The high-tech park was to be built on underutilized land that was in Everett, Malden and Medford and was envisioned as a center for research and development for the telecommunications industry. But when the project was envisioned back in 1995, the telecom industry was booming. The market has radically changed since and the project has been stalled as the developers, Preotle, Lane & Associates, wait for tenants.

Deborah Burke, a spokesperson for the Mystic Valley Development Commission, which was created to oversee the park's development, tells GlobeSt.com that the project's name was changed at the behest of Gov. Mitt Romney's administration. "Telecom City had negative connotations because of the market change," she says.

Burke explains that the state's representative on the commission, Jim Troast, also recommended that a residential component be added to the project. The current phase one of the project involves four commercial buildings of 110,000 sf each. Burke points out that the residential component would involve an additional two buildings of 100 units each. She notes that each of the three cities involved in the project has the required 10% of its housing affordable so it is still unclear if the units will cater to the affordable housing market.