[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Okay, that's great. Well, I'm Chris Magetta with Combined Properties. I'm Senior Vice President of Business Development. And a big thanks to everyone for joining us this evening. I don't know whether a few of you might have been at our in-person meeting on Monday on the site of the proposed project. And some of you might be just joining us for the first time this evening. So either way is great. A little housekeeping, we will have a Q&A at the end of our presentation of the proposed project. And at the same time, I'll just mention those of you who are a little bit acclimated to Zoom, there is a chat function. There's a chat button you can click on and type in a question. What we will do is save those questions if people are asking questions in chat. We'll save them until after the presentation just to keep the flow going, but they won't get lost. So not to worry. And also, I will mention that as we are recording this, this will be then available as a recording on the city's website within a day or two. So you'll be able to go back and watch it again or share a link with other people if you like. And I will go to our next slide here just to let you know who is here this evening from our project team. So again, I'm Chris Mayetta with Combined Properties. And there is my contact information. My email address is there and my phone number. And I'm always available if you have a question after the meeting, you certainly can reach me. Sean Burns is here. from Combined Properties. He is our Vice President of Design Services and he will be taking you through the project design and concept. John Carey is here from Combined Properties. He is our Architectural Project Manager and works very closely with Sean. He's been very much involved in the project concept and the project design. Also with us this evening is Scott Thornton with Vanessa and Associates. Scott is our Traffic Consultant Vanessa and Scott are very familiar with traffic conditions in Medford, have done a number of projects in the city, and I think are going to be a really helpful resource on this project. And Paul Avery is here. Paul is with Oak Consulting Group. They are civil engineers, so they deal with things like site grading and drainage, utilities, wetlands. Paul also is very familiar with Medford, has done many projects with our company going back over 20 years. What we'll do this evening is give you some background on the project. And then Scott and Paul also can address the traffic and civil aspects of it. And then we'll have our Q&A. And I will just mention, some of you might have seen the printed invitation. Some of you might have received it in the mail. You might have gotten it by email. you might have found it on the city website. And this I've just put a copy of it up here. So it might look familiar to some of you. And for those of you who do have this my contact information, you can see a green box there. My contact information also is included on this invitation. So we're very open door here. We're only next door in Malden. And we welcome hearing from people whether by email or by phone anytime. So just to give you a quick rundown on the agenda for this evening, the discussion topics that we have in mind, I will give you a little bit of background about combined properties and the genesis for the concept of this project that we are proposing and how it relates to the current zoning. And then Sean will take you through the concept for the project itself, the design and architecture and the planning that have gone into that. Part of that will be taking a look at zoning, which we are going to propose that would allow the project to be completed. We have enumerated quite a few benefits that we believe would accrue to Medford from the project if we are able to do it. And then Scott will speak to the traffic aspects of the project and Paul can talk about the civil engineering. And then we will move into a Q&A and happy to entertain and try to answer any questions that you folks might have. So just a little bit of background about Combined Properties. We are the local company that you might never have heard of. Or if you have heard of us, you might not be that familiar with us. As I said, we're based in Malden, so we're right next door. And we are a full service real estate investment and development firm. We've actually been involved in Medford for over 40 years or about 40 years. We own five properties on Mystic Avenue, and I'll talk about those in a little bit. Our theme, our tagline is creating better places to live, work, and play. That's how we encapsulate the passion that we have for the real estate business. We've been around as a company since 1935. And we have acquired or developed over 3 million square feet of properties in quite a range of uses. We have office uses, we have research and development in our portfolio, we have manufacturing, we have distribution and warehouse in the industrial world, medical as well as residential and retail. So we're pretty familiar with a variety of property uses. I'm just to describe for you a few of our projects to give you an idea of our capabilities. Those of you who are familiar with Malden might have visited the Comcast office at Riverview Business Park, 300 Commercial Street at the intersection of Commercial Street and Medford Street. In the black and white photo on the left, I think if I mouse over this, you can see this, right? So in the yellow box, as a former US Navy Niter Depot. It was a chemical depot that stored materials for ammunition manufacture going way back. And we redeveloped that site into the office and R&D building that's there today. So as I mentioned, Comcast is there with the regional office, as well as Mystic Valley Elder Services. So I think that's quite a bit of an improvement over the original site. In Peabody, we were selected by the city to be the master developer for the very first parcel made available in development in Centennial Park, which was kind of a dump site. You can get a sense from the picture at the top. And we have since developed three buildings there, purchased a fourth building, and we have actually a fifth site that we are planning right now for development. So again, I think a fair amount of improvement there over what the site originally was. In Malden on Canal Street at 195 Canal Street was a chemical facility owned by a German company called Rome Tech, and they they actually vacated the property. It had quite a bit of contamination underground from chemicals as well as from a large fuel oil leak. We were able to purchase the property and working with them in coordination, have the site cleaned up and then redeveloped. It's currently occupied as a medical office by Cambridge Health Alliance. And again, I think is a pretty much an improvement. You can get the idea from the upper pictures, what it used to look like compared to what it looks like today. Some of you might have actually visited CHA. And in Malden, we've done some residential development, 160 Pleasant Street Apartments, was developed on a rather small site of only 37,000 square feet, less than an acre. And the two pictures in the upper left show you what it used to look like, sort of obsolescing office and retail buildings. We have redeveloped it for the apartment building that you see in the other pictures. It's 206 units with a parking garage underneath. It's a block from the Orange Line station in Malden Center, and I think is quite an improvement. And then right across the street on Exchange Street, some of you might remember the old Mal's supermarket in Malden on Route 60. The upper two pictures show you what the building looks like after Mal's left. The building was purchased by Stop and Shop and leased to a fitness company, a gym basically called Super Fitness. They left, we were able to purchase the property actually shortly before they left, The second picture in the upper left here shows you what it looked like after they left. And so we were able to redevelop that property into 210 apartments, six stories, parking on the ground floor and five stories of apartments above. And so again, it's right on Route 60, between Route 60 and Exchange Street. And I think it's fair to say it's an improvement over what was there previously. And then right now, Sean and John Kerry and I are sitting in 295 Canal Street in Malden. This was a, it's on the Malden River, was previously a single story industrial building. The two pictures on the left show what it used to look like. We have redeveloped it as an office building, a first class office building, 55,000 square feet of leaseable space. We are on the upper floor right now and have space available for lease there. But again, I think an improvement certainly for the neighborhood compared to what used to be there. In the pro bono world, we do like to be involved in the communities where our properties are located. We were heavily involved with the Malden YMCA. On the far left of this picture, you can see a black and white photo of their old original building on Pleasant Street in Malden, which had all sorts of structural issues, was really obsolescing to the point where it was impairing their membership. Their membership numbers were dropping precipitously. We got involved