Mini-city Would Be an Antidote to Sprawl

by Thomas C. Palmer Jr.
Boston Globe Staff Writer

Homes, shops, offices planned at rail station

WESTWOOD -- Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - Two familiar names in Massachusetts commercial real estate are joining up to replace a worn-out industrial park with a $1.5 billion city in the suburbs, where people would live, eat, shop, work, work out, and hang out, right at one of region's busiest transportation hubs.

Cabot, Cabot & Forbes of New England Inc. and New England Development of Newton are busy drawing up plans for Westwood Station, a 4.5-million-square-foot development that would transform 130 underused acres into homes for 1,000 families, and offices or shopping destinations for thousands more.

Thirty or more new buildings would occupy a wide strip along almost a mile of University Avenue next to busy Route 128 and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Route 128 Station, which feeds passengers to both commuter and Amtrak trains.

''The main attraction here is the transit station," said John J. ''Jay" Doherty, president of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes. Residents could walk to the train to take a 20-minute trip into Boston or to go to Providence or New York.

''Any time you see large-scale, mixed-use development happening near or on top of a train station, it's a good thing," said Douglas I. Foy, secretary of commonwealth development for the state. ''People of all ages are increasingly fed up with the amount of time they're sort of imprisoned in their cars, and are increasingly interested in going to community neighborhoods."

Foy has championed so-called smart growth, a concept promoted by planners and politicians as an antidote to the sprawl of the last half-century.

Westwood town officials and the developers caution that it is early. The general plan for the area changes daily, and final town approval of a specific proposal -- including the names of retailers and a precise number of housing units -- won't come until spring.

But the ambitious effort to create a new community from the ground up cleared its first hurdle last year, when the town approved a zoning change that would permit residential and large-scale retail uses. Elkus/Manfredi Architects of Boston is doing a master plan for the area, which would see a dozen old, one-story buildings containing more than a million square feet come tumbling down.

University Avenue, now as straight as the railroad tracks that it parallels, would be massaged into a pedestrian-friendly town-center street. In its first phase, the developers would build about 2 million square feet, including up to 400 apartments or condominiums in modest-size towers near the 128 Station, and in four- or five-story buildings along the main street, with shops and restaurants at ground level.

Stephen R. Karp, chief executive of New England Development, is negotiating with local, regional, and large national retail firms that would lease 1.2 million square feet of shopping space.

The plan is for smaller stores to dominate the complex, but department and home furnishings stores, or a trendy discounter like Target, will fit in too. Karp calls it a ''lifestyle town center."

''People like mixed use, having retail where they live, accessible to public transportation," said Karp. ''We think it's going to be wildly successful."

David I. Begelfer, chief executive locally of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, credits Doherty and Karp with trying something new and ambitious. He never thought anything like this would happen when town officials called him a couple of years ago to ask how they could spur development quickly.

''I said, 'You really want to know?' recalled Begelfer. ''Basically we said Westwood is a tough town. Like many communities, it had a lengthy and unpredictable process, with an attitude bordering on no growth."

Unable to make University Avenue work as an industrial and office park, Westwood was facing a seriously increasing budget burden for homeowners. About 20 years ago, residential property owners paid 62 percent of the taxes in Westwood; this year that figure is up to 76 percent.

In a short time, the town dramatically changed its sticky permitting process to encourage development. Previously a dry town, Westwood went to the Legislature and won the right to issue liquor licenses for restaurants, which would help bring nightlife to the town.

Michael A. Jaillet, Westwood's town administrator, said officials created a steering committee representing all the boards and commissions affected to review proposals and comment as developers shaped their plans.

''I don't think you're going to find very many examples of that," he said.

Doherty's company, one of Boston's oldest real estate developers, built many of the office parks that dot suburban Boston -- including, four decades ago, the sprawling structures currently scattered along University Avenue.

Cabot, backed by the money of Commonfund Realty Investors LLC of Wilton, Conn., went to work early last year, and Doherty quickly bought 125 acres on University Avenue. He said he is close on 10 more.

''We knew that redevelopment would occur only if we could get someone to assemble the multiple pieces," said Jaillet. ''I've got to tell you, I don't think anybody expected him to acquire that much."

Starting with a building and 25 acres that Cabot had purchased from General Motors Corp. in 1997, Cabot and Commonfund acquired about 20 properties from a dozen owners.

But the retail world primes the pump in suburban mixed-use development, and, ''We have not done retail and residential in my career," Doherty said.

So he went to see shopping center specialist Karp, whose New England Development built retail centers throughout the region. As it happened, Karp 10 years ago had considered building a mall near the site, and he had been talking to Westwood officials recently about a shopping center.

Karp said there is a long empty stretch between the malls of Natick and Braintree, with a lot of disposable household income. ''There are holes in the market," he said.

Doherty's calendar shows there were about 40 public and government meetings related to Westwood Station just in the first two weeks of 2006. ''We've got sufficient critical mass and interest from certain retailers that it will all come together as we move into the second quarter," he said.

As Doherty and Karp move buildings around on a model, measure interest from national retailers, and debate where their parking should go, Westwood officials are participating in the process, removing obstacles quickly when they can.

''To our great surprise and pleasure, a rare thing occurred," Begelfer said. ''They really took a look at what needed to be done and listened -- how rare."

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.

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