[Kathleen Desmond]: Good evening, everyone. Kathleen does not touch on our offices. I'm here this evening. It seems like over Julian managing director of alliance residential company in New England. and Matthew Harrity development manager with residential alliance. First we would like to thank everyone for attending this community meeting relating to the potential redevelopment of the properties located at 5.73 bells way which is the cappies liquor store in 20 revere Beach Park way Monroe muffler break. The purpose of this meeting is to introduce the project which is in its very preliminary stages 19 feedback from you the neighborhood. We anticipate the presentation. So for an impact approximately 15 to 20 minutes following the presentation there will be an opportunity for questions and comment we've allocated about an hour so for this meeting. In terms of general ground rules. I would ask that you keep yourself muted until you're called on to speak. In addition to asking questions to the group. you can also put your questions and comments in the chat, and we'll run through those in the last five to 10 minutes of the meeting. I would ask that you refrain from direct private messaging, only because it's difficult to coordinate the chat and monitor a private message. So if you have any questions, you can put them in the group chat, and we'll run through those. And with that, I will turn the presentation over to Mike Bajulian, Managing Director of Alliance Residential.
[SPEAKER_08]: All right. Thanks, Kathy. Good evening, everybody. As Kathy mentioned, my name is Mike Bejulian. I am the regional partner for Alliance Residential Company in New England. We are a national multifamily home builder. However, we manage each region pretty much as its own operation.
[Unidentified]: And let that go now.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Recording in progress.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sorry about that. So anyway, we manage our company really from each division up. So while we're a national group based in Phoenix, our offices are on 184 High Street in Boston. I was born, raised, and I still live in Arlington. And our entire staff is located here in Boston. So if you wouldn't mind, please just keep your mic muted so we can come getting some interference. Tonight we're here to talk about a potential redevelopment of 2 parcels in Medford. I want to emphasize we do not only sites currently have them under contract and we are in a study period where we are a bit evaluating the feasibility of a potential redevelopment for these parcels. So candidly this is a bit earlier than we typically would have a neighborhood meeting of this kind. We would typically have be a little further along the process. and have a little bit better detail. I think we have some good answers and some good discussion points to talk with you on tonight. But to be clear, this material is not a part of a formal application, and we are not formally in front of any city boards or the city council to review this project yet. So again, I just ask for your patience. This is some preliminary material. We may not have all the answers to your questions. We can probably speak to them in pretty good detail. And that's why we're excited to have a question and answer session with you guys. Over the course of the next month or so, we'll be completing our study period for the project. And so it'll probably come as no surprise that the world and its economy right now is in a bit of fluctuation. We're proceeding carefully here to make sure that we don't make any mistakes as we go through these turbulent times. Can I prepare the presentation for you? In a few moments, I'll share my screen and walk you through some of the concepts we've developed, the site locus and context and other things. As Kathy mentioned, please feel free to prepare any questions you have in the project on the Zoom chat. We are recording that. We will be going back through that at the end and try to touch on all of the questions to the best of our abilities. So with that, I'm going to try and share my screen. And please bear with me. I don't do Zoom that much.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: So these first slides we're going to start with are really just to get you acclimated with the neighborhood. I know that sounds silly because many of you live in the immediate area. However, we want to just make sure we all get started on the same page and talk about a little bit about the context for where we started our studies and conceptual program for the site. So the first one here is, of course, this is East Medford. Route 16 runs right across the page left to right. And the Fellsway and Middlesex Avenue run north to south. The taped site in yellow is the assembled parcels. Cappy's is the larger sort of hexagonal building. And Monroe Muffler is here on the east side on the property line. So the combined site, which again are 573 Fellsway, which is Cappy's Liquors, and 20 Revere Beach Parkway just to the east is the Monroe Muffler Shop. You'll see to the south here, Station Landing, the Mystic River Reservation off to the southwest, and the shopping centers up to the northwest. Of course, Wellington Station is at about 430 on your page. We've got a few axios here to show the immediate neighborhood. Again, these are really just to kind of show context of how the site fits in with the larger areas. We've turned the camera a bit on you. So, Route 16 or Revere Beach Parkway is running off to the east towards the top of Page and the Fellsway down to the right and Middlesex Avenue and the Fellsway up to the left. Cappy's there is just left of center. So obviously the neighborhood really is, you know, primarily seven and eight-story mixed-use buildings, quite a bit of housing in high-rise format. And you'll see Wellington just off top right of page. We'll flip the camera a bit here and looking southeast now, Cappies again just left of center, Route 16 traveling up and to the left of your screen, and station landing off across, southerly across Route 16 there. So looking at these photos, we like this site in the city for a lot of reasons. Medford's a great city. It features anything a modern resident would want, which is, of course, our business. The city is close to Boston, which in itself is always attractive. But really, it already has its own deep bench of employment of retail of walkability open space and history so all of those things stitched together to where, where, where our customers would want to live, they want to be close to home, they want to be able to walk to amenities, you know, nobody really wants to be in their car. And we've spent some time studying this intersection. Growing up in Arlington, I know this intersection well. So getting out of your car in this neighborhood is certainly an attractive thing, and Medford offers the ability to do that. And this site is really a microcosm more broadly of Medford, having all of those things I just mentioned within sometimes less than 1,000 feet of walking. Macro as a Bostonian, this is the type of modern housing I think greater Boston needs and regionally we need in eastern Massachusetts, where people even in cold weather aren't required to get into their vehicle to get a coffee to travel to work to pick up a prescription or to go get a classic roast beef at Kelly's across the street. So I'm going to move into some site photographs. I'm sure you guys are all relatively familiar with this, but I feel like we just want to be thorough. So this is a shot looking north of Cappy's, somewhat northeast, with 9th Street just in the back. You'll see a blue double two-story home on the left side of the screen with a garage. That is the 9th Street area. Monroe is just off to the right of your screen. This is a shot from Revere Beach Parkway on one of the many curb cuts on these two parcels. So we're looking straight north across the property line between Monroe and the Cappy site. This is a shot from 9th Street looking south. So Station Landing is in the background. Monroe is on just left of center and Cappy's, the back of Cappy's is just right of center. So you're looking at the intersection basically concealed only by the Cappy's. And then this is also a 9th Street shot looking the other direction. So you can see Boston Tattoo here in the background and the 9th Street intersection, current intersection and curb cut with Cappy's. So this last is an obvious satellite image of the site. We've oriented this North and South so we can stop getting you guys dizzy. 