with them and helped them to plan a new YMCA. We also were involved in the fundraising for that and in the construction. We were able to, working with the city and with the National Guard, purchase a National Guard armory facility in Malden that was vacant. And we basically took down most of the army. We kept the most attractive architectural part of it and then added on to it in the back and created a brand new YMCA there that you can see in the remaining photos. Again, quite a dramatic improvement. And the Y's membership has been a hockey stick ever since the building came online. It's very nice. It's a first-class YMCA facility. Again, that was a pro bono project for us. you know, we weren't making or looking to make any money with it, just our way of giving back to the community. And then on a similar theme, we do own five properties that adjoin the Malden River, which historically has been an industrial area. The Malden River was kind of forgotten there, people really weren't very much aware of it. And We have, in recent years, built a number of segments of public access paths along the Malden River, about 2,300 linear feet to date, with plans for more. And so now the public actually is able to access these paths 24-7 and enjoy the Malden River, which many people weren't aware was even there. And again, on the Malden River theme, one of the things that we have been involved in as a way of calling attention to the river as a resource for the environment and for recreation is to introduce rowing to the Malden River. And we started out with Tufts University back in 1999, and then have expanded into working with local high schools. And if you come over here now, you'll see there's actually quite a bit of rowing activity on the Malden River which started again in 1999, and I think has really raised the profile of the river and certainly public appreciation of the river as a resource. So just now to start talking about the project, and I've outlined here an aerial photo to show you the site of the project that we have in mind. And if you can see my little hand mousing around the site here, I'll give you a helicopter tour. You can see Mystic Avenue running horizontally across the picture. North is running, is going up to the upper right, upper left rather of the picture. You can see Route 93 and Route 16 is crossing Route 93. And here we own four properties, the four properties that I mentioned earlier, which all together amount to a little over eight acres. 278 Mystic Avenue, is where Bank of America has a branch on the ground floor along with a drive-through. And some of you perhaps bank at B of A or certainly have driven by there and are familiar with the building. It's a two-story building. Upstairs, there's some vacant office space and some occupied office space. Next door is 282 Mystic Avenue. And that is the site of a former Staples store that many of you I'm sure remember. It was a pretty big store, about 20,000 square feet. It also in the front along Mystic Avenue had a pizza hut and a Dunkin Donuts as subtenants. Staples relocated to assembly at one point and the building was vacant. And then there was some structural issues there because the soil is very soft. The building is built on timber piles and those piles began to experience some disintegration due to fluctuation in the groundwater up and down which allowed the tops of the piles to begin disintegrating. So there's a point at which really the building couldn't be saved. And we did have to take the building down, I'll say three or four years ago. If you drive by today, you'll see there are cars parked there. It's being used on a temporary basis by one of the local car dealerships. And then in the middle here is Winterbrook. So that's the green strip in the middle. If you've walked by Winterbrook, it's not all that attractive. It continues. across Mystic Avenue, it goes under Mystic Avenue and continues up and really serves as a drainage resource for the neighborhood up above here. 300 Mystic Avenue formerly was owned by the Mass Department of Transportation. It was a district four MassDOT office. There was a sign shop there and some maintenance functions. The state over a number of years of conversation that we had with them decided that they could surplus the property. And perhaps if they were to leave, it might allow some economic development on that site. So maybe three years ago or four years ago, the state did put the property up for sale on a sealed bid basis. And we bid on it. We ended up being the winning bidder in the sealed bid process. And then the state, the MassDOT has actually relocated. And you've probably seen they have built a new facility behind the VFW farther up Mystic Avenue toward Medbridge Square. So they have relocated. We have since leased that building to a building supply products company on a temporary basis. So there is some activity there. And then continuing south is 312 to 326 Mystic Avenue. There are a number of tenants in there. I will just say that in general, all of the tenants who are here of ours are there on an interim basis. We have been very clear with the occupants that is our hope to redevelop the property and ultimately take these buildings down. So all of them know that we do have a plan or an aspiration to redevelop the site. But just, you know, the site looking at the attributes locationally, it has great access to Route 93 and great visibility on Route 93. It has excellent visibility and access on Mystic Avenue and to Route 16. Eight acres this close to Boston with this kind of transportation access is not easy to find. There is MBTA bus service on Mystic Avenue. As you probably know, the 95 bus goes right by here. It goes up into the square today and goes down to Sullivan Square. There are two bus stops on our side of Mystic Avenue along our frontage, and there are two other bus stops on the other side of Mystic Avenue. So there's pretty good transportation access because of the T. And the site is very close to Tufts. It's about a mile from Tufts, Tufts University. And also because of the highway access and the T access, it has pretty good access to MIT and Harvard, as well as BU and Northeastern and Boston College. The site really, what we see there today, these single story buildings are reflective of the condition of the economy and the real estate market maybe 15, 20, 30 years ago. We think that there's a brighter future for this site that will have some benefits for the city if we are able to redevelop it. And that's what we would like to talk with you about this evening. And the concept we have for the site, and I put it here at the top, it says Medford Life Science Park. And what we have in mind is to take advantage of the current explosion in life science activity that's taking place in the Boston area. And I'm sure you're seeing it in the news just as we are. It's really perhaps the most active growth sector in the Massachusetts economy today. I would say that's a function of several fortuitous factors that are coming together to create that explosion. Certainly one of them is the base of medical and healthcare expertise that exists here in the Boston area. We know that people come from around the world for medical care here in Boston because it's absolutely tops. In addition to that, we have some of the world's leading universities here. As I mentioned, Tufts and BU, BC, Northeastern, MIT and Harvard among many. And those universities are producing graduates in disciplines that are necessary for life science at the bachelor's level, at the master's level, at the PhD level. There already is a critical mass of life science enterprises here in the Malden area that are active in genomics and pharmaceuticals, among others, medical devices. So that's a kind of core that exists in the Boston area. And then lastly, we're very fortunate to have a very active venture capital investment resource here in the Boston area. Boston ranks number one worldwide in investments of venture capital in life sciences, which is really pretty amazing. So taking all of those factors together, it's a very fertile area for life science growth and development. And those factors are really why we're seeing the explosion of life science activity in Massachusetts and certainly in the Boston area. Historically, Cambridge was known as, I would say, maybe the ground zero for life science. But because the growth has been so explosive, we're seeing the growth move into Boston. We're seeing it moved out to Watertown, Lexington. It's coming over to Charlestown. And we think that Medford can capture its share or more of this life science group. So coming back to our site, here we have eight acres in very close proximity to Boston with excellent transportation access, highway access, MBTA bus, and ultimately rapid transit and commuter rail access, proximity to the universities, Tufts, Harvard, MIT, BU, Northeastern, BC, And all those factors suggest that if a project can be developed here, a life science focused project with enough critical mass that it can put Medford on the map for the life science sector and begin to attract large numbers and significant life science activity. And I will mention there already is life science activity taking place in Medford. So I think that's a very good sign We know