Process Continues for Westwood Station
This past week, I spoke with a number of people involved in the Westwood Station project. I had heard rumors of difficulty and saw annonymous posts to this site questioning whether the project was in serious jeopardy. There is little new to report as not much has changed:
- Roadwork within the site has stopped because the asphalt companies close down in mid November, so paving will not be done this year, but will resume in the spring.
- Financing of the "going vertical" phase of the project has always been contingent on receiving final approvals from the planning board. The planning board continues to review the amended Master Plan Special Permit. The next meeting of the Planning Board is November 18.
- The Wegmans situation is unchanged as Representative Galvin from Canton continues to refuse to allow the home rule petition to go through during informal session.
- With contructive participation by neighbors, traffic calming plans have been developed for the Canton Everett Forbes area, and just last week, additional fine-tuning designs were approved to solve a specific commercial access problem from Oceana Way.
- The lawsuit filed by Forbes Road residents has been settled privately; no public information is available about the amount of money involved.
- How the economy will affect the project and how significant the
liquor license issue is for Wegmans--and even how significant Wegmans
is as an anchor tenant--will remain matters of speculation.
Many things are going on behind the scenes. And while few have access to all the information, it is clear the people involved in making this project happen are "all in" so to speak. I will have more to update here as I confirm more facts, but as near as I can tell, no one feels the challenges facing this project are insurmountable, and the project is in better shape than most development efforts in the region.
Comments
Westwood Station NStar memorandum?
In the Nov 7, 2008 Dedham Times it says (Westwood Station Construction Halted). Dave if you email me I can send you the article. What it says in a nut shell is CC&F has laid off 25 employees. It says in the article "We were told by one party the lender was Lehman Brothers which is now bankrupt, but do not know if that is true".It goes on further to say "The Common Fund has tried unsuccessfully to secure new financing from banks and/ or institutional investors both here and in Europe. My question is has CCF secured the funding? The other question I have is why am I reading this in the DEDHAM TIMES and not the transcript or Westwood Times......
not accurate
I have spoken to Jay Doherty of CC&F and Chris McKeown, the project manager for the town about this and the NStar letter is not an accurate reflection of problems with Westwood Station. There are articles in the Daily Transcript from yesterday and the Canton Citizen that provide more information about the various challenges confronting the project, but despite the headlines, they are more an indication of the significance of the Canton rep's effort to block Wegmans than an indication the whole project is failing or anything.
The impact of the Wegmans bill seems overstated
As other's have noted in past posts it is hard to believe that the success or failure of Westwood Station is dependent on the liquor license bill. Jay Doherty has stated in numerous newspaper articles that he is more than willing to wait until January when the full MA Legislature reconvenes for a resolution to the issue. In this lousy economy nobody is in a hurry to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and Canton is an easy excuse for delays that probably benefit everyone except the Town of Westwood.
Jay Doherty on WBZ News Yesterday
Here is the link for an interview regarding Legacy Place and Westwood Station.
http://wbztv.com/local/retail.development.projects.2.863809.html
Jay only mentions Target and Wegmans. Who else is coming and when did the project go down to $800M?
kind of like selling a house
I think the stakes are very high, so every bump in the road is huge. It would seem ridiculous that everything could "fall apart" because of one liquor license...I can compare it to when we sold our house and the buyer found a scrap of asbestos in the basement. This led to a lot of panic and anger on our part at how unreasonable we felt the buyer was being and our fear that they would use this to walk away from the deal. But we had some tests done and the problem was resolved. But when you are living in your new home and paying two mortgages and the real estate market is going into the toilet...every disruption feels like the end of the world.
Dave you spoke to Jay but in
Dave you spoke to Jay but in your response you didn't answer the question.
The question was has the funding been secured YES or NO .???
That's what the Dedham Times article was mostly about the inability of CCF to secure the funding.
You say there is alot of things happening behind the scenes. It's to bad as residents that we don't know what's really happening when it comes to Westwood Station.
We will see in the next few months if the Nstar memorandum was correct. I'M not sure why Nstar would release something like that if it was not true, UNLESS they are against the project>????? I don't beleive Nstar would release that kind of information if they did not have their facts. Time will tell.
final approvals from planning board
The answer to the question is "No." The financing can not be completed until the Planning Board issues final approvals for the amended master plan. In the meantime, many factors affect the project. My point is that a memo from Nstar is only a piece of it all.
Time will tell
Maybe this blog will get people talking more about Westwood Station and what the status really is.
I hope for Steve Rafsky and Nancy Hyde that this deck of cards is not crumbling right infront of their faces.
Dave you say "The financing can not be completed until the Planning Board issues final approvals for the amended master plan."
Dave they either have a fish on the hook or they are still fishing for funding.
One quick thing when it comes to Wegmans, who cares what Jay says about waiting till january for a beer and wine license.
You can't have it both ways, one minute the beer and wine license has to delivered the next he can wait, come on. Are you telling me as a resident I'm suppose to beleive what Jay says to us.
I hope that people keep putting their names next to what they have to say.
