[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: of just facilitating this idea, moving it forward. Also, I want to give special thanks to Victor Schrader from the Community Development Department at City of Medford has been very helpful in these proceedings. Okay, so the property we're here to talk about is 48-64 Commercial Street. You may be familiar with the location, just to give people an idea of where we are. This is the stop and shop at Fellsway Shopping Center. This is Ocean State Job Lot, Harbor Freight Tool. the Coyote Foods, and the self-storage unit, just on our opening screen, just to get people familiar with the property that we're talking about. We could go to the next slide. Okay, Fellsway Innovation Center, it's a conceptual proposal for a life science and technology-based real estate development in one of Medford's high visibility commercial corridors. The project seeks to take an existing four and a half acre site, remove the existing 30,000 square foot building, industrial building and construct an approximately, a new approximately 120,000 square foot commercial building and the associated improvements in order to facilitate that. and underutilized parcel to a state-of-the-art facility that's designed to house some of the fastest growing life science technology companies in this ever burgeoning regional industry. The design lends itself to lab R&D uses, clean technology and energy companies, robotics research, 3D printing, and numerous other high growth industries. The project, in our opinion, satisfies a current market need for more affordable leasing opportunities for companies unable to compete at Kendall Square and Seaport rental rates. The project would be sensitive to community concerns regarding density, traffic, parking, environmental and all other related concerns that, you know, anybody in the community may have, either in governments or in the private sector. So the bottom line is what we're trying to do here is just take a property that's not being efficiently used, construct something new, more productive. There's no secret that there's been real growth in the lab, in R&D markets, coming out of sort of the Kendall Square Research Centers. And there's been a real accelerated growth in the development, specifically surrounding these types of uses. in the lab R&D sector. These buildings are highly specialized. They're very expensive, okay. And what's sort of happened, one of the things that we've noticed, there's been an emerging underserved sector of tenants that can't afford to spend the amount of money that's needed to justify the very expensive real estate returns that investors want from these lab buildings. So, What a lot of people don't realize is that, yeah, we come from this really great geography, where the university centers of MIT and Harvard are producing, really, this innovation across many different sectors, commercial sectors, that we don't think of, especially now you'll see in the news, clean energy. This is a huge growing industry. There are companies that need space desperately and they can't find it because lab and R&D developments have really priced a lot of the market. So we feel like we have a really unique opportunity to do a couple of different things here. Have a real diverse tenant base come to Medford in a bunch of different disciplines in science to have R&D and lab as well as other different types of sciences served by a really world-class facility like this. Just wanted to introduce our team. At this stage of the game, TRIA Architects, we have representatives here tonight. They'll make a presentation on the actual building itself here shortly. Land Design Collaborative, our civil engineer and landscape architecture firm. We have a representative here tonight who will make a presentation. Beta Group, they're an environmental consulting engineering firm. They deal with things like soil contamination, if there are any environmental issues that come up during a development, they will propose solutions and do things to move the development forward in that respect. Mary Lou Armstrong, she is available tonight here via Zoom, so if there are questions for her later, she is also available. And then myself, Renat Gibbons. Stephanie Daring and Dave Curran. We are a real estate advisory firm. We help people facilitate real estate transactions, leasing, development, disposition of property. Okay, we'll go. Okay, so the developer is, called Feldsma Innovation Center. It's a strategic partnership between Larry Gordon of Empire Management, also known as the Colonial Automotive Group, and myself, Bernard Gibbons of ABG Realty. Empire Management is the owner and operator of 16 retail car dealerships, two hotels, three neighborhood retail shopping centers. Two of the dealerships are right here in Medford, Colonial Volkswagen here in Medford. I myself, I began working with Larry Gordon here in Empire Management, facilitating the development of these car dealerships, first at Medford, then at Plymouth, also at Marlboro. We've also had a fairly unique ability as a firm to be able to procure life science opportunities and facilitate life science and technology real estate developments. So we'll go to the next slide. So here's some of the recent things. You know, we just wanted to put this up here as a, really to just show everybody that there's some real credibility behind this organization. There was real results oriented to, you know, group. And, you know, we want people to feel confident that we can execute this business plan. So I first met Larry here when this used to be International Truck here in Medford and we ended up buying that property and building this Volkswagen dealership. Then we went on, we did the same thing in Plymouth, and we bought a piece of property from Cumberland Farms, and we knocked down half a mountain and built a Ford dealership