there are buildings where life science activity is taking place. What this project will do is create critical mass in one place. And what we have in mind, and we'll share with you the details, is 1.2 million square feet of life science space, research and development, and related office space in four buildings that would be eight stories that would be developed sequentially, potentially, or perhaps all at once across this site. So with this, I think, and the last thing I'll mention is the zoning. The current zoning really is the commercial two zoning really contemplates the kind of buildings that we see today on the site. It really is not reflective of the kind of facilities that life science companies are demanding today. And fortunately, the city within the past year has done a major revision of the zoning bylaw. A lot of work has gone into it by many, many people within the city. And there was a new zoning bylaw that has been put together very carefully. And in that zoning bylaw is a new provision called planned development district. And that allows the city on a case by case basis to consider modifying the zoning in specific places through an overlay process. that would create a separate and new zoning overlay district to be applied where the city feels that it might be beneficial. And that overlay would have specific parameters designed to facilitate development of a particular kind of project. Again, if the city feels it would be beneficial. What we have in mind is to see if we can work with the city, if the city would be receptive, to considering to put in place a planned commercial development district that would encompass the eight acres that we're showing here in blue. And that planned commercial development district would have zoning parameters that are designed to allow the life science project that we have in mind, the Medford Life Science Park. It would be a master plan park, again, designed to create the critical mass, but also provide a number of benefits to the community. So the process for the creation of a planned development district, if the city is receptive, is spelled out in the zoning bylaw. It requires the project proponent, which in this case is combined properties, to assemble quite a list of deliverables that would include traffic information, civil information, survey information, architectural and planning information, into a package that would be presented to the community development board. And we are in the early stages of assembling the material that the zoning bylaw requires. We probably, if I had to guess, maybe 60 days away from having that package together. Once we have the package together, we would then provide it to the community development board and they would then be able to hold a public hearing on it. So really the purpose for our meeting with you folks this evening and for the meeting that we had on Monday is to let you know about our idea for this project, to get some feedback from you, some questions from you that would help inform the package that we are putting together for the Community Development Board so that it reflects questions and concerns that you folks might have. Once the package is together, as I said, it will go to the Community Development Board. They will hold a public hearing. And if in fact the Community Development Board finds that the project, as we are proposing it, would in fact be beneficial to the city, they can then vote to send the project, including our suggested zoning parameters, to the City Council for the City Council's consideration. The City Council would take it up at that point as part of their ordinary procedure, their ordinary business. And if they find that they're in agreement with the Community Development Board, that in fact the project is beneficial, they could then vote to enact it and they would send it to the mayor's desk. So that's roughly how the local process would work as it is set out in the Medford Zoning Bylaw. That would not be the end of the permit process if in fact those steps do take place and the zoning overlay is applied to the project. We do need to then interact both with the Mass Department of Transportation, because Mystic Avenue is under their purview, in a sense is owned by them. And we are going to be proposing some changes to Mystic Avenue, which we think will be beneficial to the city, but we need MassDOT to agree to work with us collaboratively. And then the state has a environmental review process which is related to what MassDOT would be doing. And there is an application package that we have to put together for them, an environmental report, which will take some time for them to review and reach a final report on. So that could be, we don't know for sure, but could perhaps take 12 months to complete those steps after a point at which the city might decide to enact the zoning overlay. And just to clarify, the zoning overlay as it might sound, would apply on top of the existing zoning. So it doesn't change the underlying zoning. The underlying commercial 2 zoning would remain. The overlay, as the name would suggest, goes on top of it. And if it is enacted, would encompass these provisions, which would allow us to do this project. So that's a summary. And I think at this point, I will turn it over to our design team. They can share with you more specifically the concept for the project. And Sean, do you want to?
[Unidentified]: I don't know if I have to close this so you can share your screen. I think I can stop sharing mine, right? There we go. OK, I think that did it.
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Chris. or your presentation. And I just wanted to reiterate to everyone here that if there are any questions for Chris or for myself or any other speakers tonight as we go along, you can put them into the chat or you can save them to the end. And we'd be happy to answer them before we leave tonight. Again, Combined Properties is very excited to present this. The design team here and our consultants have been working on this for six or eight months, this particular project. We're excited to show you what we've come up with. As Chris was saying, The proposed commercial development district, that's what PCDD stands for, would be the slightly over eight acres here on Mystic Avenue, almost at the corner of Mystic Valley Parkway and Route 93. This particular slide shows the current zoning, everything within the blue dotted area is considered C2. That's largely commercial use. The uses are listed here on the right, and the abbreviations are over the buildings in the neighborhood. The makeup of the buildings within our proposed BCC district are primarily commercial banking, motor vehicle storage at this point, warehouse services, a lumberyard here, and retail. The zone directly to our east is what's called recreational open space. It's the park here, park and pass that have been developed throughout the years along the Mystic. And we have a residential area here, a general residential area here. This black dash line around the property is 500 feet from our property line. and that's one of the requirements is that we notify everyone within 500 feet of the property line that this meeting is happening and further meetings are happening. It also gives you an idea of what is next to the project. Our four buildings, as Chris had mentioned, I will go through them quickly here, 278 Mystic Avenue for those that attended the in-person event on Monday night. That's where the meeting was held. The old Staples building here in parking lot. We have the Winterbrook, which kind of bifurcates the site in an east-to-west manner. Currently, it's kind of overgrown. Could use some thunder-loving care, that's for sure. 300 Mystic Avenue was the Mass Sign Shop and is now a lumberyard. And then we have Corpariogra and a few other buildings here at 312, 326 Mystic Avenue. So again, you can see that these buildings are one and two stories tall. I think the tallest is 28 feet. They take up most of the lots either in building or parking lot. And the only real green or pervious space to water is here at Winterbrook for the most part. Regionally, if we're looking at the site here in the center of the screen, we have a fairly well-developed bike path on this side around the Mystic River and up the Mystic River. I understand from staff here that people use the underpass here on 93 and come up Mystic Gap. We'd like to continue to encourage that. We're proposing a multi-use path bike and pedestrian around the entire site on the 93 side and the south here by the car dealership so that you can bypass if you're on a bicycle or walking, running, you can bypass the kind of busy intersection here. The 95 bus running up and down route to Mystic Ave At this point, there are two stops on our side and two stops on the other side, north and southbound. Location of the Green Line extension and Orange Line. You can see that the site is pretty well located. You can see Boston here in the background in 93, and 38 here. So it seems to be in our minds, at least ripe for redevelopment. So Chris had talked a little bit about kind of a critical mass or the ability to attract a large tenant who needs a fair amount of space. We've looked at ways to do that it is a large site, but it's not incredibly large. So, we are