A six-story life science building which would to be built on part of the parking lot behind the Home Depot in Watertown is in the planning stages.
Boylston Properties, the developers of Arsenal Yards, submitted pre-application plans to the City of Watertown showing a six-story building with five levels of life science space and one story of parking. Plans were submitted to the Planning Department on Sept. 5.
Boylston Properties Principal Andrew Copelotti said Boylston have engaged the Watertown Planning Department and will have information for the community in the next several months.
“These plans showcase our long-term goal to potentially expand the life science campus at Arsenal Yards,” Copelotti said.
Boylston believes the life science sector still has a bright future in the region.
“While there is an excess supply of life science space in Greater Boston at the moment, we are bullish on the industry in our region, the strength of our campus in Watertown and the companies that make it up,” Copelotti said. “Of note, Arsenal Yards is home to 10 promising companies poised for growth in the next 2-5 years, and while we are in the very early stages of permitting, 300 Forge is an investment that benefits our tenants’ future expansion.”
The project narrative in the pre-application documents submitted by Boylston to the City reads, in part:
“We propose to replace approximately 1.5 acres of the 10.43-acre Home Depot Parcel, which is currently used for surface parking, with a new, approximately 175,150 SF life science building, known as 300 Forge. The building is six (6) occupied stories above grade, with an additional mechanical penthouse, and is 103 feet tall from existing grade. It has a 38,400 SF footprint.”
The building would have 392 interior parking spaces in five levels of a garage. The garage would have 2.5 levels of below grade parking and 2.5 levels of above ground parking within the building podium. Also in the plan are 75 bicycle parking spaces in a bicycle storage room next to the building lobby.
The Master Plan for Arsenal Yards would have to be amended to allow the project, and add the parcel that includes home improvement store.
“The addition of the Home Depot Parcel into the AY Master Plan creates opportunities to greatly improve circulation throughout Arsenal Yards as well as the quality of the public realm,” the project narrative reads.
The plan in the amended Master Plan would realign Forge Road into the Home Depot Parking Lot and away from the landscaped buffer between the parking lot and Greenough Boulevard.
“This move upgrades the quality of the public realm along the river creating a park-like atmosphere and enhancing the pedestrian experience connecting Arsenal Park, Arsenal Yards, 100 Forge (Building G), the proposed 300 Forge (Building H), 500 Forge and ultimately Arsenal Street. Significant new plantings and paths, an enhanced dog park and opportunities for public art elevate the quality of the open space that serves as a transition from the tranquil natural environment of the river greenway to the vibrant activity of Arsenal Yards,” the narrative said.
The addition of 5,333 sq. ft. of open space would increase the open space in the Home Depot parcel by more than 10 percent to a total of 58,431 sq. ft.
Investment money is drying up in life sciences and they are still eager to build? It’ll be a super location for affordable housing if the tenants don’t come.
I thought the life science market was over-saturated, with many buildings being empty! Won’t Home Depot still be there? Their customers need to come in their vehicles to accommodate their purcheses
Are there no other types of businesses that Watertown can attract? We often say don’t put all your eggs in one basket and that seems to fall on deaf ears.
Realizing that developers can establish the businesses they want to build, with some limitations, can’t our Department of Planning and Development encourage other business plans?
We aren’t providing jobs for current residents who are not trained in the sciences. If we don’t want high cost luxury apartments that most people can’t afford, let’s provide a myriad of job opportunities so lower income Watertown residents can stay here and have short commutes to work. They wouldn’t tie up the roads with more congestion if they live locally. Those with higher incomes often eventually move to the suburbs to establish their forever homes to raise their families rather than staying in the high-rise apartments.
There was a meeting on the Newton Corner Long-Term Planning Study last night, the 18th, and the numbers of people coming from outside our area and getting on and off the Pike at Newton Corner count higher than 60,000 daily. Many of them are traveling on Galen St. and continue through Watertown Sq.
If people are living further out to afford a home and driving here for these lab jobs, how are we actually benefiting? People use our streets and then go back to the real suburbs. If these labs aren’t eventually filled, we are losing our tax base too.
Watertown had only one official representative as part of the Newton Zoom meeting. I hope he took good notes and will report back to the City Manager and Councilors on the issues that may have negative long-term effects on us. We haven’t even finalized our Watertown Sq. Plan and this issue will need to be factored in. Let’s plan better for ALL of Watertown’s residents. We certainly now have enough people in the Planning Department to, hopefully, make a difference.
Let’s hope this same group will work together to develop plans to attract better businesses for Watertown so our long-term future will be one to be proud of. A lot of mistakes have been made in the past that we can’t now correct.
This is such a bad idea. Have they not done enough damage to the Arsenal? No tto mention destroying the view of the Charles River. The field is over saturated and yet they want to keep building and removing more green space. Not to mention removing the small dog park they just put in there. Enough is enough. Watertown does not need another New Building in the Home Depot parking lot.
I feel like developers have the mantra, “If you build it, they will come.” However if we look at the current state of Biotech Lab properties it would seem that an additional space could also sit vacant. Off the top of my head we have these vacant lab space currently, and this is NOT a complete list…just the obvious ones (this does not include the list of of empty spaces in Boston, seaport, Brighton) See the Boston globe article https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/08/15/business/lab-space-vacancy-boston/
66 Galen street – not fully leased (or not leased at all)
64 Pleasant street – 45% vacant
99 Coolidge – 60% vacant
500 Forge – 25% vacant
580 Pleasant street – 60% vacant
250 Arsenal – partially vacant
29 Elm street – partially vacant
Properties that have been approved but not developed:
Acton street (Cannistrano site)
Waltham street (Sterritt Lumber site)
Pleasant Street (Russos site)
This new proposed building would also be competing with the plans that Alexandria has for the Best Buy/ Watertown Mall site as well……
Definitely an eggs in one basket approach
Enough already with the bio-labs! How many are currently sitting vacant, near vacant, underutilized or plans scrapped?
66 Galen, 100 Forge St, old Millers Alehouse building, The Russos lot, Sterritt lumber lot, the old sports club on Coolidge Ave. are prime examples and there are many more.
According to Fire Department records, as of 2/24, there were 28 buildings with known lab tenants 7 of the buildings are still under some form of construction with 4 of them having tenants moving in or in the process of moving in.
Someone in City government needs to conduct a survey of the current occupancy rates (maybe the bio safety committee?). I don’t share BP’s optimism or rosy future, but assuming their projections are accurate (we should hope not), all this will result in is even more traffic and/or demand for more housing