there, and that was a really exciting project. Another thing we did with Larry was a shopping center in Tewksbury. We leased it up with tenants you might be familiar with here in Medford, Haro's Chicken, a bunch of retail tenants. Our group, personally, we get involved in three life science-specific projects. We procured the very first lab building ever to be built in Somerville at Boynton Yards with DLJ and Leggett McCall. We were involved in two transactions in Watertown for life science properties in Watertown Square with Davis Companies and Boston Development Group, as well as another large life science conversion So we've really been able to work together, me and Larry as a group, to get some projects moved forward. And also in our other business, we've just really found a knack, ABG Realty, to produce really quality life science projects. We really feel that this is gonna translate into something really exciting here in Bedford. Here's a list of all his other, portfolio property. So we just wanted to show you the strength of the group, okay, and it's a results-oriented group. All right, so one of the things I just want to just touch on real quickly here are some of the community benefits from this project. You know, there's been a lot of presentations recently in Medford about these types of buildings, what they bring, what they bring to a community, how badly they benefit. the local economy. So I didn't want to just bore you with a bunch of statistics and data. I just want to touch on some things real quickly. One of the things that obviously is going to happen is we're going to take a very underutilized industrial lot and completely transform it, transform the streetscape, make it more productive, make it a more vibrant part of the community. As a result of that, obviously, the increase in tax revenue is evident, okay, that's always a part of improvements like this. Well, you hear this concept of higher use economic development. All this really says, all we're trying to say here is that we all need industrial properties. We get it from the food that we eat to the things that we buy. They need warehouses. They need distribution. The problem with these types of properties is they take up a lot of space. They don't add a lot of employment to communities. They have a lot of outdoor storage components to them, construction materials, things like that. So as a result of all this growth that's gone on in the urban areas, These uses are getting pushed out to the suburbs, to places where it's more appropriate. And cities like Medford and Somerville and these suburbs around the inner city are growing. They need to grow their economic base in a more intelligent way. And that's by developing buildings that can mutually serve all these concerns. The other thing that happens a lot of these times is they cluster, they attract other types of businesses like theirs. So there's the potential that a project like this, it can will grow a base of tenants in this area like it has in other towns. You can look to, you know, Lexington's a great example of a suburb, okay, who really has a very high level of cooperation with the life science industry. There's a really, there's a great symbiosis that goes on, and life science proliferates greatly in a very affluent bedroom community like Lexington. So there's a potential that could happen here in Metro. Diverse employment. You know, we wanna try to bring companies to Medford that are gonna participate in the economic life of Medford. Shop in your stores, eat in your restaurants, live in your communities, become part of the communities. I think this type of project will focus on attracting, okay, the type of employment base, okay, that will really give Medford a boost in that direction. What we do, we want to collaborate with the city over any and all concerns. Parking, height, environmental stuff, just, you know, whatever it is that, you know, that either the neighborhood is concerned about, the commercial, you know, the commercial business community is concerned about, we're here to work with people and try to come up with a plan that, you know, that everybody likes. Go to the next slide. Okay, so this is where I'm gonna step off and I'll come back at the end for questions and answers and try to help people understand some more. And Stephanie's gonna take over from here and we'll carry on with the presentation. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, everyone. So we're just doing a little brief history of the property. As you can tell, it's centrally located. It gives us some good access to Kendall, Seaboard, Wellington. So it's really attractive for a lot of businesses. We've got with Wellington, we've also got the T stop, and there's a couple of bus stops right there. And with 93 and Route 16, this makes this a really accessible property for people to be able to get to and attract employees that would work there. 48-64 Commercial Street. is currently a 30,000 square foot industrial building on four and a half acres land site. The current building is being used by Colonial, Nissan, and Volkswagen for vehicle preparation and assembly location from accord construction. In the past, this property has been used by Ward's Bakery, Payne Construction, as well as Medford Public Works. In 2015, there was a need for more land mass, so they took down the current structure. That 48 commercial was demolished. When the pandemic hit in 2020, there was no longer the need for the car dealerships to park additional lots and for that need. As a result of change, the auto business and the need for this location to support the auto dealership in Medford is no longer needed. This provided us with a great opportunity to come up with a higher and better use that'll help serve the business. Now we're gonna have General Monti, the civil engineer, give some history on the current site.