9th Street runs East and West across the top of the site. This is Middlesex Avenue on the left, and again, Route 16 on the bottom. The property isn't taped, but it is this L-shaped combination of these two parcels, not including the Boston Tattoo Company. This is a good start to show where the site planning begins for us, apart from the macro context of the area and the uses that are here and the amenities. This is really where we start trying to integrate and stitch those things together into a program. On the left and on the south of the site, we're bound by these two roads or parkways. These were These are actually very interesting if you don't know the history, but these were formerly, like many parkways in greater Boston, were run by the MDC, now DCR. The spirit of these roads was effectively, as we were becoming an automobile-focused society, to have a pleasure-driving avenue to explore the area's benefits. So you, I'm sure, are all familiar with the Middlesex Bells. and the Mystic River reservations. These are really just spectacular green spaces, and the former MDC knew that, and they knew that they wanted people to experience those in a pleasurable way. So on the south side of the site, you'll see there's a pretty deep, for an urban zone like this, a pretty deep setback with mature trees and paths. Believe it or not, there's actually a deed restriction on these sites that allows the parkways to remain what their original intent was. So while we might not be putting around in a 57 Chevrolet enjoying the Mystic River Reservation here today, I drive on at least three parkways on the way to work every day. These are commuter roads now. But there's still an opportunity here, we think, to maintain the spirit of what these parkways were initially for. And one thing we found interesting was that on the west side of this site, along the Middlesex Avenue, it's paved right to the sidewalk. and there so those setbacks and deed notes actually exist there as well and so one of the things we thought might be attractive and seems to mate with some of the intersection plans being discussed is is an ability to use that even though it is on this property rather than leave it as asphalt is to try and continue that parkway um parkway spirit the paths put mature trees and native plantings there and the like um so We think restoring that buffer could be a real opportunity. So I'm going to move to the next shot. This is an actual concept we're working with. And it's roughly centered on the page as this is. So again, you'll see the, well, mislabeled Fellsway. That's technically Middlesex, of course, but Revere Beach Parkway on the bottom. And you'll see how we're looking at really adding back into those buffer zones, as I mentioned before, some of the green spaces. A number of other things worth highlighting as we get into this we're going to show you some more details on on how we program space conceptually. This community's proposed at 265 units of rental housing, we do not build condominiums in an eight story format with 100% of the resident parking enclosed within the building so. A lot of the surface parking areas that are on the perimeter of the area and nearby sites, we're going to instead work to green those up and bring the parking inside the envelope completely. We'll talk a little more about the rest of the program. But to get you started, effectively, we craft these communities so that they are a completely enclosed community. And so by that I mean, while this looks like a pretty normal building, from the outside, all of our building systems are located internally. So, trash, refuse collection and recycling, separation, emergency services and access, all of our amenities, or most of the amenities, I should say, that are internal to the site. Everything is neatly encapsulated within the envelope of the building we propose here. So, you'll see on the site, there's donut shape is primarily the mass of the building. However, there is a hole in the middle and we'll use that courtyard to have some outdoor private space for residents. That's a little more private than perhaps walking across the street to the mystic river. But typically, and we'll show you some photos of how we treat these spaces. But these spaces typically have a large pool deck, sort of resort styled. We'll have outdoor cooking areas, lounges and cabanas and that sort of thing. A space where, you know, to kind of center the entire community around. On the upper left of the page, you'll note we've got a curb cut proposed here off of Middlesex. And in fact, to expand on that, the site currently features five curb cuts. And I'm sure we'll spend a lot of time talking about traffic and parking here. But the big story here is we're going to try and eliminate all of those curb cuts but one. We have not engaged a traffic engineer at this time. However, we've done enough of these to know that on a busy intersection like this, particularly one that's in flux for its future, that the less interruption and the less curb cuts that you're delivering traffic onto, the better. Excuse me. So our goal here would be to eliminate as many of those curb cuts in this planet, four of the five would be would be removed from the site. Inside the garage, so residents will drive into the building here, just above where it says loading, and there'll be three levels of parking. So the first three levels of the program would all be structured parking and other building services, and then all of the housing, but for a very few units, would be located on floors four and above. So we're gonna dig into the building here a little bit. This would be the first level if you were to just shave everything on floors two through eight off. And so as you arrive, you'll see the only surface parking we're proposing is just at the amenity area. That's also where we would have our 24-hour leasing and staff located. So future residents might use these spaces if they were to come look at a home or to check out the community. So that that sort of area all on the west side labeled as amenity would be a two story volume focused on the leasing and then a number of different amenities, which we'll talk a little bit about later. but primarily work from home type spaces, screening rooms, flex spaces. And we'll show you some of the other examples of what we do for fun in those spaces. So those would be separated from the garage element. The next two levels above this would also be parking served by internal ramps. So invisible to the outside. This would be an upper garage. parking floor like two or three you'll note that now above the common program area will add some homes and there'll be some again on the south side until we get to the upper residential floors, such as this where it'll be all housing on force for and above. So we'll also in these upper floors probably have some amenities. We're finding that most surprising amount of people are not going back to the office. And so the flex time and work from home spaces are becoming an important part of our business. So while some people may go to work, the typical customer here is working in a high tech or an R&D type And those have, you know, non traditional non nine to five types of hours. So we're now building our amenities to make those spaces more pleasurable and make your sort of to help you separate work from home, even when you are near home, as you would be in this. So we've added some, these shots are what we call axiometrics. These shots were created with the intent to kind of stitch what we're proposing into the neighborhood. So you'll notice, like most of the buildings around here, this is also eight stories. I think one of the station landing buildings up front is seven. but you'll see we're looking to pull things back off of the parkways and contribute back to what that sort of original mission was for those roadways and also just give this a little bit of a softer edge on what is a very hard-edged zone. So this we've also picked these spaces to try to relate to the aerial views we showed you earlier. So where we were showing you a photo very similar to this of the Cappies and Monroe site to show you how this would stitch into those with the massing around it. Now, this is a shot looking south, excuse me, southeast. So Ninth Street would be just in front of the building here in your view and the Middlesex Avenue and the Fells Way coming basically straight up the page on the right side. station landings here in the back. We're proposing a lot of verticality. This is what we'd call a Vitruvian style building. It's very classic. We're not sure this is the space based on what's around it. There's a lot of brick. There's a lot of sort of traditional materials. Station landing is a relatively classic and timeless architecture. So we didn't feel it was appropriate to use some of the real contemporary modern looks. for this space. So we stuck with some pretty classic verticality and spacing and dimensions to the building. To help you stay oriented, this was the small little future resident parking area, and the garage entry would be right here. And again, these first three levels, despite the fact that they look traditional with windows and the like, would actually be just the same cladding, just enclosing the parking structure. So this is a similar angle to the one we just showed you just brought down from from the seagull residents of Medford's viewpoint to get you down to a more pedestrian scale. Again this is where those future resident spots in the curb cut on the middle section might be and a garage parking entrance here if you can see my cursor moving. So This is, again, this is an early concept, so this may look developed, and we have looked at a couple of other options, but this is sort of the path we've been going stylistically with the concept. Next, we're gonna show you some photos of other projects we've done in Greater Boston that have things that we think at least conceptually belong in a project like this. This is a community we built called The Val that we've just finished, or just finishing leasing up. And so some of the things you'll note here is a big two-story volume at the arrival. I mentioned that there was that amenity labeled space was also amenities, but also our leasing and management staff. So this is a good example of how we integrate some of these things. On the right side of this feature wall is actually the back of house where at all times you can find somebody on our team working there. But there's also this sort of hotel-styled arrival here, which is some of the way apartment home communities are going. So there's someone here at all times kind of giving you a more full service feeling during the