It paid to stick around to the end of the June 2 Wellesley Planning Board meeting, when Planning Director Eric Arbeene revealed two interesting pieces of news regarding possible future housing development.
First, real estate investment firm Jumbo Capital met with Arbeene and other town staff regarding the possibility of turning the 888 Worcester St. property into an independent and assisted living facility.
That not-exactly-historic site served as a temporary Wellesley Town Hall during renovation work on the “real” Town Hall at 525 Washington St., in 2023-2024. The 888 building remains home to the town’s land use offices, and now also temporary offices for Wellesley’s Health and Recreation Departments as work is done on the Warren Building.
Arbeene said Jumbo would be reaching out to neighbors, and expects to hear from them in the future at a Planning Board meeting if things develop.
We’ve reached out to Jumbo for further comment and will update this post if we hear back.
Property owner Haynes Management refers to 888 and 892 Worcester St. as “Wayne Office Park” on its website. Arbeene estimated during the recent Planning Board meeting that the 888 property boasts about 6 acres of space.
Possible development on MassBay property
Separately, Arbeene relayed information from a meeting between town staff and the Commonwealth’s Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM), which is responsible for capital planning, public building construction, facilities management, and real estate services. The topic of the conversation: state-owned land near MassBay Community College on Oakland Street that could be developed for housing.
We hope any future tenants are pickleball enthusiasts given the new temporary courts in the parking lot across from MassBay (we jest, those have been set up as part of a pilot program that from what we hear give people a chance to both play pickleball and get in some running as they case balls across the lot).
“I don’t have any details in terms of how many units or what kind of housing or anything like that,” Arbeene said, adding that neighbors may be notified by DCAMM. “They’re in an information gathering stage. They let us know that they are doing some exploration at the moment.”
The Governor’s Office on Monday announced that some 450 acres of surplus state-owned land could be used for development of 3,500 housing units across the state, and that another 17 sites could be made available over the next year for housing development. The Wellesley property was not cited in the announcement.
“The parcel you reference is not currently included in the inventory, however DCAMM expects to continue adding parcels as they are identified and determined viable for housing development. DCAMM is in discussion with Mass Bay and local officials about potential opportunities for housing development and how the proceeds of a potential disposition could be reinvested into the college to the benefit of both the school and community at-large,” according to a DCAMM spokesperson.
Word about these two possible housing developments came as Select Board and Planning Board readied to discuss on Tuesday, June 3, a draft of the Strategic Housing Plan commissioned to a consulting firm.
Update (from June 5 Wellesley Housing Development Corp. meeting, see 56 minutes in to Wellesley Media recording): Town Executive Director Meghan Jop said under the Affordable Homes Act that the state can build as of right four units per acre on their land. “I have no sense of what density they’d be proposing—it’s a pretty big area,” Jop said. “The intention of that is that any funds through the sale of the land goes to MassBay,” which has plans for an athletic center and cybersecurity center.
Jop said it would be in the town’s best interests to negotiate on the scope of any such project ahead of the state putting out a request for proposals given that there are no affordability or open space requirements under the housing law. The town would also angle for a development agreement with whatever entity were to do any building there, she said. It could be in the state’s interest to negotiate to secure higher density, possibly in exchange for concessions on the affordability and open space fronts. While the town has not been made aware of any timeline on development of the area, the state has assigned a project manager, so it’s looking real.
If you live or work in one of these neighborhoods and learn more, feel free to keep us in the loop: theswellesleyreport@gmail.com
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If the MassBay project comes together, it would turn the phrase “they paved over paradise and put up a parking lot” on its head. With apologies to pickleball enthusiasts, the status quo is a massive, ugly, and underutilized expanse of asphalt. Developing it is an opportunity to improve access to Centennial Park and permanently preserve the forested land on the site. Total no brainer.
Also, those seniors at 888 Worcester Street are going to have fantastic access to the sports facility next door. The marketing pitch to “active adults” writes itself.
Access to the recreation center is very limited and the facility has not been at all friendly or accommodating to town taxpayers as was promised in the presentations made prior to approval of the property development. Wellesley officials serve the local community well by working with the recreation center to open it up to seniors and others and limit the commercialism that benefits other towns and states and not wellesley.
The parking lot at 888 & 892 has been opened up to the recreational center on weekend and is flooding with out of state sports teams.