suggesting some changes from the original C to zoning the C to zoning is listed on the left here. And again that's restricted to one or two story buildings and 35 feet in height. At this point, there is a maximum lot coverage of 50% and no real west depth or open space or landscape space requirements at this point. Our new development, we were proposed to keep all the original C2 zoning uses, which are still largely commercial. And we'd like to change research and testing laboratory, which is what a research and development lab would be classified under in the city, from an appeal, Board of Appeals appeal, to an allowed use, and that'd be part of the district. The lot area frontage lot width Um, we're all proposing to be a little more restrictive than as originally here. Uh, we are proposing, uh, that open spaces, uh, at a minimum are, uh, 30% of the, of the landscaped 30% and that open space, um, according to the city's definition, um, is 25%. So that's basically usable space that you can occupy. Um, where, um, requesting to increase the front yards from 35 feet, which is pretty tight to the front lot lines, to 35 feet, which gives us a little bit of space and allow us, as you'll see in further slides, to create a public corridor along Mystic Ave. The side yards and rear yards, we're keeping at 35 feet. But in our design, we've actually designed a limited-use road through most of the side yards, which would make it much larger than it really is, than we're actually asking for. Lock coverage, we'd like to keep at 50%. You can see that our building footprints at this time are much lower than 50%. Where we start to ask for the density is in the height of the building. C2 allows 30 feet, which is pretty low, two stories. We're requesting 120 feet, which in the research and development world would mean eight stories, a 15-foot story, which is pretty common for research and development due to the amount of mechanical space that each floor has to encumber. And then the other kind of outlier with R&D buildings is they require large mechanical penthouses. So on top of that 120 feet, we're requesting and suggesting that we are allowed to have a 40 foot mechanical penthouse, which gives us a total of 160 feet for eight stories of lab. The parking code is one per two employees. We are, based on our research, requesting one and a half per thousand gross square feet, and that should give us a pretty good average and keep our parking off of the street. Our parking for the buildings will be entirely within garages which are built underground under the buildings so there won't be any visible parking on the site except for the retail and visitor parking which we've which I'll show you on further slides. We're suggesting that the site as designed can be presented as a 30% pervious surface. The current pervious surface is less than 10%. So it's a vast improvement. Impervious surface, such as buildings and roads, is at 70%. Those are our requests. So if we look at the site, we're suggesting that we'd like to put four buildings in. This is the north of the site, and this, we're calling lot A, would potentially be phase A of the project, and this, we're calling lot B, would be potentially phase B of the project. Now, if we were to get a tenant that would like all million feet, then we'll do it all at once, but we'd like to suggest that we at least have the opportunity to do a north section, then a south section. The buildings in footprint are about, the north buildings are about 150 feet wide by 225 feet deep. These buildings in the south are a little bit bigger at 175 and 190 wide and about 240 feet deep. We have, if you look at the building section, so if you imagine yourself looking at the front of the building, We have, as I had said, we're requesting 120 feet, which gives us the eight floors up to the top of the roof, and then a 40-foot mechanical bay. For those of you that have been paying attention to the project being presented by the RISE group on the Mystic Valley Parkway on the other side of the bridge, this is the same height that they're requesting. And here you can see we've designed either two floors, or in some cases, three floors of below grade parking. So this is the site plan that we came up with to orient you. This is Mystic Ave, Route 38. And then this is Mystic Valley Parkway. And this is 93. This is the car dealership. And here we have HCSAV. Bonner Ave, Alexander Ave. So what we're suggesting site-wise is for entries, we're suggesting a limited use entry. So that would be emergency personnel and also delivery trucks would enter either here at the North or here at the South, excuse me, or here at the North. vehicles would enter a primary entrance we'd like to place here, and this is the entry we're going to suggest is signalized to allow people in and out of the site. You can also take a right turn in here and a right turn out. Right turn in, right turn out. This would be a full intersection where you have in and then you can have left or right. These two entries on the north and the south are only in and then the trucks would all come out this intersection. A further improvement that we're suggesting, and this might be an uphill climb. Mystic Valley Parkway, like Mystic Avenue, is controlled by the DOT. We would like to open up another entry here. So this would be an entry where you could take a right off of Mystic Valley Parkway, or if you're coming off of the highway 93 southbound, you could go straight across and enter the back of the site here and park or make your deliveries. This exit would be right turn only. We think that if this improvement is allowed, that it will help some of the traffic here on Mystic Ave if you don't have to take a right and then a left and come down here to enter the site. From a public amenity standpoint, the 35-foot frontage that I talked about on the last slide starts to show up here in this public corridor along Mystic Ave. So the 35 feet is a minimum, For the most part, this is 40 feet away from our property line. And actually the property line, if you look right here, right where my cursor is going, the property line goes down the middle of our proposed public sidewalk. And then there's a secondary sidewalk public space that runs in this kind of linear park all along Mystic Avenue. This is part of our suggestion that there's there's a need for a green streets are complete streets approach to mystic Avenue. and we're proposing that we help to design at least this end up here and working with, of course, the DOT and the city to come up with a way that accommodates both the bikes, the pedestrians, including crossing, bikes and North and South, and also some vehicular control on the street here, a complete streets concept. So looking at the floor plans, this is the first floor plan of the buildings in this lighter shade and all the buildings we're calling the tenant and the retail lobby. We think that the site would be much more active if there was some retail opportunities and with With a million square feet of office, we're going to need some services for not only the neighborhood, but also the people that work here. So we're envisioning that there are sandwich places and restaurants and service type businesses that can locate themselves here on the first level, along with the tenant lobby, of course, the elevator bank here. Another design element that we see for research and development type projects is kind of these large back of house type of areas. We have the loading docks that are all enclosed in each building so that those aren't open. There's also a lot of utilities needed for the tenant that will happen in here. Each building will have bicycle storage. and likely some shower facilities to encourage that type of transport into the office. The river we'd like to treat a little better than it's being treated now. We'd like to open it up and give it these grassed areas on the front. Also these areas here are previously paved patios that we hope would support some sort of retail again out here, but it also gives you access to this park around the Winterbrook. And the Winterbrook, we'll talk a little bit about more, maybe how we could treat that to make it kind of a better water feature. So that is the site plan. Overall, our pervious area is about 36%. At this time in our impervious area is about 64%, which is about a 20% increase in pervious area, which is area that is permeable to water. We've tried to make our herd services here pervious pavers. So the blue color here and the blue color here are pervious pavers. The green color is more natural grass and sometimes low-watering grass, depending on what we're looking at. To continue on, again, this is our open space, the multi-use path that goes around three sides of the property. This tree-lined park here around the Winterbrook and the linear park that we've designed along Mystic Ave. should make the site pretty pleasant and pretty welcoming. I talked about complete streets or green streets. This is a concept and again without approval from the DOT and the city. Right now it's just a concept. We're hoping to work with the city and also the DOT into getting this into fruition. The idea is that you have bike paths, a southbound bike path on this side and a northbound bike path on this side. You