well, during regular hours, more full service feeling to the building. And then you'll see these two stories and a feature stair. This is something we'd like to integrate in this project as well, where we really are stitching together some of these assembly spaces, work from home spaces, or maybe you're just scrolling and rolling with your earbuds in and your music on, but places where this is a little more activated and a little more public. This actually, this wall was, we had a local artist custom paint it for us in sort of a thematic nod to the name. This is a project we built two years ago called The Cove. This is another idea of just some of those sort of flex spaces where this is really, more recreational space, obviously a pool table, there's actually a beer tap back there and wine, excuse me, and a wine cooler. But this is a space that would also be, we would propose something like stylistically different, of course, right near those amenity and leasing spaces, a little more open concept. This is one of our fitness centers we just completed. This one's actually done on two levels. We had a lot of fun with this one. We're utilizing private mirror rooms for online workouts and then of course all the traditional cardio. So this one has actually up top of this spiral staircase has a cardio deck and then the rest of your workout is all below here. So you can get an idea of how we really want to create an enclosed, fully encapsulated community, but in a very first class way. This is a pool deck shot. So this is an important one because this is a good analogy for how we would treat that center of the donut type space you saw. This is also a green roof on deck. These trees, while brand new, will grow to be full 40 foot sugar maples and red maples. So we have a team that understands how to put full-sized real vegetation on top of a deck. Under this is a parking level, not unlike we would propose on this site. Then a full, of course, heated pool and resort style, three, four months of the year, great place to hang out with your iPad or just get some sun. This is a good example of how we would treat that. This is in the same project at the Val I mentioned earlier, similar green roof. You know, you'll see something. We had some taller trees at the inception here, but, and some lawn back there, which is hard to see, but we fully green up hard and soft scape. This one has a cool sun deck where you can throw your chaise lounge right in the water. It's heated and, and hang out, you know, we'll have fire, we have a large fire pit. And then this one, you can actually see the grilling stations, private grilling areas where you and your friends can kind of hang out. and have dinner. And then this is just, we just wanted to give you an idea of what some of our apartment homes look like. Alliance is a little different than some of our more cookie cutter national competitors. I'm not here to throw shade at any of them. There's a lot of great groups out there. We just really kind of treat each project with a little bit more of a customized approach. And so, you know, in our Hingham asset, you know, that was more appropriate to have a little bit more of a coastal New England style and a little bit more classic sort of features. You know, at workforce spaces, you might want to be a little cooler, have a little bit more fun with some of the design, a little less safe. And then, of course, the unit mix and the lighting and all that changes. So this is a good example. We actually did two different types of backsplash tile with a custom featured backsplash tile behind the range. and sort of things like that. But we build, you know, the goal is to build, you know, first class modern housing from connectivity to finishes and the like. And so that is that. Let's see if I can understand how to put this off.
[Kathleen Desmond]: We can open it up to questions at this point and I believe we have to anyway 2 hands raised you want to.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_14]: Can we can we ask I wasn't sure we can start asking.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Go ahead, you're unmuted so.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_14]: Yep. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um, thanks for showing this, I guess. First, I know you. Well, first, what's a curb cut out is that specific to just like the flow, I guess from this property.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah curb cut is a it's it's you're going to be disappointed it's not much of a term of art simply just where a private parcel has a cut in the curbs, a driveway, basically, an ability to be a lot of the public way.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_14]: Okay, and I know you mentioned that, you know, a lot of the ideas that people wouldn't necessarily have to use their cars and maybe like the work from home aspect. You'd also mentioned there's like a lot of R&D type of folks who you know might potentially move here. Boston, you know, serves as a big hub for the biotech industry, and a lot of folks are, you know, like they're driving. They have to go to the lab. Right. And I know that you had mentioned it's still early stages but that traffic piece right I guess the question is. How do you account for who might come in, right? It's not like you're only renting out to people who might be working from home. And I think that there's a lot of reason to believe, you know, myself included, I work in the biotech industry. People are leaving for driving from here to Cambridge and over Burlington. And, you know, I see a world where there's a ton of people still in this industry having to be in the office of their scientists, which is a large majority of the industry.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, it's a good question. There's a couple there, make sure I unpack this properly. So I mean, the first is, you know, these are estimates, I can tell you who our typical target markets are, I can tell you who typically rents. But of course, we're, we're building homes for everybody. We try to tailor our product to meet who is most interested in living in a space. But you're absolutely correct. I mean, I mean, the Cars are an inevitability, as you can tell at any given point at that intersection. Some people certainly are still driving to work, you know, whether you're in biotech or in a more I have friends in the Department of Defense, R&D firms, and it can be 2 a.m. when a certain process or test is completed, and everybody gets on Slack or gets on Teams and says, all right, let's go, and they all mobilize and go. So my point there was more that we certainly are not going to specifically target or cater who we lease to, and we would welcome anybody But those are the types of folks that typically come here is, you know, someone, someone might be more interested in going to our Hingham asset at the cove if they're okay with a lot more driving, you know, I think the idea here is that, you know, you don't need to get in your car for a coffee, or to go to Walgreens or they'll get a roast beef or anything like that. But, you know, you're probably, sir, directly in our target market from a professional standpoint. That's a young professional, well-educated, you know, that's exactly who we're building homes for in greater Boston. Kathy, I'm going to ask you to help work the unmuting and muting for raised hands, because I'm not sure I even have the authority to do it. So I'm relying on you to help me there.
[Unidentified]: Can we just jump in? Ricky, how long is it?
[SPEAKER_13]: I guess should we first address the chat here? I think we had a question from Wellington Circle neighbors. Do you guys want to unmute if you're still on?
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm all. Yeah, I'd like to ask you about 93. Go ahead. Funny you should say that.
[SPEAKER_08]: There was a gentleman there that was just about to ask. Go ahead, sir. You're unmuted. On Pacific Avenue.
[Unidentified]: Where?
[SPEAKER_08]: Pacific Avenue.
[SPEAKER_13]: It looks like we don't have the Wellington Circle neighbors on anymore. So we'll just, I guess, from the top of the screen in order. Lauren, it looks like you have your hand raised there. If you want to, I can unmute you and then I want to ask your question.
[Kathleen Desmond]: We'll save the chat to the end so that we can get through who's got their hands raised and then move from there.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, my only question was just really quick would you be amenable to maybe establishing a footbridge across the the intersection there to make it more walkable because I feel like with having so many extra people there it's it might be you know beneficial to have that access to the T because currently it's it's really not feasible to to use it very efficiently.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I mean I'll be I'll be frank with you, the state permits across a DC our road for a bridge. That's, that's probably an operation that we would need a substantially larger parcel to to accommodate. Just get in the handicap ramps and switchbacks so that it's at a compliant I looked at a similar request in Cambridge. to cross over the commuter rail and so I'd love to say we'll look at everything and we would but that one unfortunately I have some good experience. Yeah that that's probably something that we wouldn't be able to include as a part of this could probably be no housing left for the after that bridge were built and constructed so.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_33]: I didn't know how to raise my hand.