[hUaFTg-SXts_SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. My name is Jim Almonte. I'm a registered landscape architect and founding principal of Land Design Collaborative. We're a civil engineering firm located in Westboro, Massachusetts, civil engineering and landscape architecture. We've been doing the site design and permitting for Colonial Automotive Group and Empire Management, pretty much all of their car dealerships and commercial developments for the last 20 plus years or so. So we've been working with this group for quite some time. So if you want to go to the next slide. So I know there's been some discussion on the existing conditions, but I'll kind of just walk you through kind of an enlargement of the area. So again, it's made up of two parcels. 64 Commercial Street is located here. This is 48 Commercial Street. This is the 30,000 square foot building located on 64. The site is generally flat, but it does gently slope from the south to the north, and this plan north is to the right of the page, south is to the left. So it does gently slope from left to right, or south to north, to a wetland that's located off the property to the south. Bernard touched on the abutters to the property, but this is the felt way. the Ocean State Job Lot, and Harbor Freight Tools located there, and then on the top of the page is Stop and Shop. So the site is currently accessed from its frontage on Commercial Street. There is about half of the property is just basically a wide open curb cut right now, so there's really not a lot of traffic control out there. And the site, as you can see, is just about 100% pervious surface, whether it's covered by building or pavement. And there are a few easements that run through the property. There is a 50 foot wide MWRA easement that runs through the property. There is a 10 foot wide sewer easement. And there is a 40 foot wide access easement that runs along the southern portion of the property. So if you want to go to the next slide, I'll walk you through the proposed development, which includes a redevelopment of the site with a 102,600 square foot building. And the folks from TRIO will get into more of the details on the architecture. But basically the building has been designed to respond to the shape of the lot. As you can see, it's sort of like an L-shaped type building. And that, again, is specifically designed to respond to the lot shape. So the building is located in the southern portion of the site with parking for about 250 vehicles located to the south and east around the building. So we'll have accessible parking adjacent to the building. We'll also have some compact spaces located towards the rear of the site. We anticipate parking for bicycles. We have four loading docks kind of tucked into the back corner of the building with a dedicated access drive on the south side. So as you can see, we have two points of access now, which is a big improvement over existing conditions. It's better traffic control. One of them is located on the south side of the building and the other one more towards the center of the lot. We anticipate the southern driveway more for truck traffic. the other driveway more for the employees. So we also have a drop-off area at the front of the site here, adjacent to a large pedestrian plaza at the entrance to the building, which would be a nice amenity for the site to allow people to gather, get some fresh air, maybe have their lunch outside. So that's located near the entrance of the building. We also have some landscape islands proposed for the parking lot to kind of break up the impervious surface. And we also have added landscaping along the perimeter of the site, as you can see here, and much needed landscaping along the frontage of Commercial Street. Like I said, there's pretty much nothing there now. So we have a range of between about 20 and 40 feet dedicated for landscaping, which will allow us to have a nice streetscape with tree-lined sidewalks. along the frontage with a pedestrian connection to the existing sidewalk on the west side of Commercial Street. Other improvements will include a stormwater management plan. We'll have utility upgrades to the site as well. There'll be site lighting for safety. And currently we're engaging a surveying firm right now to update the existing conditions on the plan. We've had the wetlands delineated already. We have a traffic consultant on board to do a traffic study for the site. And as Bernard mentioned, we have very little available to address Any environmental questions you may have, she will be on board to direct us through the design and construction process for the environmental issues. So we've had some initial discussions with Town and Victor and the other department heads, which was very valuable to get their comments early on in the design process, and we've incorporated some of those comments into this level of design, and we'll continue to refine this when we get more information. So we anticipate filing permits with the city most likely in early 2023. So with that, I'll pass it off to Tria.