have frequent crossings, you know, signalized or signalized with a hawk device. This crossing right here is currently signalized with a hawk type device where you press a button and a yellow lighted flash. I've used it several times myself. It seems to work. This is the Dunkin' Donuts, just to locate yourself. You can see, and this is actually our model overlaid on a drone shot. There really is a great view of Boston from here. We're very close. I think it makes the site more exciting. So our complete streets to continue in here so now we have this our public corridor linear park that runs along the street it's nicely isolated from from the road we keep the same number of lanes and. Currently, we have the left turn, left turn, right turn lane. And again, that's during the design, you know, something different may happen to that center lane to make it a little more pedestrian friendly. But we'll have to see how that all works out. So we talked a little bit about our green features. Typically R&D buildings, the companies that go into them are interested in seeing buildings that help produce electricity and help reduce their carbon footprint. Those are our aims also. And I won't go through every one of these, but we're gonna use all the tools in the book to make this as an efficient, building as possible. And we hope that we can enlist some tenants that will help us get to the lead levels that we can shoot for. This is, again, this is a drone shot taken several weeks ago, looking from the northeast, 93 here on a kind of a typical typical afternoon traffic day. This is Mystic Valley here and Mystic Ave here. We have our four buildings located as the models the actual size that they will be in comparison to other things. And you can see that we do have kind of this island out here. We've always thought of it as kind of its own thing. And you can see the activity over here down Assembly Row, over here in Somerville, and Cambridge and Boston. Seems like it's part of the regional footprint once we start to build something that looks like this. The buildings themselves, you know, not 100% designed yet, but the concept is You know, mostly glass facades, helps with daylighting. And a mix of materials on the outside to break up the facades gives some interesting shading and shadow. And you can see that there's a variety of these mechanical penthouses on top of the buildings that kind of give them their full scale. This is a picture from the northwest of a rendering. We've tried to keep the building separate. That helps break down the mass. And again, you can see these differing materials, which we'll choose what they are through the whole process here. One, two, three, four buildings. We've put a number of trees in front, our linear park. And this is looking up Bonner Ave here between the two buildings. and a view from the Southwest. And again, we're trying to make the buildings break up their massing by using different materials. The first two floors are generally different from the top six floors in architectural style to give them a base and also kind of help you define the linear park here along Mystic Ave. Each individual building. And again, where these are proposed numbers proposed buildings. So, the North Post building is 280 mystic Avenue. This is the building with a floor plate that 150 feet by 225. This is building number two about the same floor plate. main entry on this side. Again, the linear park. You can see that how the park starts to break in, break down the facade. And then we have building number three, 310 Mystic Avenue. And the entry here, and these are these patios that I talked about that have the retail possibilities. This just to the left of where this rendering is shown is where the Winterbrook is. Again, the southwest building with a slightly larger footprint is there, but they still have the green elements in front here. We've given access to all sides of the building to the public and to the people that work out there. So this is six renderings that show our park at Winterbrook. We have kind of the linear avenue park. And again, these things are all being developed. We'll probably have some raised beds. We'll have some seating, probably a modern light. I spoke about the first two floors of the building being slightly different than the building massing above to try to break it up, but also lets kind of this Mystic Avenue linear park kind of flow out into the entries to the buildings. This is a shot of the multi-use path. 93 is just to the right here. This is the rear access. but you can see that it's nicely isolated from the road. Our shelter MBTA stops, again, you know, design that's forthcoming with the approval from the MBTA and DOT. And then kind of our linear part there. We move on. I'm going to leave the slide up, but I'm going to turn it back over to Chris who's going to talk a little bit about the benefits of of this type of zoning would allow for the city of Malden. So Chris, why don't you take it away?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Sure. Thanks a lot, Sean. That was really a great presentation. And just to run through these very quickly, we have grouped these benefits into categories as logically as we can. So I'll just start off here on the fiscal world. Certainly, What we have in mind here would increase the city's tax base, real estate tax base. The properties as they exist are generating about $266,000 a year in real estate taxes based on other life science comparable properties that we're aware of. At completion, this project would generate on the order of $15 million to $20 million a year for the city on an annual basis. In addition to that, certainly their building permit fees, which we would estimate at about $12 million, and then linkage fees could be another million dollars. So it's a fairly significant fiscal impact from the project. In terms of transportation, as Sean mentioned, we would be reducing the number of curb cuts on Mystic Avenue from nine to four, which should have a benefit in terms of smoothing the traffic flow. Sean addressed very well the complete streets concept and the benefits to pedestrians and bicyclists. The Mystic Valley Parkway entrance and exit, we think would have some benefits. Obviously, a conversation with MassDOT will be necessary to see if they are receptive to opening that up. But we're happy to have that conversation along with our traffic engineers. And as Sean pointed out, we envision putting in installing bus shelters on our side of Mystic Avenue for MBTA bus riders. And in general, I think it's fair to say the site will be very bicycle and pedestrian friendly, certainly compared to what it is today. In the energy and environment world, we would be using green building principles for all four of the buildings. Stormwater management on the site really is pretty archaic the way it's set up now. So that would be brought up to current best practices with the help of Paul Avery As Sean mentioned, there'd be a significant increase in pervious surface of about an acre and a quarter. We would hope to provide some TLC to Winterbrook to give that some better treatment and make it look better, make it healthier. Building systems would all be state of the art, including the building envelopes. We would have the electric vehicle charging stations that Sean mentioned. And all the building systems that are critical, we certainly would locate them where they are not subject to any flooding. Shawn, if you want to flip over to the next page. There we go. So certainly, and then in the more subjective way, I think it's fair to say that the aesthetics of the site and the streetscape would be significantly improved with this project. There's a considerable amount of open space for public use that does not exist today, over two and a half acres, including the multi-use path, various planting beds and trees. And then, you know, Sean did touch on our idea for first floor restaurant and retail spaces. We think we can attract some nice retail and food uses there. And certainly these buildings will provide some screening acoustically as well as visually from I-93 traffic, obviously a very heavily trafficked route. And then I think in the more subjective world, certainly we would hope that this project will put Medford on the map even more than it is today in the world of life science and technology. The visibility on 93 would help in that regard along with the critical mass that we have in mind. I think there's no question this would be a revitalization of a site that's been underused. I saw someone already mentioned that in a chat, and we completely agree. In terms of jobs, we anticipate this would create perhaps 1,000 construction jobs. And on completion, about 2500 people would be working here. These are professionals, technical, as well as office professionals, bringing their disposable income to the area to support Medford businesses, shops and restaurants. And I think in the process, certainly this would enhance the value of adjacent property. So those are some of the economic development benefits that we can and fiscal benefits that we envision for the city. Scott, would you like to talk a little bit about the traffic work that you're doing, how you address a site like this, and what some of the considerations are?