[SPEAKER_08]: Go ahead Linda we're ready for you.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_33]: I'm Wellington on the board of trustees of the Wellington condominium. 9th Street cannot possibly handle one more car than it already is especially since the sign was put on revere Beach Parkway Westbound offering branded have as a cut off. My unit faces 9th Street every morning. 3 or 4 school buses every afternoon. I've seen city buses. This is a big concern to us. I know because a couple of my neighbors have written. The questions that I'm saying and I'm also concerned. We take care of our place as best we can with pest control every 2 months we have bait stations you're digging up how many floors down. to park cars, this neighborhood could become something very undesirable in my opinion.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how to raise my hand either, but I'm right there with Linda. I live at the Parkway Plaza South.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Deborah, if we could get to you after those who have, I'll keep you on the list and I'll put you on as soon as we get through who's already in. But I've got your number so you can jump in after we go through those with their hands raised. We've got three in front of you and I'm watching that.
[SPEAKER_08]: So Linda, those are good concerns that you'll note on the concept plan, we intentionally did not include a curb cut, we actually eliminated a number of curb cuts between these parcels and ninth street. So, you know, we suspected that that was going to be. a hot button issue. We had heard from some other folks in the city that 9th Street's having some issues with that. I think there's a couple of things that we did on purpose there that we were trying to respect that and keep our cars off of 9th. But then I think there's some things we didn't do on purpose that should add some help as well. The three curb cuts along Revere Beach Parkway going westbound, Right now, you could easily just take a right and drive through the Monroe parking lot or drive through the Cappies parking lots and get onto 9th Street to cut off the intersection and basically eliminate any lights at the intersection to go north up the Fellsway or up Middlesex. So I think the stuff we did on purpose will certainly not add any new pain there. But I think just by the development program we're proposing, this is going to basically stop all of the people cutting through those curb cuts to 9th Street now. I would say that this ought to reduce some of that. I apologize that I don't know where Granite Street and the sign you mentioned are, we'll find it. But certainly anybody that is cutting through these parcels will not be able to do that any longer.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_33]: I think I've got cut off. I can still hear you and oh I'm okay I lost the screen branded have is at the end of 9th Street that runs from the review Beach Park way all the way over to be on keys okay sure and wellington condominium owns branded have from 9th Street to the beyond keys factory that's had several different things since I've been here. and the city owns the other half. Okay, I got parallel it's parallel to middle 6 out.
[SPEAKER_08]: So you're not not a whole lot we can do on that side but again certainly the cut through traffic that people go jump in the intersections signals now would be would be eliminated. And then again we would not propose to add cars to tonight.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_33]: Yeah because really I mean it's it's increased I'm here almost 30 years and I can't believe how much it's increased. during that time. And it's a it's worrisome.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I can tell you on that Linda we've done some pretty creative stuff on an area traffic. I don't know that I have a perfect solution for you I know we cannot. But I would certainly certainly going to be good listeners and bring the best specialists out there to make sure we're integrating with that intersection the new intersection, however, it may land in and the concerns of the folks on 9th Street.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_33]: Is there ever gonna be an in-person meeting like at City Hall or someplace that we, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, so this is, and I think there were a few questions I saw in the chat pop up that we'll get to in more detail.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: The answer is I'm not sure. Part of what we're planning right now, what we're doing right now is studying. This is what we call a feasibility period. We're looking at everything like title and the deeds to environmental conditions to how the permits would need to be obtained and then things like this talking with neighbors what what do we not know our main goal today is to be good listeners to the people that are around this so that if we're able to proceed and and get into a public process where they would be public meetings and more formal. presentations and candidly probably better answers. We do that informed by what we hear from from you folks today and from city officials so we like to kind of keep our corner square with that and not just drop an idea into a new application that we just hadn't vetted or learned everything that we could learn.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Okay, thank you. This is Kelsey I believe you can on you yourself at this point.
[Scalise]: Thank you. Hi, my name is Kristen and I'm an owner at Parkway Plaza West. I am in favor of this type of development. I do feel that areas near public transit need to be, need to have denser housing. But I have two concerns about the construction. One of them is what other people have said. about 9th Street, and Linda was correct, that even if you eliminate those curb cuts, people don't tend to cut through the parking lots because, frankly, they are disaster zones, but they do come in on Brainerd and then down 9th Street. And it is a, 9th Street is very small, so one of my first question is, would your company or have you in the past done anything with the communities that you build in to improve the street, maybe as like a, you know, goodwill gesture, because Ninth Street is unfortunately a private way. So it would, and it needs improvements, sidewalks, curbs, street. I think it would be better if there was, you know, maybe one way or. So my first question is, would you have any would your company have any interest or does it have any history of helping to improve the street? Because even without the curb cuts, residents will start coming down Brainerd and into 9th to avoid the intersection. And then my second question is about rodent mitigation, because I've just read about nightmares with people having rodent issues when large-scale construction starts and I read an article today about, uh, Somerville and Brookline have started to use this next generation, uh, system called smart boxes. And does your company do basic rodent mitigation on its current jobs or do, are you planning on investing in higher level mitigation techniques? Uh, cause we have a lot of unit owners in a very small one block radius, and I think it would be very upsetting if a huge problem was created with regards to rodents. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_08]: All right, let's do first last because I think I read that article this morning, which I had never heard of that tech. And do you remember what it was called? It was the boxes that they get.
[Scalise]: Anti-Cymex smart boxes.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's it. Yeah, so I've never heard of that. I'm fascinated. I actually already Googled it this morning. So the first is sort of three stages to the rodent question. The first is during construction, we're required by law to do some pretty outsized efforts. And I can tell you that those are wildly effective. In fact, we have to, by law, hire a rodent specialist And that person has to be a part of our team through the entirety of construction. So I know that's not the whole thing, but that's sort of step one. Whether this tech is viable or being used by the pest management companies we would engage with, I don't know. I'm certainly willing to ask them to do it because it looks like pretty good technology. The second thing is, you know, We build homes, and we try to tell everybody we build really nice homes. So the last thing I want is rat infestations in or around my community. So I need to do a little bit more learning here, and Matt and Greg on the phone here are gonna become area rodent specialists, assuming we get to proceed here. And that's something that, candidly, I wouldn't take any credit for. That would be a selfish endeavor, because we would not want that either. So, and we do carry pest management in our operating budgets, which are 150 lines long as you can imagine, that is one of the items in there it's something that we will do after construction and on an ongoing way so. So yeah that's. That's the first piece. The second is on ninth street improvements, and what we've done elsewhere. The short answer to both is yes, almost always, we you know we again some of this is selfish so I'm not going to take too much credit for it, but we want to have a, we want to be in a nice neighborhood and I don't build on Greenfield sites. All of the sites we build on are old industrial buildings, or old decrepit office buildings, and no discredit to Cappy's, very fine facility, and I've shopped there. But our goal is not to go and disturb some greenfield site. It's to improve a legacy parcel with legacy real estate improvements on it. So having 9th Street be more attractive benefits us. That's absolutely something we want to talk with you about. We have plans for for our side of 9th Street already. You know we the sidewalks and how those curb cuts in the asphalt integrated terrible. And you know this that we're going to have some new pads associated assuming we proceed of course with with enhancing and rebuilding those Parkway border buffers and so you know those are going to need to integrate with that too. So the short answer is absolutely we want to talk to you about what we can do on 9th Street improve it. I feel like you have a 3rd question I'm forgetting something that I miss anything. Thank you.