[rHW3832dHik_SPEAKER_12]: Hi, I'm Matt Hargrave. I'm principal in charge of the project Retria Architects here in Boston. And we are a architectural design firm that specializes in life sciences projects. And the sweet spot of our work is working primarily with biology-related pharmaceutical companies, and names like Novartis and Takeda, for example. And all those companies are definitely in the race for cell and gene therapy improvements. And those are very specialized buildings. And as Bernard walked through, There is a world of other life sciences research companies and areas of interest that are competing for space, which is really the focus of this project. The cell and gene therapy, for example, is a very specialized building typology that, despite our best efforts to always say we're designing with flexibility in mind, it's a very limited type of flexibility. and it doesn't cover the spectrum that's really out there, a desperate market looking for a building, facilities that will support that growth. Sustainable energies, Bernard touched on many of these, batteries, there's a whole world of research opportunities out there that are definitely going to improve our lives. And that's the market we're after. We want to give those folks a place, affordable place, that has the facilities and the infrastructure necessary to build their practice. And there are a lot of commonalities between that type of building on the whole as there are with the other life sciences buildings that we all are familiar with, in Tech Square for example, the tall buildings, the lab office buildings. Some of the physical requirements of those buildings are similar to what we're proposing here. So it's not a farm type of building to begin with, but it's definitely a different market. The project is called the Fellsway Innovation Center, and that's definitely intended to explain the target we're after. The tenants who could be in this building may not necessarily be in competition with each other. may not be after that same cell and gene therapy. So there's a great possibility that they may have a sense of collaboration amongst themselves, and that they may be willing to share certain types of facilities in the building, like meeting spaces, food service, for example, and so that there's a sense of community and collaboration in the building that would be completely missing in Tech Square, where you're really in direct competition with the folks across the street or next door. And so that's a different kind of collaboration. It's not what we're after here. So we'll see in the massing of the building and the planning how we're proposing to enable that kind of interaction with the architectural design. So if we look at the site for a second, you'll see the building along Commercial Street. We're showing a building that has two, we call them masses, two rectangles, and that's meant to say that this building doesn't look like a single headquarters for one company. It could be one company if one company really needs that much space and comes on at the right time, but the intention is that it would work for one company but also work for two companies or four companies. It's a two-story building. And we have a sort of third component in the crux of the two masses, which is the collaboration area. And so that can be a lot of, two can be a lot of things, but we would imagine that that would be where the communal meeting spaces would be. Could be where a shared cafeteria or a shared lecture, sort of informal meeting space could be. Again, focusing on the whole rather than the parts. And that part of the building is strategically located on the street so that that message is to the community that this is really a building about improvements to the community, enabling our lives and not a top secret activity that's happening around the back. We also think it's great that, and there's also, if you go back to the first floor for a second, Emily, thanks. There is an indication that there is an exterior space that could be outdoor dining. could just be an outdoor meeting space, but the building is actually doing something for the street as well as for the tenants themselves. We also think that it's important that the building sits on the street and so that as the area continues to evolve and maybe moves towards a more urban character, that this building is part of that. But at the same time, from day one, it's not sitting there lonely on the street by itself, not fitting in. So the building would be nicely designed all the way around the building, as opposed to having just a nice front. The characteristics of the building that are common to the research buildings that we know are the fact that the building is a little bit taller, There's more ductwork to move more air through a science building so that the exhausts are captured and taken out through to the top of the roof safely through the mechanical equipment. The roofscape would have some mechanical equipment on it. You know, we've all seen older office buildings where the roof is completely covered with mechanical equipment. The intent here is not to have that happen, but to have it organized in a way that the building is attractive. Emily, my colleague, will walk through the architectural design as it exists today and show you those bits and pieces in a little more detail. But, you know, backing up to Bernard's introductory comments, this is really conceived as a collaborative innovation building for emerging technologies that will benefit all of us and also be a vital part of the fabric of this developing part of Bedford. And if you have questions about that, I'd be happy to answer them at the close. My colleague, Emily Mowbray, is going to walk us through the bits and pieces of this design as it is today.