[MCM00000653_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely, Chris. Thank you. Actually, if you could keep going back to slide number five, I think that would be a good place to start. And for the record, actually two more before slide five on the PDF.
[Unidentified]: Perfect.
[MCM00000653_SPEAKER_02]: Almost. There we go. Thank you. Scott Thornton with Vanessa associates were traffic consultants for the project, and we're very excited to be working on this revitalization development we think it's a great project for the city, and it's really in a Great location to to have this type of development, Jason 293 with easy access from the highway on a major bus line with close proximity to, to the Wellington station to the Davis Square to the future. ball square station on the Green Line. We think that the and also on Mystic Avenue with with its abundance of of roadway width that that we think can be made to be more beneficial to to all users of the of the road not just to vehicles but to buses and to pedestrians and bicyclists as well. So we're in the early stages of a traffic study for the project. We're working in coordination with the city's traffic engineer and community development departments and mapping out the scope of what we should be looking at for the traffic study. We would anticipate a review of a number of intersections up and down miss mystic avenue as well as going out to towards main street getting the some of the intersections in the neighborhood bonner and alexander have across the street from the site and and go out to mystic valley parkway as well. But again, it's a work in progress and something that we expect to, it'll check off one of the items that's required under the zoning checklist that Chris had mentioned previously. It should go a long way towards addressing the traffic concerns for the city. Okay, now if we could jump to the PDF number eight, slide eight, which is the first one you were on, Chris. Yeah, that's it. Perfect. So, as Sean had mentioned, the site is proposed right now to have four curb cuts and This is a decrease from the nine that currently serve the site. And that's, it's great to consolidate curb cuts from from access management perspective where you have fewer, fewer locations where traffic can enter and exit. the major streets. Further, these access points are going to have some type of access restrictions in that they're only one of the access points which is furthest from the intersection of the parkway with Harvard Street is going to be permitted to have left turns in. The other driveways may be restricted to right turns in, right turns out. But that's something that we have to work out with, with dot and the city. We're anticipating a traffic light would probably be at this at this one location where the access is proposed. And what's where there's where there's a. whether it's an RRFB or crosswalk that's there, it would probably be a full pedestrian phase that would be implemented into the traffic signal. system at that location. Some of the other crosswalks we think have either the hawk system or RFB which again is similar to the one that's in existence now at the end of Bonner Ave. Push button activated and strobe lights to alert motorists that pedestrians are crossing. It seems to work pretty well as Sean indicated. Mystic Ave in general is somewhere between 66 and 70 feet of pavement between the curbs. So there's a lot of pavement to work with there. We think that there's an opportunity to incorporate bike lanes and pedestrian amenities. and has been indicated that the bus shelters for the MBTA bus, again, shelters have a great effect at increasing ridership so that people can wait out of the elements for their for their buses to come in. We understand that there may be some changes to the 95 bus route, but a development like this may have some effect on those changes. We know that the city traffic engineer and community development are working on those issues and to the extent that we can assist them, we will do so. As Sean indicated, parking is contained on site in underground garages with access from the internal roadways. There's a mix of surface parking really for the short-term uses and some of the accessory uses that are proposed. There may be some restaurants or cafes, maybe some gyms, but all that That type of planning has yet to be done. But again, the majority of the parking is under the buildings. The access that's currently proposed out to the parkway to the northeast of the site, again, this would be intended to receive entering movements coming off of 93. coming straight across the parkway, working with the existing signal timing, right turns in from the parkway, and right turns out from the site. We don't expect that either left turns out of the site or left turns from the parkway into the site would be permitted at this location. But again, it's something that we will look at with MassDOT and DCR has some jurisdictional issues on the other side of 93 as well. So I think that, you know, in terms of the overall process with the traffic study, as I mentioned, we're coordinating with the city. We anticipate to not only have a uh, a review of the, of the impacts at the study or locations, but also proposals for TDM measures, uh, which, you know, some ideas may include shuttle buses to Wellington or to Davis square, um, ways to, uh, to retain trips on site. So once people, once people get there, they can spend a lot of time on site and, and don't need to use their cars to travel around, to do errands, things like that. But we do think that increasing the pedestrian connectivity, increasing bicycle connectivity with the access to the multi-use paths that are in the area, certainly maintaining a bike path along the east side of the site adjacent to 93, we think that that's That's an important feature and benefit for the project. It's something that we expect to incorporate into the study as it gets developed. With that, I think I'll turn it back over to Chris to carry on.
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Scott, thanks. That was really informative and thorough. Paul, maybe we can turn it over to you to talk about the site civil engineering a bit.
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_04]: Sure, sounds good. So when we talk about site civil engineering on a project like this, we're really talking about sort of two major categories of items. The first being the utilities that would serve the site. In this case, we've got, we need water, we have, we need sewer connections, we'll have electricity. we'll have gas and there'll be some telecommunications. Generally, all of those services are available within the existing Mystic Avenue infrastructure. as design and permitting progress, we'll be doing capacity analyses to determine whether this project is within the capacity of those systems. And if some upgrades are warranted, then we will do that. So we just sort of take that as the project comes together and we start to run numbers on these sorts of things. The stormwater, because we have Winterbrook right through the middle of this project area, right through here is Winterbrook. In essence, what that does is that splits the project into two halves. We've got the north side and the south side, with the brook dividing the two, it being a wetland resource that the project would be subject to permitting with the Conservation Commission under the Massachusetts Wetland Protection Act and local bylaws. So all the stormwater practices will, standards will apply in full. Typically, some of the more challenging ones are mitigating increases in runoff as you develop previously undeveloped areas. In this case, This area has already been developed. The existing condition is almost entirely paved. So one of the issues that tends to be a concern is increases in rate of runoff. That will not be a problem here because we're adding a great deal of open space and then pervious pavements. So those measures in themselves. will result in a decrease in runoff from the site. That brings us back to water quality, the other big concern in this one. We don't need to go to it, but Sean had a graphic up earlier showing some bioswale type elements and anticipate working those into the design where we can. Because a lot of the site is curved, there'll probably be a need for some collection systems with underground piping. and pride measures to do the treatment to remove total suspended solids prior to discharge to Winterbrook. What we won't be doing is doing discharges into the existing drainage system on Mystic Avenue that we intend to leave alone. Really, we've got the front of the site which faces Mystic Avenue and the rear of the site out towards 93. We will be making connections either into the culverts which connect Winterbrook on each end rather than connecting into the street. Currently, some of the runoff from the project site goes into the Mystic Avenue and therefore contributing to the flow in those areas. We'd be bypassing that and working directly into the culverts into and out of Winterbrook to further minimize impacts on the public drainage system. That's pretty much it and can take any questions or address any concerns that may come up.