[Kathleen Desmond]: And I believe you're next up.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_30]: Thank you so much for your time. You said you're local so you're sure that know that Kathy's gets incredibly busy around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Has there been any conversation about using data from Cappy's sales or the state police or the local police, because they always have, you know, people stationed on entrances just to see the influx of cars in that area to help you maybe determine just what kind of traffic commotion a building of that size will cause? Because Cappy's with probably the size of I want to say shopper is equivalent to maybe the resident that will be in that building that will be driving those two things could serve as data in terms of just how many people, how many more cars would be coming in and out and what kind of commotion that cause especially during heavy traffic times. And with that, is there any conversation to try and maybe gather some data next week? Because it is Thanksgiving, which means that this intersection and Cappy's is open and people are gathering again, it's going to be incredibly busy. Maybe that data could serve as, you know, something to determine just what kind of traffic flow or issues building of that size would cause.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sure so a couple and just to make sure I understand the question. Back up a little bit candidly were a little early in the process to hire a traffic consultant you would typically start spending those dollars once you know we feel comfortable enough taking the risks we have to take to proceed. I'm going to make a call. But but I'll tell you that they call it ITE. When we hire these professionals, they don't like to use anecdotal data. So I'm going to make a phone call and see if there's some way we can incorporate that because on our time frame, you know, realistically, we wouldn't be, assuming we proceed, this would be early next year, you know, we've got a lot of boxes to check before the new year to see if we're going to proceed with this. So unfortunately, that would mean when we do those formal studies, which take months, we would be past Thanksgiving. And so what I guess I'm going to ask is, how do they account for that or accommodate that? Because if that's a uniquely impactful time for you guys, and that makes a lot of sense that it would be, those probably similar around Christmas, I'm guessing. Yeah. You know how they how they incorporate that. So the short answer is unfortunately probably not getting real traffic. So what would happen is when we start this would go out into the field and they put down those little rubber ropes you see across the road sometimes they actually do physical counts and they have a have some analysts out there that's working the equipment that's also verifying that it works very well so we you know that process candidly I doubt I could mobilize someone for next week. Even if I was going to take a little extra risk on dollars like that. But I'll find out the answer on how they account for that because if there's a couple of really uniquely tough days of the year. We'll learn how to do it. I will say that we have like I said we have not engaged some of those specialists that will need in order to do the appropriate work for an application. But we hire real studs. We do not screw around with secondary groups. So these are real scientists, and they are really quants. They are calculus-oriented folks. So we're not going to cut any corners there. And I think part of it is the good news is our use is going to create less traffic than other uses that someone could build here today. If you look at the as of right zoning, I don't have the precise numbers in front of me, but someone could come in here with a four-story laboratory building approaching 300,000 feet, and there would be no public hearing process. They would just drop the plans on the building inspector's desk and wait for 30 days to go. So compared to some of the alternative uses here, we're a pretty mild one. I don't know how we relate to what Cappy's does. I suspect it's probably a little more. But yeah, I could tell you that this type of use on this parcel is one of the reducing uses if this were retail or or or employment space lab offices that sort of thing it's those spaces are typically four or five cars per 1000 feet and we're going to be about one car per 1000 feet so i'm not going to say. not going to tell you it's not going to ever be a car here that you're angry at or cut you off or something that that's going to happen probably. But I just from a sheer volume standpoint. Particularly on those holidays will be quite a bit less.
[Kathleen Desmond]: I just in terms of keeping it honest. There would be a public hearing a site plan review and anything of that nature but if you're correct that it's as a right use and and that it would just be review of the site. Also copy although I believe you're next.
[Richard Caraviello]: I think you can and I thank you for the presentation to make it by and if I understood you're right. The first 3 floors are going to be parking and then the next 4 floors are going to be the living spaces correct.
[SPEAKER_08]: The next 5.
[Richard Caraviello]: Next 5 to be living spaces and that will be what 250 units.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I think right now it's 265 it's still in you know obviously we haven't designed this yet it's it's not up that roughly yes, you know, and how many total pockets possible to be. I think we're proposing just over one space per unit. We were looking at some of the other zoning elements in the area, and it seems like the city allows somewhere between 0.85 or more and spaces per unit.
[Richard Caraviello]: So we thought that was- I think our zoning goes from 0.75 to 1.5.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, so we thought a little bit more than that would be appropriate, although we agree this is a transit zone. So about one space per unit is the answer. Micah, how many affordable units will be in here? We're proposing to follow Bedford's inclusionary housing rules and regulations, so I think 15%.
[Richard Caraviello]: And do you have a price range of what you think these units will be going for? I don't.
[SPEAKER_08]: I would just say that, you know, I would just tell you that I can't tell you what it will be because it was years of work. But it would be coincident with what you see in across the street and some of these other newer communities within a mile of us you know we think would would compete pretty well with those.
[Richard Caraviello]: You know so I you know I I hear from commercial people looking to come in to make it. One of the concerns is do we have enough housing to sustain. The potential job growth in the city of method people I want to move in. And the question is, and the answer is at the moment, no, we don't. So I think Kristen made that point. But on the negative side here is you're putting a building on probably the busiest stretch of road, probably the busiest corners in the city of Medford. And some genius from DCI decided it was a good idea to put a cut-through in back of all these units. which was a as a giant mistake of the day I don't I don't know who thought of that but all they're doing is directing the traffic and back of all these all these apartments and condos which is I say I just I can't see where these with the state ever got. But that that was a good idea so I mean in this state that's not your fault. You know on the positive side. you know taking cappies out of the area and the Monroe muffler is going to obviously reducing a great amount of traffic. This is a cat you know cabbies is a 7 day a week. You know 9 to 11 to 11 o'clock in a business and like many people said you know you get to the holiday time in the weekends. You can't get the cappies not not so much about. It is a good part that you you'll be making you'll be taking those kids out of there. You'll stop some of the cut through traffic, but until the state decides to admit they made a mistake on that 9th Street turnoff, I don't know what these neighbors are going to do as far as that goes. I would hope that you would consider mitigation, you know, maybe helping them with, you know, pave the street. I mean, I know that's not in your scope, but as a good gesture in your part. My next question is, you're gonna be blocking some of the view now of some of these other people, which I've heard concerns about. How do we address that?
