Holyoke Seeks an On-Ramp to Mass. ‘Climate Corridor’
As MIT-trained scientists pursue clean energy breakthroughs at Cambridge and Somerville incubators, Gateway Cities are seeking to capture a share of Massachusetts’ growing decarbonization economy.
Program Creates a Blank Slate for Artists
Massachusetts is home to thousands of “brownfields” – buildings and land that are blighted and hampered by chemical contamination – with many in Gateway Cities. This year marks the 24th anniversary of the launch of a highly successful investment program that’s redeveloped hundreds of these sites.
Perseverance Pays Off in Fitchburg for Nonprofit Developer
The new Fitchburg Arts Community demonstrates a potential playbook for successful financing of housing through public subsidies in Massachusetts’ Gateway Cities.
Lynn Is Having a Moment
Developers have also found an increasingly receptive audience with city leadership in Gateway Cities just outside Boston at a time when many point to an increasingly high cost of doing business within city limits.
Gateway Cities Win with Governor’s Housing Strategy
With an assist from the Healey-Driscoll administration, Gateway Cities can pave the way for a new future – one where housing helps drive economic success.
House Backs Big HDIP Expansion
The House came around on the idea of expanding a tax credit program designed to encourage much-needed housing production, just not in the legislative vehicle that Gov. Maura Healey and the Senate originally envisioned.
Expanding HDIP Funding Offers Many Worthwhile Benefits
It’s a policy that can help downtowns be busier and healthier, assist cities with revenue and reduce the concentration of poverty by increasing their overall supply of housing.
Driscoll: Housing Projects Could Start Now If Credits Were Available
Supporters of a housing development tax incentive have plenty of ideas to improve how and where it’s applied, but as lawmakers from post-industrial cities prepare to try again to make the program permanent and triple its annual cap, a think tank consultant cautioned them to “speak with one voice.”
HDIP Foes Do Battle with Healey Admin on Beacon Hill
As Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll continue to make their case for expanding the Housing Development Incentive Program, the tax credit faces growing scrutiny over whether it does enough to help the neediest Bay Staters.
Modest Investments Can Jump-Start Housing
If Gov. Maura Healey wants to make the most of landmark zoning reforms and the grand project to transform the MBTA commuter rail system, an infusion of HDIP housing production funds is needed.
Thinking Big on the Blue Line
A recent wave of high-end housing developments in Revere has shifted the conversation to production of affordable and workforce housing, potentially including several large public parcels near transit.
Amid Recent Boom, Gateway Cities Offer Development Potential
Over the course of the past decade, as pricing has increased throughout Greater Boston, developers have turned their attention to Massachusetts’ Gateway Cities and their wealth of developable land as well as redevelopment opportunities. And our increasingly hybrid world has made these sites even more attractive.
Can Gateway Cities Weather a Downturn?
The adage across all commercial real estate during economic cooldowns is a financial flight to quality – high-end buildings in the urban core. That might not be the case this time around.
Three Ideas to Boost Gateway Cities’ Housing Production
Myopically focusing on restrictive suburban zoning distracts from an equally pressing problem – the lack of residential investment in Gateway Cities over the last 10 years thanks to inflexible zoning and uncertainty about availability of state incentives.
Newest Lynn Development Announces Rents, Tours
Downtown Lynn’s newest apartment complex is starting building tours and preleasing ahead of its scheduled completion this summer.
Webinar: Developing in Mass. Gateway Cities in 2022
Banker & Tradesman commercial real estate editor Steve Adams leads a conversation with experts from MassDevelopment, Berkeley Investments and Urban Spaces on real estate development trends in Massachusetts’ 26 Gateway Cities, former mill towns that offer affordable alternatives to Greater Boston’s urban core.
Market-Rate Projects Sprout Around Worcester Ballpark
For-profit multifamily developers that have shied away from Massachusetts’ Gateway Cities because their rents didn’t support the cost of new construction are betting on Worcester’s economic and population growth to push projects across the finish line.
Merrimack River Projects Bank on Haverhill’s Future
In recent years, the city of Haverhill has been steadily rejuvenating its downtown district with mixed-use developments that have added new residences, restaurants and retail shops to the once-gritty riverfront area. And more developments are on the way.
Gateway Cities Are Part of Solution to Mass. Segregation
Urban communities, particularly our Gateway Cities, need a complementary reinvestment strategy to attract middle-class families to their neighborhoods and bring more resources to high-poverty schools. Market-rate developers have a key role to play.
Five Haverhill Redevelopment Proposals Released
Five developers are seeking to develop hundreds of housing units at a city-owned property that’s been viewed as a linchpin of downtown Haverhill’s resurgence.
