Arsenal Mall Renovation

Changes to Arsenal Park Could Result from Renovation of Arsenal Mall

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Boylston Properties Principal Bill McQuillan had an urgent message for residents and town officials Wednesday night. If they want to improve Arsenal Park, now is the time to start figuring out how. 

“We knew this was going to come up,” McQuillan said “It’s August 17, we need that park figured out, because we’re not going to do this plan without that park, or without that park we’re going to do a different plan.”

Arsenal Project developers held their fourth community meeting, at the Innovation Space at the Arsenal Mall Wednesday, where they updated residents and town officials on the project’s design direction and presented their latest building and site renderings. The presentation included preliminary plans to create pathways through the park that would connect directly to the property. Arsenal Park is run and maintained by the Conservation Commission, which would have to approve any proposed changes. Though the upgrades to the park were included in the presentation, Design Architect Christopher Jones said there’s still a lot of work to be done with the town and community.

Development

Community Meeting Set for First Phase of the Arsenal on the Charles Renovation

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The Watertown Planning Department announced the first community meeting for the renovation of the Arsenal on the Charles by Athenahealth. The meeting on Phase One of the AODD Campus Master Plan will take place Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016, from 6:30-8 p.m. at 311 Arsenal Street, Watertown, in Building 311 (in the Arsenal on the Charles). When you arrive at Building 311, the hosts will direct you to the meeting room. Click on this link to see the documents relating to Phase One.

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Garage, Building on Arsenal St. in First Phase of Arsenal on the Charles Project

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Developers of the Arsenal on the Charles complex wasted little time before submitting plans for the first phase of the renovation of the former U.S. Army facility on Arsenal Street. Designs for the first phase of the renovation of the Arsenal on the Charles were submitted to the Watertown Planning Department just three weeks after complex owners, Athenahealth, received approval of their master plan for the area. The first phase contains the large new parking garage on the west side of the complex, as well as a new building that will have space for retail and commercial uses and a small park. The new building, known as Building 2, is a three-story 30,372 square foot building that will face Arsenal Street on the west side of the complex. The proposal includes a public plaza in front of the new building

The 1,534-space, 7-level garage is key to the project, which would increase the number of employees in the Arsenal on the Charles by 1,000 up to 4,500.

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See the Proposed Plans for the New Arsenal Mall Before the Meeting on Aug. 17

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Plans for the proposed new Arsenal Mall have been submitted to the Watertown Planning Department, and includes a 12-story residential building among the additions to the site.  

Developers have scheduled two community meeting to discuss the proposal before it goes before the Planning Board. The meetings will be held in the Innovation Space inside the mall on Wednesday, Aug. 17 and Wednesday, Aug. 31 at 7 p.m. each night.

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Arsenal Project Holding 2 Community Meetings to Discuss Plans for Mall

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The first step of approval of the big renovation of the Arsenal Mall has begun with developers filing the plans with the town. The community will get to see the plans during two community meetings. The materials submitted have been uploaded on the Town website, which will be updated regularly as new information is submitted, according to the developers, Boylston Properties. The filing can be found here: http://www.watertown-ma.gov/DocumentCenter/Index/984

“The purpose of this filing is to continue the conversation with various Department heads within the Town, to get feedback from Town officials, and make sure we are heading in the right direction,” developers wrote in their announcement. The two Community Meetings will be held Aug.

Arsenal on the Charles

Master Plan for Renovating the Arsenal on the Charles Approved

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A plan put forward by the owners of the Arsenal on the Charles complex to add several buildings and increase the number of employees was approved by the Planning Board Monday night. 

The board unanimously supported the plan, but before any building can be built, the owners – athenahealth – must come back for approval of that each of the plan. Additions include several office buildings, new retail space, a restaurant, more open space including a pocket park and a new glass roof over the spaces between the long “finger buildings” east of the Arsenal Center for the Arts building. (Read more about the plan here). The company purchased the complex, between Arsenal and North Beacon streets, from Harvard University in 2013. Soon after planning started to renovate the complex to make expand the headquarters of the company.

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Town Houses Proposed to Go on Watertown Masonic Temple Site

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A community meeting will be held to discuss plans to redevelop the Masonic Temple on Church Street and put townhouses on the site. Petitioner PNG, LLC will host the meeting on Thursday, July 28, 2016 at 7 p.m. in the Community Room in the Watertown Police Station, 552 Main St. Before the project is built a special permit must be approved. The plan calls for building five townhouses in two buildings on the Masonic Center at 32 Church St. (across from First Parish Church) which sits on a 17,685 square foot lot.

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Athenahealth’s Proposal for Arsenal Complex Gets Good Reviews

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After years of hashing out the details of the massive overhaul of the Arsenal on the Charles complex, Athenahealth officials presented their master plan to the Planning Board Wednesday night and overall received a positive response but there were still some concerns. 

Some big changes would be made to the former U.S. Army facility on Arsenal Street, including several new buildings, some retail space, parks, bicycle and pedestrian paths and a large new parking garage on the far west end of the site. The garage, which will fit 1,623 vehicles, will stand 58.5 feet tall at the highest spot but 54 feet on the side closest to homes. It would have eight floors of parking, with two underground. The garage had been one of the major points of contention for residents living near the complex. Steps have been taken to reduce the size of the garage and lessen the impact.