Development at Assembly Square continues, uncertainties remain

By John O’Hara

With plans in the works for a new mixed-use development at Assembly Square, the most effective way to ensure the project’s completion is still a topic of public debate.  Hotly contested in the last mayoral race, it remains on the burner for those who are seeking elected office in the city today. 
     With Assembly Square now a football in the Somerville political game, the real test for Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone is how well he can play coach on the riverside field. 
     Community activists and opponents charge that he is a man who knows what to say and when to say it.  That he pushed through new zoning as an alderman in reckless fashion without allowing for proper discourse.  That as mayor he has played host to backroom deals.
     And there is the man, who with a legitimate excitement, motions with his hands over miniature models and satellite pictures, punctuating his speech with catch-phrases like smart-growth and mixed-use and high-density development – sounding like a man who firmly believes that the course he has steered is what is best for the city.
     The question is then: What can you believe?
     “The proof is in the putting,” said Mr. Curtatone.

     The Mayor said that the new zoning, coupled with the developer’s covenant, gives the city a “lead-pipe” guarantee that the future of Assembly Square will involve a new Main Street initiative and residential development.
     Without major improvements in infrastructure – including a new T stop –  there remain a host of uncertainties, said Alderman William A. White.
     The Assembly Square Development Study, the plan by the Cecil Group under then-mayor Dorothy A. Kelly Gay, has become the gold standard upon which future development there can be measured. 
     It outlines a large, mixed-use development with high-density office space, retail and a residential component.  It presents a development that at some point in the future will net the city around $40 million in tax revenue.
     At its core are a new I-93 off-ramp to the site and an MBTA Orange Line station.
     While Curtatone said he is working closely with the Governor’s Planning Office to ensure the needed construction, a variety of circumstances could bring the entire deal back to square one. 
     According to the developer’s covenant, the developers are not contractually obligated to build anything specifically.   Legal clauses in the covenant allow the negation of the deal outright for reasons of third party litigation.
     Alderman Denise Provost has said that in her last meeting with representatives from Federal Realty Investment Trust, the developing powerhouse that bought out the Assembly Square Limited Partnership, FRIT said they were, “re-evaluating the Goody Clancy proposal.”
     The Goody Clancy proposal was the architectural plan resultant of the Assembly Square Planning Study.  It is the project currently in motion, said Mark Horan, the Mayor’s Communications Director.
     “The Mayor has always said that the city would be willing to work with the developers on improving the Goody Clancy proposal,” said Horan.
     Curtatone said that while there are instances where the deal could go flat, the developers are committed to seeing a serious mixed-use development effort go forward and are willing and able to mount the lobbying campaign necessary to win critical funding for the centerpiece improvements in infrastructure. 
     While FRIT owns the mall building outright, as well as adjacent parcels and the rights to other sites – including yard 21 – without the funding for infrastructure they could legally opt to re-tenant the mall and forfeit their other land holdings to the city for one dollar.
     It is the one-dollar deal that Curtatone said is the lynchpin holding FRIT to the site, as they have already paid non-refundable permitting fees, as well as other contractual monetary obligations to the city.
     White said that the Board of Aldermen was informed by the city’s traffic consultants during the zoning hearings that if the proposed IKEA store goes ahead along with the new power strip at the mall site that is under-way “at-risk” pending litigation, without those improvements the site will be at full traffic capacity.
     “That is why the construction of a new T stop is so important,” said White.
     White said that the opponents of the zoning say that without the new I-93 off-ramp and Orange Line stop FRIT could decide that the rest of the development just isn’t economically feasible.
     White also said that he is encouraged by the purchase of the property by FRIT, as they appear to be in a firmer financial position to follow through with a serious re-development effort.
     There is a current lawsuit, spearheaded by the Mystic View Task Force, which takes aim at what some call suspect zoning deals and point to private favoritism.
      Curtatone is firm that the zoning does not violate the uniformity principle of Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40 A and claims that the zoning is critical in unlocking future potential.
     “No zoning, no T station, no deal,” Curtatone said.
     The suit is pending a decision. 
     MBTA and I-93 feasibility studies are initiated, but as of now have not begun.
     The Mayor, quoted in his mayoral campaign as saying, “Over my dead body will there be a strip mall at Assembly Square,” presides over the development of “large-footprint” retail development at the old mall site, and still faces many technical hurdles to ensure that the project remains on-pace and on-target.
     Curtatone said that while the new power strip is the first phase of development, it would not be the last.  The speedy opening of the strip is critical in increasing the number of car trips to the site, making the prospect of state funding for I-93 improvements and a new Orange Line stop more likely, the Mayor said.
      Curtatone said the time-line obligations in the developer’s covenant will be met and that the individual phases will – while presently only ideas – someday soon become reality.
     Certainly, nothing will be finished overnight. 
     Gina Folia, the current Mystic View Task Force president, said such ideas take time to come to fruition, but that firm groundwork must be laid.
     “A land transformation project takes more than 10 years, but within 10 years you can properly set up a land use structure,” Folia said.
     With the IKEA and the Main Street initiative yet to be realized, the zoning mired in litigation, and the hopes for a new MBTA station and I-93 off-ramp still uncertain, the grasslands at Assembly Square remain un-walked.
     What is certain is that if the Mayor is unable to make major headway in terms of firmer commitments from public and private parties soon, there will be someone in the field waving a giant red flag.