrial area. Maybe that could change with the addition of the neighboring properties.
What about a new state of the art senior center?
The Town gets a good deal on a tract of land, and the neighborhood gets its wish: sounds like a great deal. Now, what to do with it? As the issue of affordable housing came up in the story, let me share this story from Boston.com:
“State auditor calls MBTA Communities Act ‘unfunded mandate’
“State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s office responded to a request from the Wrentham Select Board to look into concerns regarding the MBTA Communities Act, which requires towns and cities serviced by the MBTA to allow for multifamily housing near public transit.
“Her office determined the law ‘constitutes an unfunded mandate,’ meaning the new law, passed in 2021, didn’t provide municipalities proper funding to meet its requirements at the time it was passed.”
The issue may be moot, as the SJC has ruled the law legal. However, as DiZoglio notes:
“I actually fully support the zoning law but our office is not able to literally ignore that the local mandate law does require contemporaneous funding be appropriated. The law was just ruled a mandate by the SJC. That means it requires a funding mechanism as part of the law.”
The article notes that the legislature has provided money for “technical assistance”: $7 million to 125 communities, or $56,000 per town. Which covers photocopying, I suppose. This may be part of a bigger dispute. From WGBH.org:
“State Auditor Diana DiZoglio said Wednesday that her office is preparing a writ of mandamus to try to obtain Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s assistance in DiZoglio’s ongoing standoff with the state Legislature.
“In November 2024, a ballot question was passed into law by 72% of voters that explicitly gives DiZoglio the authority to audit the Massachusetts House and Senate. However, leaders in those chambers have indicated that they believe that the new law violates separation of powers protections under the Massachusetts Constitution and do not intend to comply with it.
“DiZoglio has repeatedly asked for Campbell to intervene on behalf of the ballot question, but so far the attorney general has balked at doing so.”
That 72% approval was the biggest margin—by far—of any ballot question or other state-wide election. Bigger than Vice President Harris’s margin, bigger than Senator Warren’s, bigger than the lopsided defeat for legalized psychedelics. We may have degrees of agreement or disagreement on how much affordable housing and where, but it would seem there is a strong consensus for keeping the state legislature honest—or die (legislatively or judicially) trying. Which is how I started writing here in the first place.
For clarification, this property is not in Watertown’s MBTA zone.
Understood, and didn’t mean to imply. But as the subject was broached, and as it has been under discussion in several articles here, it seemed relevant.
So we are spending $9 million for piece of land and we will lose the annual real estate tax revunue for the property.
$9 million could have been better spent fixing our roads.
We paying for luxuries, when we can’t afford to do the basics.
Affordable housing is a luxury? That’s news to me.
Of course we are paying for luxuries, namely subsidies for those who may end up with so-called affordable housing, on top of many other freebies they already get. In essence, this would be a wealth transfer. Property is bought with our tax dollars, then it is given at a loss to those who can’t afford market value, but want to live in a community such as ours. There are affordable places out there; Watertown is not among them, and I would rather keep it that way.
In the meantime, our streets look worse everyday. Why can’t we fix them?
I can only be thankful that the majority of our townsfolk do not feel this way. Grace toward our fellow humans is a virtue.
This is awesome. Thanks to the councilors who worked to bring this about. The purchaser had wanted to do lab space but that no longer made economic sense, and as the purchaser didn’t want anything other than lab space, the value went down for the purchase. It was ripe for the picking. A lot of recent sales are going for below asking, not by much but they are. Per Councilor Izzo, “The Sterritt lumber site was one of the first issues I worked on when I became a City Councilor and I got to work with a lot of the residents,” she said. “In 2022 there were multiple meetings and the consensus was the neighborhood was not satisfied with the lab and this purchase by the City is an opportunity to again work with residents of the West End and hopefully make it a space that will compliment the neighborhood and serve the community.” And earlier in the article it was mentioned that they wanted apartments. So it is a win-win for the neighborhood and city. Additionally, if this is made into affordable house, entities like the Affordable Hosing Trust and CPC could fund it. Lastly, since it is now city property, certain ordinances don’t apply in the same way which means the cost of doing business goes down for the city and developer. This is a very good thing! Hopefully it becomes housing for families. It is very close to the Middle School and Lowell and not too far from Cunniff.
Starting to look like all the over saturation and construction of biolabs that will sit vacant or underutilized due to Covid greed has come back to bite us in the you know where.
How many more of these pie in the sky ventures are still going to go waste here? Just off the top of my head there’s, a number of sites that never even broke ground along with completed projects that appear vacant or near vacant to me anytime I drive by them… the old Millers Alehouse, that Galen St eyesore, 100 Forge St, the Mt Auburn Club on Coolidge Ave, the Russo’s lot, the Cannistraro site the ones on Elm St, Walnut St. etc… etc… etc.
What’s going to become of the Watertown Mall and its developers plans to create a bio research campus? The Home Depot parking lot that Boylston Properties acquired… the same developer that tried selling us the idea that life science was the way of the future? And then there were the self proclaimed “experts” that tried to assure us that the industry works in cycles and would rebound back.
I can only imagine that the industry is going to slide even further down the abyss with the Trump and NIH grants cuts. I’m not in the construction business, but I have my doubts that any of the projects that have already been completed can be easily converted into housing. Even if they were, the city is in no financial position to acquire them all or the undeveloped parcels of land that were planned for life science labs. At least with the latter, its still not too late for developers to come up with alternative plans.
And speaking of housing how will this downturn affect the Watertown Sq redevelopment? Fewer labs = fewer employees = less demand for nearby housing.
“As we all are aware the life science boom has become a bust at this point,”
Gee, ya think?
Strangely, many folks in Watertown seem to think they should decide what happens on other people’s property. OPP = Other People’s Property. I wonder if these folks own any real estate or just kibbitz from the sidelines. As for the life science buildings in Watertown — it’s none of your business. It’s their business, their property, their decision what their property will be used for. The city has already gained millions in fees which other cities would love to have. Low information bystanders have no way to evaluate “expert” opinion (how would you know?), nor do they have visibility into the *future* of the life science industry.
Sorry, but poor land use decisions impact everyone and the community must have a voice. Actually that is called planning.
Experts often have biases that cause them to make mistakes. That’s why community input is important. At its best it is part of a system of checks and balances.
BTW, Other People’s Property was stolen from the Native Americans. So the moral high ground is a little shaky on that count.
This appears to be an opportunity deftly seized upon. I have two words as to a use for the site: Affordable Housing.
Turning a disused industrial site into attractive housing would be a big win. We would get much needed housing and the neighborhood would be enhanced by the removal of a vacant eyesore.
Watertown should develop an RFP for affordable housing at Sterritt. Architects and non-profit developers would ideally team up to submit proposals. We must be proactive on the affordability problem. Private development will not provide nearly enough housing that is within reach of the average working person.
The only problem is that it is a half mile walk to the nearest bus stop on Main Street. That must be considered. Perhaps the Connector service could fill the gap.
Yes 100%!