in the Press

Harvard has announced that Artisan’s Asylum, a local nonprofit arts collaborative, will begin moving its facilities to Allston-Brighton later this year.

The move sets the stage for a significant long-term partnership between the University and Artisan’s, a nonprofit organization founded in 2010. It will allow Artisan’s, which is currently located in Somerville, to expand its new space and continue to grow its operations.

Plans call for transforming a warehouse at 55 Antwerp St. into a vibrant community center. Another project is planned at 176 Lincoln St., now under development by Berkeley Investments; that project is currently under community review.

“Harvard is thrilled to welcome the Artisan’s Asylum, and its cutting-edge, innovative maker space to the neighborhood. Their plans for the Allston space represent an exciting opportunity to strengthen the region’s creative economy and support community-wide creativity and collaboration,” said Harvard Executive Vice President Katie Lapp. “Artisan’s is a vital community resource that complements and widens our shared goals of nurturing creativity, collaboration, and economic impact.”

“We are delighted to begin our move to Allston-Brighton, and excited to make our new home in a neighborhood that is teeming with artistic innovation, ingenuity, and collaboration,” said Lars Hasselblad Torres, executive director of Artisan’s Asylum.

“All of us are grateful for the ongoing support from Harvard, and we look forward to our continued partnership in the months and years to come,” said Steve Derezinski, the group’s chair. “This is an exciting, transformative time for the organization.”

“An inclusive refuge for teaching, learning, and practice of fabrication,” Artisan’s maintains affordable studios and workspaces for craftspeople in a variety of specialties, including jewelry, 3D printing, woodworking, and robotics. It has more than 160 studios, 15 shops, and access to hundreds of tools, and has developed a range of educational programming for learners of all ages, including classes, featured speakers and special events.

Since its inception, Artisan’s Asylum has placed a heavy emphasis on local entrepreneurship, and has contributed more than $70 million in economic development impact. It leads the nation in development of innovative spaces and programs that support creative expression and entrepreneurship. By exchanging ideas and sharing skills, it has fostered startups such as

Atlas Devices, GeoOrbital, 3D Doodler, Unruly Studios, RailState, and Cantux Research, among many others. Over the years its investments have helped create more than 100 jobs and helped contribute to the livelihood of hundreds of independent creatives.

“We are excited to welcome Artisan’s Asylum to Boston and grateful to Harvard for this innovative partnership. We are looking forward to expanding on the work we did together [in 2020] on employment for returning citizens, and look forward to the additional partnerships that will be fostered as a result of this exciting new resource in Allston,” said Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.

Last summer, Harvard welcomed a satellite of Artisan’s to Allston, where its members and volunteers ramped up efforts to create personal protective equipment (PPE) gowns to be used in nonsurgical settings among a variety of users, including dentists, hospitals, and even child-care centers. In doing so, it worked with the Harvard Ed Portal, as well as the cities of Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville, and was able to hire and train new immigrants and formerly incarcerated workers.

Artisan’s plans to expand its programming and benefits in response to local community input. It also plans to work extensively with the community and Berkeley Investments on the intersection of innovation and arts in Allston-Brighton.

“Harvard is committed to ensuring that the arts remain central to the University’s campus in Allston,” said Marika Reuling, managing director of Harvard’s Allston Initiatives team. “One of the University’s top priorities remains continuing to engage in efforts to support the region’s robust artist community and to [continue] to bring a diverse mix of uses in the neighborhood. Through its ongoing support of local artists through programs such as the Allston-Brighton Winter Market, the Western Avenue Arts Walk, and Zone 3’s Pop-Up! Artist Shop, and more recently announced Window Shopping experience, the University is working steadfastly to ensure that the arts continue to thrive throughout the region.”

Read the full news story here.

Harvard University’s latest development plans in Allston arrive at the perfect time for makerspace
Artisan’s Asylum, as it faces an expiring lease for its Somerville home.

The university is leasing a combined 52,000 square feet at a pair of its Allston properties to the group
and reserving additional ground-floor space at Berkeley Investments’ proposed 176 Lincoln St.
development. With more room to operate at a pair of Harvard-owned buildings on Antwerp and Holton
streets, Artisan’s Asylum plans to expand its shared work and makerspaces and add new teaching
space and meeting areas, Executive Director Lars Hasselblad Torres said. The relocation is scheduled
to begin late this year.

A third location is proposed as part of the 176 Lincoln St. project, in which Boston-based Berkeley
Investments proposes 548,000 square feet of office and lab space and 314 apartments at a longdormant
development site that’s ground-leased from Harvard University. Artisan’s Asylum will occupy
approximately 10,000 square feet of ground-floor space, said Morgan Pierson, director of development
for Berkeley Investments.

While many office landlords have recently focused on attracting unique ground-floor tenants, the life
science development boom is just starting to embrace the strategy, he said.

“One of the things we’ve been talking about internally is watching how much office space has evolved to
have a much higher level of amenities, and life science has been left out,” Pierson said. “The old thinking
is the people who are in lab coats all day are not having the same needs, and that’s not correct.”

