BOSTON—Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is now marketing under-utilized or unused properties throughout the Commonwealth for possible sale or lease in order to facilitate new affordable or market-rate housing development or other business-related uses.
The governor's Real Estate Asset Leveraging Strategy was unveiled earlier this week at an open house attended by representatives of businesses and state agencies such as the Executive Office for Administration and Finance, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, the Massachusetts Port Authority, MassDevelopment and the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance. Of the Commonwealth's more than 20,000 properties, approximately 15,000 are held by DCAMM, 4,000 by the MBTA and 1,700 by MassDOT.
“As the Commonwealth's largest property owners, state government has an opportunity to leverage underutilized real estate to build housing and conserve open space, while driving economic growth and stronger communities across Massachusetts,” states Gov. Baker. “We are excited to invite the private sector and community partners to participate in this process and look forward to unleashing their creativity and innovation to better use public land for the good of the Commonwealth.”
Gov. Baker highlighted 42 near-term opportunities for public-private partnerships. Among some of the available properties include: high-value properties in Boston for retail and housing development; parcels in Northampton prime for redevelopment; major development parcels near highways in Plymouth, Carver and Taunton; potential partnerships with the MBTA and MassDOT for fuel sales, ATMs and new service plazas, as well as possible green investment projects. In addition, the Commonwealth promoted a renewed collaboration with its Sale Partnership Communities that are redeveloping closed state hospitals, as well as opportunities to upgrade telecommunications infrastructure.
Among some of the properties available include the MCI Shirley – Anaerobic Digester Facility on Harvard Road in Shirley, MA. According to the Commonwealth's website, the up to 12-acre parcel would be the subject of a lease for the siting of an anaerobic digester renewable energy facility to be developed, constructed and funded through a Power Purchase Agreement. An RFQ for the project is scheduled in December 2015 and the DCAMM plans to select a developer for the project by April of next year.
Another potential major development parcel that will be available next year is the former Medfield State Hospital site in Medfield, MA. The more than 90-acre campus is owned by the Town of Medfield under a sale partnership agreement with the Commonwealth. The parcel includes 64 structures totaling approximately 600,000 square feet of historic building and historic landscape areas. The former psychiatric hospital, which closed in 2003, is listed in the national and state Registers of Historic Places. Currently the town is working on a site master plan and possible new zoning for the property that is currently zoned as business industrial.
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John Jordan
John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.