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll take the long way around here. I don't want to trip on a cord, that would be very embarrassing. Thank you. So this is our first kind of approach to the design of the building. As these things evolve, certainly these things will change. But our intent was to show you what we think would work best in this neighborhood and best for the community. So what we're looking at here is the street side of the building. And you're looking at the two levels. of the first and second stories. And what we've developed here is kind of a random pattern of windows. And one issue that we find in working out in lab and GMP and in these kind of life science buildings is some spaces want the glass, some don't. And by having this pattern that creates kind of this active front sense of movement, it allows us to accommodate those uses inside the building while still not having a blank wall for 50 feet, which nobody wants to see and nobody feels is a good community member. So you see that patterning here. We're showing these as glass. Some of them might be a different type of material. The main material we're showing here is a metal panel, and then the community space, which would be this central area that Ed was talking about, again, is facing the street. There's a lot of glass. It's inviting. It'll act as a lantern as you look down the street in the evening, this kind of glowing hub of activity. People can see in, what's going on. None of this is meant to be super top secret, it's to engage the community. This portion is also at the end of the cross street, so as you're coming from the newer developments to the, I think that is west. Thank you. You'll be able to see also this kind of glowing front and this entrance and this warmer welcome. Aside from the parking lot is a little bit more, It's the same patterning, same metal and glass. The community space and entry are marked either by a canopy or some other portal device that we haven't shown yet. But again, this is the first kind of approach to the design. We've also sort of roughed in the idea of these mechanical spaces. We're showing an eight foot screen, which if you're on the street, you're not going to see above that. If you're in a building across the street, you will probably see the strobic fans or some mechanical units. You don't really want to get much higher than that, because at that point, the screen starts to be more pronounced than the actual equipment. And so that's, you see that on both. There would probably be two sets of them for the two halves of the building, servicing two to four tenants. Again, we're showing the kind of green park space. that can be active and I think that we're good. So if anybody has any other thoughts. I guess we didn't talk a little bit about the height. This is shown as 20 feet floor to floor. Can you move the down arrow? So this is basically 20 feet floor to floor. If you wanna see, there's a person right there And then the top of the mechanical systems would be at 16 feet, making the total from ground to the top of the mechanical around 56 feet, which is not close to being taller than the storage across the street, but it's within keeping of the buildings around. Okay? Great. And if you want to just push the next element down, I will give this back to Bernard. You can take your questions. Thank you.
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, everybody. It was really a great presentation. Just in closing, I think we really feel that this is a fairly modest proposal, considering the amount of land that we're talking about. So I think we're feeling really enthusiastic that this is a project that we can actually execute, build the building with the financing that we have in place. Not have to worry about having tenants or the building pre-leased in order to build it. We look at this as a spec project. In the real estate world, we'd like to move forward and build this building. So yeah, it's early on in the process. We want to obviously collaborate with anybody that has a concern about either the design or the layout or the different issues that are going to come up around traffic, parking, height, the easements, how we're going to interact in the neighborhood. So yeah, we just wanted to come tonight and get the process started. I hope you think it's a good idea. We hope you appreciate the presentation and we'd like to open it up for questions or concerns, statements people would like to share. Hold on, we have to give you a mic. Oh, that's fine. Would you like to introduce yourself? It's probably, we figure it probably takes get through the municipal approvals with the planning department, the ZBA, and the different groups that we have to get through, it'll probably take nine months to a year to get the approvals necessary to start construction. This building will probably take, could take up to two years in between, you know, building the base building and then also doing the tenant fit-ups that will come along with the specific tenancies. So probably, you're looking at up to three years before this building is an actual realization and an active part of the community landscape.
[SPEAKER_04]: And when do we think it's going to actually start construction?
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: Well, since we just started, you know, maybe early 2024, something like that, or late 2023, obviously timing and, you know, there's still some moving pieces to a big project like this, but, you know, as soon as we can get the approvals is when we'd like to start.
[SPEAKER_04]: Can someone put the map back up of where, can you go back to the slide? Sure.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I guess I need my question while we're getting that out. Sure. Are they going to close down commercial street for, I would guess, a good part of construction?