Low-cost studio space for artisans is disappearing in the urban core as industrial properties continue to
be acquired by developers of multifamily housing and distribution space. Artisan’s Asylum faced few
attractive options to replace its 42,000-square-foot Somerville location, but Harvard offered “highly
realistic terms,” Torres said in an email.

Berkeley Investments toured Artisan’s Asylum’s Somerville property two years ago and immediately
considered the group to be a desirable future tenant, Pierson said. Founded in 2010, the nonprofit
currently has 160 artist members who rent studios and have shared access to equipment including 3D
printing, woodworking and screen printing.

Artisan’s Asylum required a large and flexible space to accommodate its diverse mix of artisans and
makers, ranging from graphic artists to welders, making the former warehouse at 55 Antwerp St. a good
fit for the first phase of a mini-campus in Allston, Pierson said.

“Our team always wanted to include arts of all kinds within the project and make it more dynamic, so it
felt like a tremendous fit,” he said.

Editor’s note: This report has been updated to clarify that Berkeley Investments ground-leases the 176
Lincoln St. property from Harvard University.

Read the full news story here.

The site of a long-empty warehouse along the Massachusetts Turnpike could soon be a new “center of gravity” for a part of Allston-Brighton that’s exploding with new development.

Berkeley Investments on Friday filed detailed plans with the city for a three-building campus of life science office space, housing, and parks on the site of an enormous warehouse that has sat empty on Lincoln Street since it was built two decades ago.

Berkeley says the project — encompassing just over 800,000 square feet — would transform a long-forlorn pocket of the neighborhood, and serve as a connection between the Boston Landing complex across the Pike and the rapidly developing Western Avenue corridor to the north.

“This project can really be a center of gravity connecting all of Allston’s Harvard-driven development and everything going on around Boston Landing and then Longwood Medical Area,” said Berkeley president Young Park.

The warehousehas mostly been vacant since it was built as the Boston Tech Center, during the late 1990′s tech bubble. It was intended for a telecom company that went bust before it was finished. Harvard University purchased the building as part of its expansion into Allston in 2006, but has done little there since a land swap with the Boston Skating Club fell through. The university sought partners to redevelop it, and last year announced a long-term lease with Berkeley, a veteran Boston developer whose projects include much of Channel Center in Fort Point, the Waltham Watch Factory, and a new mixed-use development in Malden Center.

On Lincoln Street, Park says, it sees a big opportunity for life science companies looking to locate relatively near to both Harvard’s Allston campus and Longwood Medical Area. Several life science companies have already moved to Boston Landing, and nearby parts of Watertown and the Fenway, seeking more space and lower rents than they can find in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. And although the COVID-19 pandemic has dampened apartment rents and crunched demand for urban office space, the market for life science real estate remains strong.

“We really feel Allston will gradually take on a much bigger role in the region’s life science industry,” Park said.

In all, Berkeley’s project would include 548,000 square feet of lab or office space in two buildings, a third building with 314 residential units, and 20,000 square feet of ground-level retail. About two acres of the 5.2-acre site will be open space, and Berkeley is hoping to create an artsy vibe with “maker” space and 10 live/work units geared toward artists. The project will be designed to open up the site — which today is a large blocky warehouse — with through streets and open space, and planners, in a nod to pandemic outdoor dining, are aiming to provide generous outdoor seating and space for restaurants and retail.

Friday’s filing launches formal review at the Boston Planning & Development Agency, which Berkeley expects could take a year at least. Construction could take three years after that.

Many in the neighborhood have long wanted to see something happen at the old warehouse. Now they’ll be able to debate the details.

One point of contention could be traffic. The project would include 946 underground parking spaces, in an area not easily accessible from major highways. Park said those spaces are needed to serve both the office and residential buildings, but added that Berkeley will improve bike and pedestrian connections, and links to both to the nearby Boston Landing Commuter Rail stop and the Western Avenue bus lanes connecting into Harvard Square. Longer term, he sees the proposed realignment of the Massachusetts Turnpike, and eventual West Station transit hub, as a boon that will open up the the entire area.

There’s a lot going on in Allston-Brighton these days, he said. And this site, long unused, is right in the middle of it.
“It’s truly exciting when you take a step back and look at a map,” he said. “We’re in a pretty good place.”

Tim Logan can be reached at timothy.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan.

Read the full news story here.

The developer Berkeley Investments on Tuesday filed plans with the city to turn a long-empty warehouse on Lincoln Street in Brighton into a three-building campus of apartments, offices, and laboratory space. The five-acre site, overlooking the Massachusetts Turnpike, has been largely vacant since it was built in the early 2000s to house a telecom company that went bust before it even opened, but it sits in a corridor of Allston-Brighton that is now booming with development.