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't have a great answer for you on the view. It's just sort of a function of when you get a zone with with buildings like this, you know. So, you know, some some folks won't have as good a view, you know, I guess.
[Richard Caraviello]: Well, not and not on your property, but you know, like I said, that is that's a crowded area as it is. And now, you know,
[SPEAKER_08]: It's a fair question. It's a fair question. I mean, I think some people's view candidly, my goal is to build an attractive enough building.
[Richard Caraviello]: The building is fine.
[SPEAKER_08]: My point being looking at the back of Cappy's isn't a great. We're hopefully going to improve some views and ensure we're going to block. I'm sure there's some folks that probably have a view. You know us Southwest and can see like the mystic River reservation and I haven't seen them that yet, but I suspect there are I hope our view is at least with is better than the cappies in Monroe, but you know they'll be some tradeoffs there for sure I don't have a perfect answer for that. Is the is the cup is it do I say they say this correctly curvy all.
[Richard Caraviello]: Yes, it is the cut through the actual 9th Street or is it that service road that comes that we all know it's what they talk about so you coming down Route 16 as soon as you come over the bridge. It's it take it takes the people on the brain. Okay, which is like like what the resident said that it really is a private way and and sales have city have private and I say I I what when they put that in I couldn't I can't believe someone actually got paid to do that that the take of that the stupidity that to take traffic off of Route 16 one of the busiest roads in the area. and follow the behind these that and to this neighborhood. And again it's not your fault and it's not anyone in the fall, that's strictly the fault of the DCR.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, I'll say this, we may not be able to fix all of those problems, but we have, our specialists are pretty darn good. So we may be able to do something that's at least positive. I mean, in Westwood, I've done a lot of work with traffic calming and really subtle things, chicanes and roundabouts. Some people hate all these words and these techniques, but sometimes there are effective ones we can, let's just say, politely, gently discourage cut through traffic. We have tools there and we'll deploy our teams to managing that the best we can and what we're able to do. 9th Street is private, which is good and bad. I think technically this parcel or these parcels would own halfway to the midline. So there's a little bit of private rights management we would need to work with the abutters and make sure everybody's in agreement whatever happens to that road, what everybody wants to happen. So there's a nice democratic process to that. But there could be solutions with that. Candidly, the architect that we used to help create most of these images is on the steering committee for the MassDOT reconstruction of this intersection. So there's a great symmetry there where if we have the ability to leverage some of that and some of the comments we'll get and concerns we'll vet with this, we may be able to maybe not fix it, but positively impact it more than you think. And we would put our teams to work on that.
[Richard Caraviello]: Mike, would there be a consideration of possibly putting some type of shuttle over to the train station during peak work hours, maybe like 7 to 10, 4 to 6, something like that? Or maybe hooking up with Because we've talked about some development going further down the road. We asked them about maybe doing a combined shuttle service to get people over to the train station and back.
[SPEAKER_08]: We would certainly look at it. Candidly, I think if during rush hour shuttle bus left our site to go to Wellington. It's about a six minute walk from our site and I'm not a very fast or fleet of foot gentlemen any longer. So, you know, you can get to that aerial bridge pretty darn quick, not counting for the crosswalk at the intersection there. So but we'll look at it. I wouldn't say no, but I suspect one of the things. I apologize.
[SPEAKER_10]: I just want to butt in for a second. It's not a six minute walk. It's like 15 minutes.
[Richard Caraviello]: And Mike, you're kind of taking it away from your hands, walking across Route 16.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I wouldn't say no to you at this point, Mr. Carmelo. I think we'll have to look at it. If there's a TMA in the area, we've oftentimes been asked to join the TMA and contribute to that. So we'll certainly peer you guys out on that.
[Richard Caraviello]: But as far as the, you know, you say you are building probably on the busiest corner in the city of Medford. So they say, you know, on the positive, you are taking away a decent amount of traffic with cappies and Monroe, especially cappies, which operates 24 hours. And I think the residents will see some, maybe some relief and traffic with this versus what's there now. So, I thank you for your presentation. Thank you.
[Kathleen Desmond]: Kathy, I think you're on mute. I muted myself. Debra Carante, you had a question before.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. I'm just basically piggybacking on other comments here. The major concern, I live here at the Parkway Plaza South condominium, which faces Route 16. It's just so congested here. Trying to get out of Route 9th Street right now is very difficult. If you try to exit onto the parkway, the traffic on Route 16 and Wellington Circle is just really bad. And I'm just afraid with a large complex like this going up, it's, in my opinion, it's just going to cause unbelievable traffic congestion. That was my main concern. Also, I think it was Linda who addressed the rodent issue, which you already spoke about. But I just think that's going to be a disaster waiting to happen with the digging and construction. And then finally, will this new complex, how will this affect the value of our property? I mean, I don't think people are going to want to live in such a crowded, congested area. And like Rick just said, this area is the most congested in Medford. I mean, is this going to decrease the value of our property? Because we all own condos here.
[SPEAKER_08]: Mike, I'm not a real estate appraisal specialist. But I would suspect being behind an automotive use in the back of a liquor store, again, no discredit to Cappy's fine institution. This is a much better neighbor for you guys. So there are studies at MIT. that were done, you know, 15 years ago, I think, and they were very involved, and it was two reams of paper thick, and I unfortunately read it. And they found that mixed-income communities almost unilaterally increased values next door. So I'll just say I'm not an appraiser, but I got to imagine having a nice first-class neighbor like this, as opposed to the uses there, are going to help you, or they're certainly not going to hurt your values. Where you guys are scaring me with the rats getting a little nervous. We're going to look into that pretty hard promise.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Thank you. I believe you had one on yourself.
[Kathleen Desmond]: It's a new unit. Okay, you guys can start. Okay, if at this point, are there any other hands raised? I don't believe we see any. I think at this point, we can probably go through the chat. Many of the questions are the same, but we can run through it.
[SPEAKER_08]: So, Kathy, I might need you to educate me on how to bring the chat up here to go through it. I see them popping up. Okay. We have a tough question on there.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_10]: If you want, we can just ask you the question verbally. Hi, Mike, thanks for the presentation. We are here at Parkway Plaza West. We are another neighbor. So great to meet you. Thank you for organizing this. So we had a couple of quick questions. One, how long do you think a construction like this will take? And I know this is very early, you mentioned, but when do you think potentially it might start?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah. So the construction on a project like this is probably all of 2024 months. I would say the majority of that. The building is already sort of framed and constructed and our guys would be busy inside. So, but yeah, I would say it's a two from groundbreaking and demolition out it would be it would be two years roughly in today's market anyway. And as far as when would it start construction, I wouldn't presume to tell the city how long they'd need to take for their approval processes, but typically a year or more for permitting, and then another good six to nine months for design and engineering. So this is quite a ways out, assuming we're able to proceed.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_10]: Thank you. And what about disturbance to the near buildings? like us, during your construction or, you know, when you finish construction.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sure. We get started, we'll do, we'll do, you know, testing on all the buildings around us and make sure everybody's, you know, structurally sound and intact before we would do anything. And it's certainly any heavy work. But these days, these buildings are all being built by a central crane. And so generally everything kind of is erected from the inside out. And so As far as impacts to buildings around us, that's something we work in a lot of urban zones on very tight sites like this, and oftentimes next to residential uses. So the idea would be we put up a nice tall fence with a scrim that's opaque, and you don't have to see a whole lot of what we're doing behind the scenes. Fortunately, this type of construction isn't a terribly noisy construction process. We certainly would be working with the city and folks like you at public hearings to talk about what are appropriate hours for work and, you know, those sort of things. We're not being a nuisance.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_10]: Thank you. And we definitely appreciate the opportunity to discuss because this has been very helpful. And a final quick one is that, so 260 plus units in five floors, just curious, what's the average unit size?