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Paul, thanks. That was very helpful. Maybe what we can do is move into the Q&A phase. Maybe we could start with, we have had some questions in chat. Maybe if we can pull those up. I don't know, John Carey, if you're able to see those or maybe read them one by one. And then once we go through those, then we can do live questions. It could be that by the time we go through the chat questions, some of the live questions will have been answered. But why don't we start with the chat questions, John, if you can maybe read them to us one by one.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sure, Chris. Cheryl R. asked or stated, it would be great that now, can you hear me?
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: OK, it would be great that now that you finally have turned your attention to this area, if you could start maintaining Winterbrook, it isn't supposed to be ignored for years. Will you commit to that now?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Yes, Cheryl, thanks for the question. I think we do envision, let's say, adopting it. Maybe this is the Adopt the Brook program. So as we described, certainly on the front end, it needs TLC as you could attest if you walked around it. So yes, we do envision trying to improve it and keep it up afterwards.
[SPEAKER_03]: Judy, this is from Judy. Many similar developments maintain small cafes and restaurants on the main floor for tenants. Will you include those features?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Also- Judy, yes, thanks for the question.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, John, go ahead. Pardon, two parts to this. Also, the Bank of America is a very busy location. Will they have space in your new development?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Sure, so just taking them in order. Yes, Judy, we would love to see some cafe or little retail uses. I know Sean and John are planning to program those spaces into the buildings. And then we'll see what tenant interest there is. I think there will be interest because of the proximity to Mr. Gav and certainly the critical mass of occupancy in the buildings will make these viable retail locations. But we would love to see that also. As Sean mentioned, they have programmed in some patio spaces that would serve nicely as adjuncts to those kinds of uses where you can have some outdoor seating. So yes. And then Bank of America, yes, we would love to find space for them in the new buildings. They've been a great tenant, and I think they're a great resource for the community. A little bit of coordination would come into play. The building that they're currently in, all the existing buildings, of course, would come down one by one. But we have done some looking into temporary banking facilities. I wouldn't be surprised if P of A is already familiar with these kinds of facilities. They can operate on a short-term basis out of a trailer. I wouldn't be surprised if they've actually done that in various places around the country. So there probably is a way in which we could finesse them continuing to operate in a temporary location while construction is taking place, and then moving back in if that's something they would like to do. So yes, we would love to see that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great. Cheryl R., again, how many years apart is the plan for a phased project? This area has been underutilized for many years. Medford needs this tax revenue to be maximized.
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Well, Cheryl, we certainly agree it has been underused for many years. The timing is really subject to the market. It's not something that we would control. The first step really is to complete this planning and permitting process with the city, with the state, both MassDOT and DEP, as well as Scott mentioned, the Department of Conservation and Recreation will probably have some input here because of our proximity to the parkway. So, I mean, our proximity to the park on the other side in 93. So, you know, once we get through the permitting process, then we can really start the marketing process. and we will build these buildings as fast as we can, subject to the demand that's out there, but that's a great question.
[SPEAKER_03]: Cheryl, again, while proposing a complete street concept, will the large carve-outs solely be for your benefit? Will you fund this entire solution?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Well, it's a good question, Cheryl. I think we envision certainly contributing to funding, especially on our side of Mystic Avenue. I don't know if we would be in a position to fund the whole thing on both sides of Mystic Avenue. There isn't a budget for this right now because the design really remains to be completed. So it's a little bit of a question mark right now. And we certainly would envision that Along the frontage that we have, it does benefit the public. The intention would be for it to benefit the general public along with certainly the occupants of the buildings that we're planning to build. So I think there's some shared benefit there. But I don't have a specific answer for you at this time, Cheryl. I think it's a reasonable question. I don't know that I could answer it as we sit here.
[SPEAKER_03]: Eunice asks, timing, when would we expect to break ground?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: You know, it's a great question, Eunice. And again, I wish I had a specific answer. There are a number of steps here, as you probably heard, that need to be taken. And we don't have control over the individual steps either. So we'll do it as fast as we can is probably the best thing that I could say for you, Eunice, at the moment.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great. I think Judy asked a question about parking, which I think we've covered. There is underground parking. Nan K. Let's see, number one, there's multiple questions from Nan K. Number one, how will your project alleviate flooding in South Medford ranging from Mystic Avenue to Tufts Park on Main Street and to Winchester?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_04]: I'll take that one. As summarized, I gave an overview of the stormwater that will be obligated to meet the standards and one of them is decreasing peak runoff. That will happen by adding impervious areas here. Also, when we do discharge from the site, we'll be doing that beyond the stormwater systems within Mystic Avenue. I think that this project by reducing contributions to that system will help alleviate flooding in upstream areas.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great, thank you, Paul. Number two, how does your project alleviate the housing shortage in Medford?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Well, I guess I would say it's really, you know, as you can see, it's a commercial project. So there really aren't any housing units that are included in this. It's really kind of a separate, a different kettle of fish, if you will. And I don't know that we could say that it will alleviate housing if there's a housing shortage. I don't know that it will have an impact that way.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great. The next two questions I'll group together. Other than the crosswalks and signage, What else can be done to make crossing Mystic Avenue, I suppose, safely as a pedestrian or by bike? And will the proposed bike lanes be protected with a curb?
[MCM00000653_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I can take that one john so so I think those two. I think the, the, the key thing to making mystic gaps safer is to is to slow the traffic down. And if we can, if we can, you know, activate the streetscape with these types of amenities that are being proposed. And with the multiple crossings, with the multiple crossing devices, as well as some other measures, possibly constricting the roadway to maybe some narrowing the lanes to something that still meets standards, but may not be the 14-foot wide lanes or the 16-foot lanes that are currently in place. Those will make it, will have an effect on the traffic flow and slowing the speed that traffic is traveling at, which in turn makes for a safer crossing. In terms of the bike lanes, I don't know that we're there yet in terms of identifying design treatments for uh, when it gets down to the, to the bike lanes, if they're protected, if they're, if they're elevated, if there's buffers, you know, where, where exactly all that is going to fit because, um, it, it does, there are standards that need to be addressed and, um, uh, but it is, you know, it's, it's in the, it's in the future plans to, to be reviewed as part of the development.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great. Thanks, Scott. Um, What is the shadow effect on the Mystic River and housing across Mystic Avenue? I suppose, how much sunlight will nature, wildlife, and residents lose? And also, I'll group the next one, how much heat and noise will the 40-foot utility roof add to the neighborhood? How far away will residents hear the utility's roof?
