A rendering from Volnay Capital illustrates a new hotel near the Commercial Triangle on Spring Street. (Courtesy of Volnay Capital)
3K new housing units being built marks change
By JOSH RESNEK
A provocative feature in last weekend’s Boston Sunday Globe suggests Everett is quite possibly the next Somerville with the coming of the Silver Line to the city.
With thousands of new units being built here, and the Silver Line close to becoming a reality, the thought among some developers and analysts who follow real estate development is that Everett stands on the doorstep of a new day.
Overflow from the core of Boston is considered one of the key elements in Everett’s real estate revival.
That is, as Boston housing prices rise dramatically, renters and buyers look to surrounding cities and towns for a place to live.
Soaring costs for apartments and properties in Charlestown, Cambridge, and even Somerville, have caused developers and renters, and home buyers to flock to Chelsea and Everett.
Everett’s housing costs have jumped dramatically without a rapid transit connection in recent years.
For the matrix to work for increased development interest here, public transportation is the key – and this is especially true for cities like Everett.
If you build transit, real estate developers will come,” writes Cameron Sperance about Everett’s future in the Sunday Globe.
The piece was titled, “The Silver Lining.”
Noteworthy about all the real estate growth in Everett is that it comes at a time when industry and business other than what is already here has not much interest in coming here. Besides, there isn’t enough land to go around for such industrial-type expansion at this time.
“You don’t have major employers going in, but you’ll have plenty of residents going in,” said Tucker White of the real estate firm Hunneman in the Globe piece.
This has especially been true in Everett.
The recent proposal to build a 21 story apartment building on Spring Street was cited in the article as an indication of where things can go for Everett in the short-term future.
City officials said Everett can remain a place for people with a variety of incomes to live without being displaced by rising costs for housing.
For all the new housing initiatives to succeed, for the developments to be vital, there needs to be more to offer than just a place to live.
Everett does not have a robust condo marketplace like Somerville which has thousands of condos and a rich and expanding condo market.
An added complexity for Everett is that many longtime residents question the value of adding thousands of residents and huge projects to the city’s residential housing base.
Longtime residents complain about parking and noise, overcrowding, and traffic.
These are all believed to be issues in the upcoming mayoral election.
Where Everett is headed the way city hall looks at it as opposed to the way Everett residents living here perceive it is expected to be a major issue.
The issue isn’t whether or not Everett should expand and grow.
Rather, the question is should the expansion and growth be controlled or be allowed to go on without constraint?