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: I don't believe that there will be any impact on the actual traffic on Commercial Street. Well, obviously, I think we'll get it as part of the traffic study, you know, actually, you know, the impact of the construction. But I don't think it's going to have any impact at all. I mean, most of the activity will take place within the site. And your materials will be stored on site as well, won't they? Yeah, you know, since most of the building is gonna be at this end of the site, there'll be plenty of room for outdoor storage.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think the only impact on the street would be the improvement of the sidewall at the entrance, and that'll happen at the end of the project. But I think if you close the street down for that, you might have a lane there.
[hUaFTg-SXts_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, possibly it's a utility project. It wouldn't be for a long period of time if it all suddenly closed. Completely.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, that's just, that would be my answer. Because that's a really busy street, and that goes up to Route 16, which is already a nightmare, as most of you who live in this area know. It's pretty bad traffic as it is. So that, I mean, this is going to increase the traffic even more than what we're seeing, just getting around this area.
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, we try to keep a sense of balance with things like that. Obviously, trade-offs that we try to make in an effort for the right type of growth. But we will furnish a traffic study in the near future to help alleviate those types of concerns. Will there be bike racks for?
[SPEAKER_05]: There's going to be about 727 bike racks. Wow.
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure there'll be lots of people riding their bikes to this facility.
[rHW3832dHik_SPEAKER_12]: Well, we meant to do the intent, but we didn't talk about the building engaging in that way. Like, that was clearly, not clearly, but that's the intent, which is that the people who... The folks who are customarily coming out of school and working in facilities like this are generally younger folks coming out of colleges and universities in the area, but their sensibilities about what they want to see in the place they work. Number one, from just the focus of the company itself to the facilities itself, what does the building look like? Is it something I want to explain to my friends? Do I want to be excited that I say I work in that building? And I don't want it to look like the glass building on Route 128 because that's kind of not very exciting anymore. So we're conscious about that, but maybe more conscious about the actual emotional content of the building and what will attract that workforce, and the ability to ride your bicycle to work, get to work, have a place to safely put the bike, take a shower, and prepare yourself for the work day. That's as important as maybe what my generation might have thought the building should look like driving past it.
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: I also envision potential shuttle service from this facility over to Wellington to sort of keep people moving on public transportation. A lot of employees that like to work in these types of facilities are very conscious of the environment and take advantage of public transportation when it's available. So yeah, I think there'll be a focus on encouraging that. And I think there's another, there's a good opportunity here to take advantage of some momentum of a project that's under construction on Sycamore Street now with Oxford Properties. It's a similar type project. It's a life science GMP manufacturing building that's approximately, I believe, 90,000 square feet with 90 parking spaces, so in many ways, I think this is a much more attractive opportunity than that, where we're just, the building's modestly bigger, but we're offering a lot more parking, okay? And parking's a big draw to people in most commercial real estate applications. So I think we've got a lot of things going for us here in a unique way that make this a really exciting opportunity for something that we can do now, even in sort of this backdrop of this economic volatility that's going on, that's so much a part of the news now with inflation and interest rates, I think, even with those things going on, This is an economically feasible project. Now, while this is happening, so, where other types of projects may not be as economically feasible as they once were, okay? Councilman Keraviello. Thank you for joining us.
[Richard Caraviello]: A project is being laid out. Hold the mic, Mike. A couple of questions, and maybe I missed them earlier. I appreciate the fact that the building's only going to be two stories. It doesn't make it as imposing on the neighborhood as maybe some other things were. You talked about on the roof, the mechanical. What type of mechanical is going to be on the roof?
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: It will really be driven by the type of tendencies, okay, that move into the building. That's the one thing. Would there be solar and that type of thing up there also? Well, one of the things we did talk about, no, we haven't talked about solar or that type of energy. How we were actually gonna power the building, that has not been decided yet. But the issue of the appearance that can be on these life science buildings has been central to the discussion earlier and how they can make them aesthetically look much more pleasing.
[Richard Caraviello]: And the reason I ask that question is on the other side of the wetland there is going to be, I think, 350 apartments. So I just want to make sure that the noise is good.