[Unidentified]: Do you want to talk about shadow a little bit?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think the shadow on the Mystic River, the Mystic River is 600 or 700 feet away from the building, will be negligible. There will be shadows cast generally in the morning across Mystic Ave. But again, it's a pretty wide avenue. There is a commercial strip on the other side of the road. So aside from blocking the sunrise for some people, at least vision of the sun, I don't believe it'll be too terrible on the shadow studies. We will do a shadow study in the future to see if there are effects of the buildings on any neighbors. Likewise, with the utility question, there are sound design, I'm not sure that they're in the ordinance in Medford, but they probably are, that we will have to adhere to. And we will do the best to prove prior to building these that the residents implications will be minimal.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, Sean. What structures will be in place to make the open space inviting to Medford residents? I'm going to group that in with Cheryl R.' 's next question. or a statement, with a project this large and neglect for this long, surely you are negotiating more benefits to the community. We are currently short on space for after school programming, which could potentially be added to this enormous parcel. A fire tower, park upgrades in area, McGlynn playground needs help, etc.
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I could take that one. Cheryl, we appreciate the question. I think our aspiration would be if we look at the fiscal benefits here, you know, 15 to $20 million a year in incremental taxes to be collected again on an annual basis would provide the city with resources for all kinds of programming of the kinds that you that you mentioned. So I think we are hoping that this will allow the city to do some of those creative projects, as well as fund things like fire and police and schools.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, Chris. John LaRusso writes, it is noted the project is in a very early conceptual stage, but considering the life science use, there is no mention of animal facilities, potential hazardous chemical storage, water treatment or noise.
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Right, John, those are, you know, components that we often do see as part of life science projects. And I guess it is, as you say, at a preliminary stage, I think the objective would be to, you know, have an envelope of uses that are allowed that are consistent with what life science does. But I don't know that we would envision having you know, some of the really dangerous, like I don't think we would see people developing nerve gas agents here or something like that. So it's something that, you know, certainly could be looked at in the way of further definition. There are some comparable projects being done, you know, for example, in Somerville, the Boynton Yards project or the USQ project that we can take a look at as examples. but we do see these projects being done. It seems like they're being done safely. And then obviously that would be, you know, the first concern is that whatever is being done here is safe for the community and as well as for the employees in the buildings.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great. Thank you, Chris. Victor Potsani asks, how long would the construction for phase one run? And at what point in the process would we break ground? In other words, what are the hard dependencies to breaking ground?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Victor, it's a good question. Certainly the permitting topic is the front burner question to see whether something like this can be enabled. And then assuming that the permitting goes well, then really you're going into a marketing and more detailed design and architecture phase and ultimately into construction. I would imagine that the actual construction phase on these buildings we've seen could be 24 to 36 months if it includes the construction inside the space, which is specific to the tenants use the so-called tenant improvements. So you might see some of that can be dual tracked with the base building construction. And from our point of view, I think we would envision wanting to see some level of pre-leasing on a building before starting construction. I don't know what that level is. It also would be a function of the financing. You know, we would do some financing on these and clearly lenders have their own requirements as to what they want to see to get comfortable with the building. A good thing is lenders are very excited about life science these days. So there seems to be a lot of funding available looking for projects. We don't have control over how that would look in the future, but those are some of the parameters that will be out there, just as a thumbnail.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great, very thorough. Victor, again, this is a three-part node and I guess I'll combine them. When complete, would this be the largest single site property and combined properties portfolio? And has combined properties managed and delivered comparable projects to this in both size and complexity? And lastly, have we attempted to acquire the Brookline Bank parcel?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: So Victor, thanks for the question. I think I remember you from the in-person meeting also on Monday, and it was nice to meet you, if you're the Victor that I think you might be. And so this, we have done projects in terms of acreage that are bigger than this. This is the most square footage that we would hope to do in one place. Although, as we've talked about, this would be phased. We are not, You know, reticent about about this project. It's well within our capabilities financially, architecturally, financing wise. There's certainly plenty of expertise in terms of engineering available and construction. So we're not we're not at all uncomfortable with a project like this. The Brookline Bank Building, there has been some conversation with them They have had a very particular opinion of the value of the building, which we found just difficult to make sense of in the context of the larger project. You might be aware that if you walk by the building, there's construction taking place in there now for Needham Bank. And I think the plan is for Needham to occupy around the end of the year or early next year with a branch there including a drive-through and an office space on the second floor. So I think they'll be very happy there. We felt as though the ownership of that site wasn't really necessary. It's a very small footprint, as you know. And it just is a property that we didn't really need to be able to do the larger project. And we wish them well with the bank tenancy.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, Chris. That's all we have thus far in the chats.
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Any live questions that somebody might have? If there are none, I'll just mention again that when we conclude the meeting, this will be recorded as a video file or be saved as a video file. And then the next day or so we'll get that over to Victor and Yvette. And then it can go up on the city website and people will be able to view this after the fact. I would like to thank everybody for participating this evening, including Victor and Yvette. And their department has been very pro-economic development, which we think is great. I'd like to thank Paul and Scott for participating with their expertise. And Sean and John, great job on the planning and design here. So I think a really, really great team effort that if we can keep this going stands to provide a lot of benefits for the city. And I think I'm cautiously optimistic that maybe we can get this done.
[Unidentified]: Victor, any thoughts you might want to share?
[Victor Schrader]: No, thank you, Chris. I'm sorry, I had to step out briefly, but not at the moment. And if anyone has any follow up questions, they can reach out to you. Is that is that correct?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Contact info is there. You know, Victor and Eunice, Cheryl, we appreciate your questions as well as the folks who have already dropped off, but we enjoy interacting with you folks.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, thanks very much. Very, very helpful. Thank you.
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Our pleasure. Well, shall I, Victor, do you think, shall I end this and then we'll let it do its thing and save the recording? It'll take a while. I'm not sure I'll wait around. It might take a while for it to finish, but in a worst case tomorrow, I can get you a link so you folks can act. It'll be a big file, but we'll get you a link so you guys can download it. And then whatever you want to do in terms of city website, you can do that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, could I ask that the slide deck be disseminated as well to at least this group, or if not, wider on your website or something?
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Sure. Victor, I think we're going to repaginate it, which might take us a day or so. And then we can get it over to Victor with a K. And then I guess it could go up on the city website in an appropriate place. Will that work?
[Victor Schrader]: That works for us. We'll plan on posting it on the Office of Planning, Development, and Sustainability's page. And we'll create a new header for this project on that page.
[SPEAKER_05]: Victor, does that sound OK? That's fantastic. Thank you.
[MCM00000652_SPEAKER_05]: Okay. All right, well, it's been a pleasure, folks. The time just flew by. And thanks again to everybody, and I'll go ahead and hit the end button on this. And hopefully we can continue the progress.
[Unidentified]: All right, thank you. Everybody have a great evening. Good night. Bye-bye.