[SPEAKER_08]: About 920 spitball it's okay. 945 yeah. So we think that the unit mix conceptually here, and this is how we get from those big orange boxes to what it roughly means unit wise. We think the important piece here is programming a range of product. Medford's very diverse on multiple fronts, on income levels, on education, on employment types, on transit styles. And so we think there's a small amount of units that are suitable for studios and junior one beds. Those tend to be our more entry-level renter that are not yet hitched up with a girl or a guy and on their way to maybe on their second stop on their career. And then this is a very strong one-bedroom market. It seems like whether you're single and more advanced in your career or maybe slightly less advanced, you're still in your first or second job professionally, but you have been hitched up and you've got a girlfriend or a boyfriend. and you like those. So then in our recent studies, we think, you know, there's certainly room for two bedrooms and larger unit types, but as we continue to study a little bit less than we thought. So thank you. You know, we got to continue to try to flush out what's the right market mix here to serve Medford.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_10]: Thank you. And I wanted to relay a question from the chair of our board of trustees here. She wanted me to ask,
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I wanted to know, can he say that he would structurally check the buildings before the construction started?
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_10]: Can you hear that?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, we haven't gotten this far down the study, the study process yet. You know, I don't think we need, you know, for example, we're not driving, I don't think we're going to need to drive piles or anything. But typically, if there's any major site disturbance process, if we're digging a hole or putting in sheet piles, or we would do seismic analysis on all of our area butters, there are companies that specialize in this that we bring on board. And particularly when you're close to another building, We're about 12 feet from some neighbors on a project in Waltham we're working on. So, you know, we use seismic monitors and all kinds of great high-tech stuff to make sure that we're not doing anything untoward with our neighbors.
[MCM00001814_SPEAKER_10]: Thank you. And somebody else wanted to confirm this was going to be all units and no zoning for businesses. Retails like Starbucks or, you know, et cetera.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, we have a good question. You know, we were looking across the street at station landing and we thought that might be something to look at adding commercial use on the first floor. But you know, the traffic concerns raised tonight were something candidly we expected. I've personally watched some of the meetings with MassDOT and how they're reprogramming that intersection. And you know, the additional traffic impacts the need for The things that took the additional traffic impacts and timing that retail would bring here, we thought would just be so negative that they might they might negatively present us the whole project. And the other piece that we're struggling with we get asked this a lot. You know whether there's a good spot for retail, I would just say what the retail that would want to be in this zone is more like what's across the street at station landing. And like for example right now, you can't lease a space to Starbucks if it's not a drive through. And there's a lot of retailers, even other coffee shops that are going that way too. And coffee shop kind of felt, or cafe, kind of felt like the right use that would go here. And by the time we accommodated all that, the impacts on traffic, we just decided to remove that part from our concept. So it's worth more discussion, but candidly, I think it'd be worse for the neighborhood and for the site from a traffic and impact standpoint. And the last is if you don't do it perfect and that retail doesn't lease. Even if you know even if you least we decided to market it way below market. A vacant blighted space is just from an urban planning standpoint a real problem it's just brings all kinds of negative outcomes so so I'm glad you asked that we spent a lot of time studying it and talking about it and that's why we landed with with just housing and associated uses.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hi, my name is Jean. I just have another question. You said you're going to provide parking for one car per unit. Now, a lot of units or most units have two cars, so there's no place in the area to park. What would you do about that?
[SPEAKER_08]: The 2 things. One is I'd kindly like to disagree with you. Most of our residents are not to car households even in and our him asset which was much larger units and more sort of older demographic less professional. We did not get to a 2 car per unit average. But even if I'm wrong I'll tell you this I put my money where my mouth is where we've done this and other projects. We're certainly concerned about folks that might park off-site in impact area streets, and particularly 9th Street in this case. And we can have a simple rider and make it illegal for our residents to park off-site and make them contractually obligated to it. And I've done that before. It's an easy thing to do. If it's something that the neighborhood or the city thinks is important, we're fine with restricting it with something hard like that. I don't, I don't think it's gonna, I think one O is, is a little cushy. I think our competitors are, are, are fine to go as low as 0.75 or one car per or 0.85 cars per unit. I think candidly Medford zoning is pretty progressive on that. They can't, they obviously have done some studies because we do a lot of that, that analysis and it can't be a coincidence. They, they know precisely what this customer does. So, uh, uh, I've been pushed to go less parking in cities like Cambridge. I've been pushed to go more in other places. We have a lot of studies on this. We know what we need from a business standpoint. If we don't have enough parking for our customers, they won't lease with us. So the last thing I want to do is unnecessarily limit the parking if it's going to harm our business. But if you don't have to take my word for it, I'll put my money where my mouth is, and we'll restrict it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sorry, I just have one last question. This is Jean. The entrance to the garage and the entrance to the building is on Middlesex Avenue, not on Ninth Street. Is that correct?
[SPEAKER_08]: On this concept, that's right. We had a feeling you guys weren't going to want us putting new cars on the Ninth Street.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. Councilor Caraviello. Thank you, Cathy.
[Richard Caraviello]: I can just have one to 2 things for you on is there any talk about buying that that little corner unit that kind of powerful that just to square that this way up this way our property have to make it look a little more uniform.
[SPEAKER_08]: Councilor how would you advise me to to answer this question.
[Richard Caraviello]: I don't know. I mean, it would obviously, it would obviously enhance your property would make it look a lot better.
[SPEAKER_08]: Because you have the whole thing, you know, I'll say, I'll say this, I married an urban planner, and she's tough. And this has been the subject of some discussion. I don't miss it.
[Richard Caraviello]: I don't want to drop property.
[SPEAKER_08]: The short answer is I've taken a couple shots at it unsuccessfully. No, I was just curious. I would prefer to have it.
