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By Chris Dwan

I have written previously about Rafi Properties’ proposal to demolish the buildings at the old Ames Safety Envelope site between Park and Dane streets, the campus that they call “Somernova.” They want to replace the century-old one- and two-story fabrication buildings with sleek modern towers up to 16 stories tall and provide expansion space for their major tenants – mostly technology companies like Form Energy.

Rafi took the next step in this process at the final City Council meeting of 2023 by submitting a formal request – a petition to amend the zoning code. This sort of petition is typically used by owners who want to shift their property between existing classifications. Rafi’s proposal is wildly broader. The legal text runs to 33 pages, adds whole new categories of buildings, and even creates a new overlay district coyly named “Climate and Equity Innovation.”

Who doesn’t like climate, equity, and innovation, right?

Somerville is under no obligation to adopt this proposed zoning text, either as-written or in any form at all. If we do choose to take it seriously, it needs significant changes. This first draft is literally what happens when a developer writes laws that they wish were on the books. In one particularly glaring example, Rafi is proposing giant neon signs on the rooftops.

The “Signage Standards” section of Rafi’s proposal for Somernova

Some notable names appear on the petition. Former Mayor Joe Curtatone and the current Chair of the School Committee signed, as did two senior figures in the Chamber of Commerce and two members of the Union Square Neighborhood Council (USNC). The neighborhood council signatures are problematic. USNC’s mandate, born out of frustration with US2, is to negotiate community benefits agreements with developers. Signing on to a developer petition before those negotiations even start raises questions about potential conflicts of interest.

Wins and Losses

To be clear, this project is potentially a big win for the city. Rafi wants to update and revitalize a collection of century old industrial buildings to make space for local companies like Form to remain here as they grow. They are also offering substantial incentives, including a community center, north-south shuttle busses to cover glaring gaps in MBTA routes, improvements to the sewers under Park and Dane Streets, and of course – cash.

The proposed extent of the new zoning overlay

On the down-side, the project is certain to impose a decade of disruption on a neighborhood already sore and tired from years of dirty work on Beacon Street and in Conway Park. Several neighbors have told me that they intend to move away if the project is approved. I am haunted by the memory of the Tyler Street resident who worried at a public meeting that her apartment windows would literally never see the sun once the towers went up.

This project is also certain to accelerate displacement among our already stressed arts and creative economy. Rafi’s overlay does away with the crown jewel of our Fabrication (FAB) zoning, which was enacted just four years ago to slow this exact kind of loss. One local music studio owner was stoic when he shared that he will obviously not be able to record so close to heavy construction. The Somerville Media Center (SMC), recently relocated to Tyler Street, faces similar challenges.

Rafi has been generous with space for local organizations like SMC and the Somerville Bike Kitchen. They have also offered a “right of first refusal” to beloved current tenants Aeronaut Brewing and the Bouldering Project, who get first dibs on space in the new buildings. The challenge inherent in this is simple: You can’t build old and cheap. New construction inevitably means that the rent will go up, forcing out people, groups, and companies who are already at their limit.

The unforced errors at Rafi’s 599 Somerville Ave site (formerly the LaRonga Bakery) are also worrisome. The crew removed four street trees last year and then tried to explain it away as the same mistake, four times in a row, all on the same day. While Rafi did make changes to project management and offered compensation to the city (under substantial pressure from the neighborhood), it speaks to a concerning lack of oversight.

This is doubly problematic because from what I can tell, the Somernova project would be Rafi’s biggest undertaking ever by at least a factor of ten. I, personally, am not interested in seeing my neighborhood used as an opportunity for an inexperienced development team to “fail forward.”

Who is Rafi?

According to the Middlesex Registrar of Deeds, the Somernova properties were purchased on April 11, 2018 by “Rafi Investments – Somerville” in a five-part transaction for a total of $88M. At the time, it was a cash purchase with no lien or mortgage recorded. Rafi added a mortgage for $29.3M (almost exactly 33% of the original price) a few months later.

