THE DEVELOPER OF SUFFOLK DOWNS said his company’s vision for the 161-acre property matches almost exactly what Amazon is looking for in a second headquarters, and he insists that vision won’t change much if the tech giant ends up going somewhere else.
Thomas O’Brien, the president of HYM Investment Group, said his company bought the property in May for $155 million with the idea of turning it into a mixed-use residential, commercial, and retail project. Amazon released its HQ2 request for proposals on September 7, and Boston on Thursday issued its 218-page response along with two slick videos (see here and here).
The Boston proposal lists what financial incentives might be available to Amazon, but doesn’t specify what the city and state are likely to offer – that’s left for later conversations. The proposal addresses how Boston meets each of Amazon’s priorities; includes 47 pages of testimonials from local politicians, college presidents, and business leaders; and provides cover letters from Mayor Marty Walsh, Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo, and Gov. Charlie Baker. “You have my personal commitment to marshal all of what Massachusetts has to offer for your consideration,” Baker said in his letter.
What’s most startling about the proposal is how it lays out in remarkable detail what the Amazon campus at Suffolk Downs might look like. It seemed like an amazingly quick turnaround for a property purchased in May, but O’Brien said his company has been working on a design for the site for close to a year.
Amazon wants 8 million square feet of commercial office space, with a 500,000-square-foot phase one ready in 2019. O’Brien said the Suffolk Downs site can easily accommodate the 8 million square feet of commercial office space, and he said HYM can complete phase one adjacent to either of the two Blue Line stops that abut the property by December 2019. To meet that timeline, O’Brien said, Amazon would have to select Boston’s proposal during the first three months of 2018.
O’Brien also envisions 10,000 housing units, 550,000 square feet of restaurants and retail, 1,500 hotel rooms, and 40 acres of public space on the property. O’Brien said all of the elements would remain whether Amazon moves in or not. “We’ll do this with or without Amazon,” he said.
The housing will be a combination of apartments, condominiums, town houses, and senior housing. The open space would include a 17-acre public common, an outdoor performance theater, play fields, and playgrounds. “We want this to be a true community,” he said.
Boston’s proposal plays up the site’s access to the Suffolk Downs and Beachmont stops on the Blue Line, but it also suggests other transportation projects could come online if Amazon moves to the area. For example, the proposal says the Blue Line could be extended from Bowdoin to the Red Line at Charles/MGH, making it possible for Amazon employees to visit Cambridge more quickly on the subway. The proposal also raises the possibility of a commuter rail station adjacent to the Wonderland stop on the Blue Line so people could catch a ride to North Station on the commuter rail or head north along the Newburyport and Rockport Lines. The proposal also said the Silver Line Bus Rapid Transit line could be extended to Suffolk Downs, along with the addition of bus shuttles and water transport.
Boston’s proposal predictably emphasizes the positive, but sometimes it gets carried away. It suggests someone could travel from the proposed Amazon site to the airport in 5 minutes, make it to the Seaport District in 12 minutes, or arrive at Harvard University in 20 minutes. The map showing all the MBTA connections to the site is also a bit off, putting Park Street Station at the intersection of the Blue and Green Lines rather than Government Center Station.
O’Brien said Amazon officials are familiar with the Boston area, but they may be surprised to learn that a property that meets their needs is so readily available. He said he liked Boston’s chances. “I think we compete pretty well,” he said.
Er, ah – existing software can readily and for relatively short money develop the sorts of renderings developed for a Suffolk Downs HQ2 presentation.
Such efforts are also a useful exercise to undertake so as to help develop FUTURE presentations to other prospective parties considering setting up shop in the MetroBoston area.
Further, presenting HQ2 bids help promote the unsuccessful bidders’ venues for future opportunities.
At the same time, Weymouth’s Union Point developers – LStar – have done a better job than has Suffolk Downs even if the smart money is expecting that somewhere in Texas – and most likely Austin – will be selected for HQ2.
More importantly, Suffolk Downs – for all of its open space – is not all that viable for an Amazonian scale development.
Key is its relative isolation on all manner of fronts.
Roadway access in and out is barely adequate at present and even a Blue line extension to the Red line is only going to accomplish so much. In particular, little in the way of facilitating reasonably close access to sufficient and appropriate housing or to things to do when one is not working.
As such, Suffolk’s best reuse is as likely more modest but still substantial mixed use development with residential housing for both local workers as well as commuters and a portfolio of commercial tenants than as a 21st Century redux of the ultimately failed New England company town model of the 19h century as would be the case with an Amazon HQ2.
On the MBTA map in the proposal, shouldn’t the “Proposed Red/Blue Connector” be “Shelved/Cancelled Red/Blue Connector”? This and the GLX both use the word “proposed”, as if they are on equal footing. In any case, the blue line doesn’t scale at the same rate as the red/orange lines (less capacity per train), so simply increasing frequency goes only so far. With everything else going on in Eastie/Chelsea/Revere on top of the Suffolk Downs/Wonderland projects, we need to get the Chelsea SL extension all the way to Cambridge as an alternate commuting path, so people in those areas (plus Everett/Somerville) commuting to Cambridge don’t have to do the ridiculous “U” commute of down into downtown Boston, then back up into Cambridge (or for the Chelsea SL, more like a “G” commute). This also relieves some burden on the blue line. Boston is no longer the only large commuter destination within the urban core, and esp. Kendall needs to be focused on more. This is an issue, regardless of Amazon.
The two photos on the two pages above the MBTA map at the start of section “3” aren’t exactly flattering. They show a “perspective” arial shot of the area, in which I believe the goal is to show just how “close” Logan and downtown is. However, if Amazon really wants to be in a downtown area, all that shot does is emphasize that they are NOT downtown. Also, while Amazon certainly wants to be near the airport, this shot kind of drives home the fact that they would be too close, having jets (and thus jet noise) directly over their heads, and would be directly in the noise path when jets take-off toward the harbor. This also brings-up another limitation of this location — the FAA limits on building height next to the airport. If they want a 100% campus-like spread with everything under ~10 floors, then fine. But if they want to build a taller, iconic tower, then this is a non-starter. Plus one side note — are these really the best arial photos available to them? Downtown covered in clouds and/or smog, which even if the former, could easily be interpreted as heavy smog?
In the “Additional Sites” section, it’s funny that the Seaport District photos are already way out-of-date, and imply much more available space than reality now. Although in their defense, in that area, photos could probably be taken last month and still look noticeably out-of-date.
If it isn’t going to be used again as a homeless shelter, we could have also offered the seemingly-abandoned Long Island. Say we’ll re-build the bridge, buy some commuter boats, call it Amazon Island, and let them have at it. And yes, I’m joking…sort of. It would be a unique offering, though, and funny — Dr. Evil…