Since 2006, the building has been owned by Harvard University, which last year reached a deal with Berkeley, a veteran Boston-area builder, to partner on a project there. Financial terms have not been made public. But in an initial filing with the Boston Planning & Development Agency on Tuesday, Berkeley took the wraps off what it has planned.

The developer would knock down the giant warehouse and replace it with three buildings. Two would be commercial — a mix of office and lab space — with about 548,000 square feet in all. The third would be for 314 housing units. There would be 20,000 square feet of retail space, below-ground parking, and about one acre of publicly accessible open space.

The idea, said Berkeley’s president, Young Park, is to create an “innovation village” that would help connect the fast-growing Boston Landing complex just south of the Pike with the rapidly developing corridor along Western Avenue, which like the innovation village’s site is north of the highway.

“Boston is at its best when people with different talents, interests and ideas come together,” Park said in a statement. “With life sciences as its anchor, 176 Lincoln is envisioned as an ecosystem of different uses that is more than the sum of its parts — home to potential medical breakthroughs alongside creative works, all with a community feel that is welcoming to everyone.”

Tuesday’s filing is preliminary. More details are likely in a few weeks, followed by rounds of public meetings and community reviews.
Neighborhood groups in Allston-Brighton have in recent years pushed for more homeownership opportunities in the largely rental neighborhoods, as well as more affordable housing and transportation improvements. It wasn’t immediately clear if Berkeley envisions apartments or condos, or how much of the housing might be set aside at below-market prices.

Still, the project looks like it would bring a variety of long-needed improvements to the area, from pedestrian enhancements to open space, said Anthony D’Isadoro, president of the Allston Civic Association.

“This seems like it’s a very well thought out design,” said D’Isadoro, who Berkeley briefed on the project ahead of filing. “I think when people see it, they’ll be pleasantly relieved.”

It’s also one of the first large development proposals to be filed with BPDA since the coronavirus pandemic struck. The development agency has mostly been closed to new projects since March and has held just a handful of virtual public meetings to discuss projects on its docket.

But it appears the city’s development process is starting to rumble back to life. Another developer, Related Beal, filed plans Monday to convert the soon-to-close campus of Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology on Berkeley Street in the South End into senior housing and office space. That, too, will start moving through community review in the coming months.

Tim Logan can be reached at timothy.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan.

Read the full news story here.

It’s the latest step in Harvard’s foray into commercial real estate development. The university last week held a meeting with myriad members of Boston’s real-estate development community regarding the future Enterprise Research Campus, a 14-acre parcel on Western Avenue that’s approved for 900,000 square feet of new property.

It’s unclear what Berkeley’s plans are for the Boston Tech Center — whether the Boston-based real estate company intends to raze the property and build something new, or repurpose the property in some way. The company has completed a broad array of projects in the region, from loft apartments in Boston’s Seaport and Somerville, to commercial projects in Waltham and downtown Boston, and retail/restaurant projects, including Row 34 and Flour Bakery in Boston’s Fort Point Channel.

Young Park, president of Berkeley Investments, said in a statement that the company would likely file a letter of intent later this summer to kick off the city’s development review process.

“We at Berkeley are tremendously excited about the opportunity to transform and revitalize a site which had stood vacant for so many years,” Park said in an email to the Business Journal. “We look forward to working cooperatively with local residents and neighborhood associations, the BPDA and State representatives on realizing our vision for this important mixed-use development.”

Boston-based real-estate development firm Cabot, Cabot & Forbes originally developed the 176 Lincoln St. for internet company Globix Corp., which went bankrupt in the dot-com bust of the early 2000s and was later acquired by RCN Corp. Globix had leased the full facility prior to filing bankruptcy and never occupied the building.

Cabot then repurposed the project for biotech use, but failed to land a tenant. Rumors flew about the property, including that Target Corp. had made an offer, and that Eastern Real Estate reportedly discussed using the site for parking, storage and administrative space for Boston Children’s Hospital.

The Boston Skating Club five years ago proposed a $50 million facility at the 176 Lincoln St. site, but residents balked, and the project never got off the ground. (The club recently broke ground on a $37 million facility in Norwood.) As the Boston Tech Center stayed vacant, development exploded across the area. Indeed, just across the Pike from the Boston Tech Center, New Balance’s 15-acre Boston Landing mixed-use campus has seen great success. The campus now hosts practice facilities for the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins, the world headquarters of New Balance Athletics, apartments, retail and more.

Developers have also flocked to the area surrounding the new Boston Landing MBTA Commuter Rail station as well, proposing a number of housing projects. And New England Development also plans a nearly 2 million-square-foot mixed-use project at the Stop & Shop site immediately adjacent to Boston Landing.

The 5.2-acre parcel at 176 Lincoln St. has an assessed value of $21.4 million, according to city data. Harvard acquired the property in 2006 for $16 million from Cabot, Cabot & Forbes.

Tamara Small, CEO of real estate development group NAIOP Massachusetts, said the Boston Tech Center was always plagued with issues of bad timing. But now, she said, “it’s all coming together at the right time.”

Read the full news story here.