According to the Secretary of State, Rafi Investments was incorporated in Delaware in March, 2018 (just prior to the sale) and later registered in Massachusetts as a “foreign” (out of state) company. The founding documents do not list the names of any officers or managers, referring only to another company, named “Rafi Properties,” which was registered in 2011.

Rafi Properties names only one responsible individual: Collin Yip.

Mr. Yip is one of only two people named on the Rafi Properties website. The other shares his last name and is said to be responsible for “Asia operations.” Mr. Yip shows up in similar solitude on nearly a dozen other companies registered since 2011, including “599 Somerville Ventures,” and “The Dojo- Community LLC.” He is also listed as a board member of the Northeast Clean Energy Council, where former Mayor Curtatone recently took on the role of CEO.

Mr. Yip has, for the last couple of years, sponsored programs for local youth at a teen center that he calls The Dojo. This is laudable, but it absolutely does not obligate the city to amend our zoning. The proposal leans heavily on Rafi’s reputation and engagement with the community. It goes on at length about “co-creation” and the thousands of conversations that supposedly led to the need to build these towers, but remains mute on other important questions.

Where does the money come from, both the original $88M and the further billions expected in construction costs? Who expects to profit from that investment and on what timescale? How are decisions made, and how are decision makers held accountable? Perhaps most importantly, assuming we buy into the “trust me, I’m a good guy” argument: What is the succession plan for the company, and thus the development, when Mr. Yip’s attention is inevitably drawn elsewhere?

There It Is

As the community has, to put it gently, failed to unify in support of the project, the tone has turned threatening. The development team have repeatedly said that they very much want to build something wonderful, but failing that they intend to do what they can “by right” under the current zoning. It’s reminiscent of the, “look what you made me do” theme found all-too-often in abusive relationships.

In addition to the sketches of hulking industrial barns built to the lot lines, we have been told in no uncertain terms that failing to authorize the desired zoning will make it impossible for Rafi to provide most, or indeed any of the amenities and considerations that make the deal palatable — including the “Dojo 3.0,” a term used somewhat interchangeably with the community center.

Wealthy out-of-town interests who curry favor through their generosity towards local underprivileged youth, then threaten to withdraw that largess (“don’t make me hurt the kids!”) in order to close a real estate deal are the stuff of storybook villains. Using The Dojo as a bargaining chip in this process is beyond distasteful, and casts a shadow over the entire proposal.

What’s the Rush?

Finally: We just had this conversation. The City Council passed a comprehensive zoning overhaul just four years ago in late 2019. That update was the result of five years of work, including countless meetings, hearings, amendments, and debate.

Rafi purchased the Somernova campus with two years to spare in the zoning rewrite. They could have engaged at that time, but chose not to.

Rafi paid $88M in cash for a collection of hundred-year-old buildings, knowing full-well that neither the old nor the proposed new zoning supported anything like their ambitions. Somerville was absolutely planning dense, tall, industrial development at that time — but we planned to put it elsewhere, in our “transformational” districts — closer to mass transit and the highways and for the most part not directly adjacent to residential neighborhoods.

One of the frustrating truths about civic engagement and activism is that there is more important, urgent work than can ever be accomplished or even meaningfully talked about. Even with meetings that stretch to heroic hours of the night — all sorts of deserving topics still inevitably fall off the table. I urge the Council, the Mayor, and the community to not let moneyed interests set the tempo of the city’s discussions or distract us from our many ongoing crises.

To be clear: This proposal deserves fair consideration. It’s still very much in play for me and it could turn out to be great. We should not let it dominate our civic conversation to the exclusion of all else this year. If we do choose to alter our zoning this significantly, let’s do so thoughtfully and in the interests of the city as a whole — not as a handout to a particular developer who seems in a rush to retain a particular tenant.

If it turns out that this is a bad deal, or if it continues to feel like a deliberately untenable starting point calculated to move expectations, then the only sensible thing to do is to walk away and force them to come back with a real offer.

Seriously, the neon signs are a non-starter.