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: Jay, can we go back to the very first slide, the cover sheet, all the way to the top? So I think the 350 apartments will be here. It's on the other side of the wetland. Yeah, so we're trying to, so the height that we're proposing here is above the allowable height under the existing zoning, which is 30 feet. That'll be lower than those buildings also. It will be lower, yeah. It'll be lower than the storage building. It'll be lower than these proposed buildings.
[Richard Caraviello]: And you'll have the wetland there to buffer along the side over there. How many jobs do you anticipate this creating?
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: You know, 250 parking spaces, you know, we like to think, I don't know, I envisioned 500, 400 people working in the building. I mean, you know, it's kind of in that range. I mean, that's just as a, it's really going to depend on the types of companies, but the thing that we like about this design is it's attracting companies that are maybe more employee intensive than some other uses with drug manufacturing, which you could have a really large building, but maybe only 70 or 80 employees in it, like a similar size building. with only 80 people in it. Still a really nice, beautiful facility, science building, but just not having that type of participation in the economic life, right, as a multi-tenanted building that we're talking about. So it could go a number of different ways.
[Richard Caraviello]: And I'm assuming they're good paying jobs, above average paying jobs, and hopefully maybe some of those people would like to move into the building next door. I've gotten calls from people that are interested in developing here and they're saying, you know, if we build here, there's going to be places for our employees to live. So that's a start of one of them, which is good and hopefully we can interact with those two good. And one more thing you talked about was talked about on Sycamore, there's a project going on over there. There's your project going to be going on. There's housing on the next corner, right beside the courthouse, there's going to be, also there's another proposed project over there. So, and I think the young lady over here talked about traffic implications in that neighborhood. Hopefully that maybe the four years can get together for some type of shuttle service. between the four buildings and keep the buses and keep the cars down to a minimum. There is a bike path that goes over there, and those of you who haven't followed, there is a bridge that's gonna be going over the water and back at the train station. So for those of you who are gonna wanna ride their bikes there, the bike path, yellow bikes, be able to ride pretty much all the way into Boston and into Arlington and, you know, again, Guys like me, we're not riding that bikes much either. But the new generation, they ride those electric bikes and they count on their bikes to go to work even during the winter. But I do appreciate keeping the height of the project down.
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: I believe just over here at Bertucci's, Yeah, it's 300,000 square feet on parcel of land, about a third of ours. So we feel it's very modest, what we're asking for. And that's because we want to keep it really manageable. We want this to be something that we can actually execute and perform and not have to be exposed to a lot of different market conditions. that will impact my ability to build a larger project.
[Richard Caraviello]: I would hope that you can collaborate with the other properties there to provide transportation from the train station. I would assume this is a transit-orientated project. and that there's a potential of something going on in the right of the next corner also with the OG safe.
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: To me this really makes sense for that type of shuttle just because, I hate to introduce a negative, but it's almost just out of sight, just out of distance where you can walk. It's actually very close to drive, right? So as this sort of area develops, And a cluster develops, like we talked about. I think the shuttle service is just a natural, organic outgrowth of that.
[Richard Caraviello]: This is an enhancement to an industrial area, where there's really no industrial business in the city of Bethlehem. There's a few left. Yes, a couple, but it's minimal. So again, I'm happy that there'll be good paying jobs for the people that live in Bethlehem. Hopefully people coming here and spending their money here, maybe moving here. Thank you.
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: Anybody from the Zoom world like to chime in? Is there a... Hold on.
[hUaFTg-SXts_SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna open this up and then look down. I guess I'll just unmute everybody.
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: everybody, as Victor just reminded me, this is just the first step in what will be a very involved public process. There'll be more boards, there'll be more reports, there'll be more presentations given in much more detail, okay, on all these different subjects as we go through the process with the ZBA and the planning board. Anything else? Anything to come before this illustrious committee tonight?
[Richard Caraviello]: Good for me.
[MCM00000645_SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I want to thank everybody for coming. I want to thank all of our consultants from TRIOP, LDC, ABG Rail Team, Councilman Kerry Bialo, and Victor Schrader. Once again, I want to thank the Mayor and Alonzo Cohen for encouraging us to move this forward, and we look forward to our next presentation. Thank you.
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