Dedham Votes In Adult Entertainment District
Dedham voted at town meeting this week to approve 2 adult zoning districts both located next to the Westwood line. While I find this disgusting, it is the same sort of behavior our BOS has shown other towns such as Canton. Westwood wants to build a massive project on the Canton line and let Canton deal with traffic. Now Dedham has given this town a taste of its own medicine. While the BOS publicly addressed their disgust with this action, it should have been handled before the town of Dedham decided to put it on their town warrent. Westwood BOS missed the opportunity to once again deal with a major issue facing our town.
more surprised by lack of awareness
I'm surprised there was not more talk about this issue by anyone in Westwood prior to Dedham's town meeting. True, they did not formally consult with our BOS, but the topic was in the news and being discussed at myDedham.org at the same time as our special town meeting. I hope the issue can be constructively addressed and that the only recourse will NOT be a confrontational lawsuit.
Ultimately, each town needs to have an adult district and it has to be in a place that is not "illusory"--i.e. a location that is impossible to develop. Westwood's Adult Use Overlay District abuts Canton and is close to Norwood. It is the green lined area below:
Hey...isn't that WESTWOOD STATION right there above it? The Dedham location is the back side of 400 Blue Hill Ave. So residents of Westwood Station will be able to choose between walking to a Dedham strip club or a Westwood strip club. So before we start complaining about Dedham, we should think about our own district.
Westwood station
As a resident of one of the nearby neighborhoods to this project, I believe Westwood station was an idiotic idea in the first place. Who the hell wants to build the most massive mall in state history in an area surrounded by NOTHING but residential zoning? This project is going to destroy the quality of life for residents of Westwood, Canton and anyone who drives down Rt 128. Legacy Place is opening up right next door, and its being built on Route 1 which is a great location for a place like that. Westwood Station is just DUMB. I can go on and on about the negative impacts of this project. The economy is in the hole and these guys are trying to build the most massive mixed use development in state history? I can't wait until people are going to complain about all the crime, section 8 housing, and over flooding of our schools, over flooding of the MBTA 128 station, traffic on 128/95, cut-through traffic on our local roads this horrible project is going to bring.
I love every piece of negative news about this project that I'm seeing. I hope it crumbles as bad as the national economy. I hope the quality of life of all Westwood residents and their children goes way down after this project opens, so the people that voted for it can get what they deserve. I'll be long gone from this horrible, boring, tax-ridiculous town by the time this project is finished, so not like I'll care. But I will always hold a special place in my heart for Jay Dohrety and his band of idiots for destroying the place where I grew up.
Allow me to keep complaining
I also remember when Westwood Station was opening up. It was billed as being a place with "High End Apartments FOR SALE only", and "High End Stores".
As time went on this got modified to "Ok now the apartments will be for rent only".
As more time went by this got further modified to "Ok now the apartments will be section 8 affordable housing for rent only"
The High End stores? What a joke.. Since when are TARGET and PET BABYSITTING places considered a High end stores? Get real people.
Patriot Place, Legacy Place, and the South Shore Plaza are more attractive options for people who want to go shopping. Legacy place is close to Route 1 which has everything on it. Westwood Station is close to nothing except private residences and an MBTA station that runs on an already crowded Providence line which can barely hold anymore people than it already does (take it from someone who takes the train to Boston every day).
As far as Wegmans, I hope they stay in New York. I'll continue to support Roche Brothers because I'm not a traitor to a place thats been supporting our community for years and years. Unlike most of the residents of Westwood who had no problem screwing over Roche's and their neighbors who live in the surrounding Canton St. area.
I'm glad you've got a
I'm glad you've got a balanced outlook on things, good luck selling your house and finding nirvana!!
Can't have it both ways
Tax ridiculous town????
Against Westwood station????
Thanks
I'm glad you have a name.
I despise cars, and the way people act when they drive in them. The great thing about where I grew up is that there were very few cars and it was very quiet.
Why should I have a balanced outlook on anything? Trust me, if you lived within a minute of this behemoth of an idiotic project you'd share my opinion.
The great thing is I don't have a house and I don't have to worry about selling it. My parents own the house. I just live in it. I don't have to worry about anything. I can still complain about what they're doing, because its my right to complain and make as big of a stink as possible. I grew up there and they're destroying it. I'm sure you'd be pissed off too. So don't tell me about "balanced" anything, because your view is just as biased in the opposite direction.
Tax Benefits
Hi Chris,
Not all of us in Westwood live in our parents basement. Property tax relief is very important to actual Westwood homeowners; you know, the ones who pay taxes and allowed you a top flight public education in this town.
Did your parents tell you your sitting at the kids table for Thanksgiving again this year? Is that it?
Keep the negativity to yourself...nobody wants to hear it.
Both ways
If you really think Westwood Station is going to reduce taxes for current Westwood residents any time in your life time, think again. How old is your average Westwood taxpayer? 40-60? This project will take 9 years to complete and the tax benefits won't be coming until years after it's completed. So enjoy your 2 years of lower taxes before you die. And don't worry, the amount of Police needed to patrol your beautiful project with its beautiful strip joints will negate any tax benefit that you get.
The Westwood Station Gentleman's Club
Opening a nice gentleman's club in Westwood or Dedham, Im going to have to look into that. My dream of opening such an establishment could actually come true? I want to thank both Westwood and Dedham for giving me more than one choice to where to open THE WESTWOOD STATION GENTLEMANS CLUB, it has a nice ring to it doesn't it.