[Richard Caraviello]: But OK. And you made the point about the parking. If you go over to Rivers Edge, the Moderna, or the Rivers Edge apartments, Moderna, their parking lot is not full. And neither is the Rivers Edge units with cars. I think the day of the two-car parking is, I mean, the two cars are out. You might have a few people with two cars, but basically the younger crowd, all Ubers around, and some of them don't even own cars anymore. Check with Moderna and check with Rivers Edge, the new apartment buildings over there. They'll tell you that they both have, their parking is, they have plenty of parking there. It's just not enough people own cars anymore. Thank you for that we're going to do that.
[Kathleen Desmond]: And then one last question Mary Harris and then we'll we'll get to the trash the the jet.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I thank you so my question about parking or cars which they're very valid and I do have concerns about that to my questions a little bit different. So I miss the beginning of your of your presentation, Mike, and I didn't hear exactly how many stories you're planning to build. And my question is, what about the shadows that would affect, say, our pool? You know, in the summertime, when we're sitting around trying to get some fun, how would that affect that?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, so the first is we're proposing an eight story or underwriting and analyzing an eight story community here. So pretty similar to the stuff around in the neighborhood on the north and south side of route 16 we didn't feel it was appropriate to go any taller, certainly. And then from a shadow studies, I mean, candidly, we are not quite there yet. It's not an unusual part of a permitting process. I suspect we would be doing that here. So I apologize. I don't know precisely where your pool is, but that's something we can study.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's facing ninth street. So it's right behind Kathy. When I'm not there, I can actually see the rooftop of Kathy.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay. Yeah. I mean, the short answer is it's something we would certainly study and take a look at. And I I apologize I don't have a good precise answer for you that would be part of the permitting process.
[Kathleen Desmond]: As you as you go through. Thank you. Most of what we have in the chat I believe has been answered but let's run through one question that was asked was why rentals instead of condos.
[SPEAKER_08]: A couple good answers there, but the short one is Alliance Residential just doesn't build condominiums. We're a privately held company. So that's one thing that sets us apart from some of our competitors. You know, we are not a investment bank backed type of group. We build a lot of homes every year, some years more than everybody else, but we're effectively four senior partners. We are fully privately owned. And that's something that our guys in Phoenix, where we're based, have fought pretty hard to keep the investors at bay. So there's a downstream liability with condominium construction that is something that they just decided they don't want to do. And so it's just sort of structurally, programmatically, we just don't do it.
[Kathleen Desmond]: I believe we answered the questions and had the discussion discussion concerning 9th Street and also the number of bedrooms, 1, 2, and 3, I think you went through that correct Mike.
[SPEAKER_08]: I think so in concept, you know, again, we were sort of we're still in the still some flux there, which is why we keep saying about on our unit types, but you know, this is a, this is an interesting and changing market. So that mix has been changing, but it's primarily a one and two bed community is what we think. And then there'll certainly be some larger and smaller units as well.
[Kathleen Desmond]: And then there's a question about what about infrastructure. Well our water pressure go down with the new building. You know I can someone answer that that that everything that's done has to go through the engineering department and it's vetted. through engineering to ensure that the infrastructure can take the added building. I don't know if you want to add anything to that.
[SPEAKER_08]: I could add a little bit. I can tell you the answer is almost certainly not. We've tested the water out there already as a part. We test to see if all the utilities we need are available. certainly all the telecom and communications. There's a lot of water and good pressure there. In addition, our building, because it's a high-rise building, probably like yours, would require its own pumps. If this were a five-story building or less, it wouldn't. This building is a pretty robust proposal if we're able to put it forward. I don't think you'd have any impacts like that.
[Kathleen Desmond]: One of the other questions is, will there be union or non-union labor? I know it's kind of early in the project, too.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I'll just say typically it's a big mix. It depends. The truckers and the concrete guys are almost always union elevators and roofs. And then some trades, but we bid competitively on everything. But the very, very short answer is we just don't know yet. We got a lot of work to do before we get there.
[Kathleen Desmond]: question as to will you add any common areas for existing residents, benches, shade trees, any of those things that will be available to existing residents?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah. I mean, I think that's part of the spirit of what we were talking about in the beginning, which is what we think returning some of that asphalt on the west side and on the south side that were originally intended to be a parkway connection to the Mystic reservation into the Fellsway. So certainly, I mean, I think technically, it'll be private property, but you know, it's going to be connected to all the area sidewalks and crosswalks and all that. So the short answer is yes. Along those areas, we think there's a lot of improvement that we can we can contribute there on those spaces.
[Kathleen Desmond]: And I think most of the other check questions were answered with the exception of there was a question about emailing the video of the meeting and certainly my e-mail is on the letter that was sent out and I can try to do that I know that I had some difficulty with the last meeting based on the size. of getting that out to people but it is generally posted on that the Medford website of meetings it will it will be there. If if people want to review it and you can certainly me in the email me and I'll I'll do my best to get you a link to get it get it to you. I think that's it for the chat. And the questions. So something this up would like to thank everybody for coming Mike you want to say. I'll ask a few words.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I'll just say that this is an amazing turnout. And I appreciate you guys all. You brought very advanced questions. You guys are a well-studied group. So thank you for participating. This is something we, you know, I do, I mentioned that I live locally. This is something I'm very passionate about building housing in greater Boston. And so these are all good questions. These are things that we manage on all of our developments. And I think I, I will stand by the prop work I've done in the past. We are skilled as anyone at resolving all these matters so we want to be a good neighbor we build homes, you know this is not a lab building a retail not that there's anything wrong with that we're building a place where we want to make sure people really want to stay and enjoy what you guys are all enjoying around here so. So thank you for thank you for having us and say if this if there were any other questions that we missed maybe get one last shot to check them out there before we
[Kathleen Desmond]: There was a question on construction and where construction vehicles will be parked during construction, and also fire hydrants if that lose any parking spaces on nine street as a result of placement of. fire apparatus, et cetera.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'd say probably not. That is really up to the fire department, but on a building like this, we'd have quite a bit of the hose connections on the building. So, I mean, certainly if the fire chief wants a hydrant would do that, but I don't think if that were the case, it would be, it would impact any parking. And then the first, the earlier question on construction vehicle parking, it's a great question, primarily offsite and is the short answer. You know, when we, excuse me, when we get into the construction phase, we require a full logistic study, manpower studies, and I think on every job we have under construction right now, our contractors are using substantial offsite parking, and then we shut all the folks over. So if the concern is that they're gonna start clogging up 9th Street, the answer is no, we're gonna keep our guys off.
[Kathleen Desmond]: And one question, you know, how will the neighbors know if you're going to proceed, I guess, you know, they'll, they'll be public hearings. If that comes to fruition. You know, I think that's the next step is determining what it is.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I mean, I would just say if we're going to proceed, it probably wouldn't be until after the holidays. And we used the same notification structure for this meeting to notify abutters as we would have had to for any other public hearing or meeting process. So the short answer is I think probably a lot like this. If we're going forward, we'll see something in your inbox.
[Kathleen Desmond]: So we're going to conclude the meeting folks and we'd like to wish you all happy and safe Thanksgiving take care over the holidays and thank you for your attention. Thank you.
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