By Marshall Collins

Last week, at the Visiting Nurse Association of Eastern Massachusetts on Lowell Street in Somerville, the city’s Planning Board convened to hear from members of the community about a number of cases. But, a case that was top of mind for many of those in attendance was if Union Square’s first phase of commercial and residential development could economically support moving the above-grade parking garage to below-grade.

George Proakis, executive director of Mayor Curtatone’s Office of Strategic Planning at Community Development, took the podium to introduce Barry Abramson, a real estate finance consultant who was engaged by the City of Somerville to conduct an independent analysis of the ability of the project to support the additional cost and implications of Alternative 1, especially with regard to underground parking. Abramson’s conclusion was that if the developer is required to move parking underground, it would cause an estimated year delay, potentially jeopardizing the project altogether.

Abramson’s initial conclusion regarding the Alternative 1 concept was focused on what it would cost to put parking underground, versus the currently proposed above-ground parking garage. US2 estimates the above-ground garage to cost $12 million. Abramson’s analysis estimates that it would cost a total of $25 million to place parking underground, thus more than doubling the cost of the currently proposed garage.

Additionally, Abramson acknowledged other challenges posed by moving parking underground: US2 would need to work through significant engineering and design issues and go through re-permitting. While some members of the Planning Board pushed back on the re-permitting issue, arguing the process would be less arduous should it need to be done a second time, Proakis walked them through what the bare minimum in permitting approval would entail: Multiple waiting periods, community meetings, votes, design site plan reviews, design committees, sub-committees and more. Overall, he said it could delay this first 1.3 million square foot phase of the project by at least a year, pushing the groundbreaking currently scheduled for this fall, to October 2020.

Abramson said that the reason this matters is because of something he called a “big intangible.” The Boston area market, and Somerville’s in particular, has been riding a “nice wave” economically, but that might not be the case in October 2020. He specifically pointed out that US2 would be pioneering the lab and office market in Union Square, but that a year or two delay could harm Union Square’s competitive position, and it could lose out to other neighborhoods like Alewife or the Seaport. He also acknowledged the economic slow-down that’s been predicted by a number of economists in the next 6-20 months, and how that might affect the feasibility of the project, should it be delayed by 12 months.

What followed Abramson’s presentation was a response from Sarah Lewis, the city’s planning director, via Proakis (Lewis was unable to attend the meeting). But in Lewis’ memo, Proakis articulated the Planning Department’s decision to support the design for this first phase of the project, that has been submitted to the Planning Board, with some minor proposed amendments. Her memo also addressed whether – as one Planning Board member suggested in response to Abramson’s presentation – there could simply be less parking.

“In an ideal world the Planning Department would prefer a lot less or no parking at all. However, the reality of the project demands that vehicles still need to be accommodated in the near term. The number of spaces has already been greatly reduced from typical requirements.”

If the Planning Board and the city want to grow the city’s commercial tax base to fund “key city priorities including annual increases in school budgets and commitments to equity programs throughout city government,” this first phase would be essential. As Lewis also notes in her memo, “the taxes generated from this project are an important part” of Somerville’s FY 2021 growth projection. That leaves a big decision looming for the Planning Board in the next few weeks.