Air base developers vow to stay aloft
Despite stagnant housing market, they see bright future
WEYMOUTH - Sometime late next year, the first residents are expected to move into the brick town houses and contemporary Colonial homes built on what was once an airstrip for Navy A-4 Skyhawks flying training missions for the Vietnam War.
These newcomers are supposed to be pioneers in one of the biggest residential developments in Massachusetts, the transformation of the 1,400-acre South Weymouth Naval Air Station into SouthField, a trendy "urban village." By 2017, developers envision 7,200 people living in 2,855 houses and shopping in a village center of clothing stores, a food market, and a movie theater. More will play at an 18-hole golf course and work in a 1.3 million-square-foot business center.
At least that's what it looks like in the brochures with the pastel watercolor renderings of the good life, courtesy of
After more than a decade of delays, the development is finally off the drawing board. But its long-awaited launch could hardly come at a worse time. As housing sales plummet across the country, no one knows whether this grand enterprise will turn into the next hot spot for young families or something closer to a desolate outpost in the woods.
"You know the old saying, if you build it, they will come," said Robert W. Terravecchia Jr., the president of Weymouth Bank who served for two years on a commission overseeing the project. "Well, what if you build it and no one comes?"
It is a fair question. In Weymouth, a blue-collar bedroom community l2 miles south of Boston, home sales fell 10 percent between 2006 and 2007.
Developers everywhere have struggled. In Concord, the developer of a luxury condominium complex completed last year auctioned off 25 of the 58 units after they failed to sell. In Braintree, the developer of another luxury condo complex completed last year auctioned off 10 units after just 12 of the first 24 sold, with the rest of the 304-unit complex still on the drawing board.
"The biggest impediment to this thing actually doing well is the economy: Can this particular region on the South Shore absorb that many homes over the next 10, 20 years?" Terravecchia said. "It's really not the best time in the world to be trying to sell brand-new construction."
Just as there are those who worry about the project failing, others worry about it succeeding. Despite its proximity to the South Weymouth commuter rail station and the widening of nearby Route 18 from two to four lanes to ease traffic, the development could significantly clog local roads. LNR has estimated that the village will generate 20,000 vehicle trips a day off the property; the Massachusetts Highway Department has put the figure closer to 36,000.
The ultimate impact of the increase will depend, in part, on how many residents in the development take the commuter rail to work and how many drive. Local officials are split between those who say the traffic will be manageable and those who predict nightmarish rush-hour jams.
"Route 18 is terrible to go down now, and people in Weymouth purposely will circumvent the entire town to stay away from Route 18," said Councilor Kevin J. DiFazio of Weymouth, who voted against the project in 2005. "Afterward, it's going to be worse. There's going to be a city with the population of the town of Cohasset that's going to be implanted between Route 18 and Rockland. It's not going to be good."
Kevin R. Chase, vice president of LNR's Northeast region, said the project will thrive because it is unlike any other development in New England and will help the South Shore grow economically. Inspired by a school of planning known as new urbanism, it will pack residents into a relatively tight space, giving them the feel of a city neighborhood, while leaving 72 percent of the former base open space for play and relaxation.
Unlike those who bought houses in postwar developments and had to drive everywhere, those who live in the former base will be able to walk to the village center and to the commuter rail station for a roughly 20-minute ride to South Station in Boston. A similar planned community in Stapleton, Colo., which opened in 2002, and one in Celebration, Fla., which opened in 1996, have been hailed as environmental and financial successes. "The idea is you're not just buying your house and garden, but also your surroundings, and that is a change," said Witold Rybczynski, professor of urban planning at the University of Pennsylvania.
These days, the former base is a vast expanse of dirt, dilapidated hangars, and barracks, ringed by trees and dotted with backhoes and bulldozers. Several of its roads have been paved and lined with streetlights. The surrounding wetlands are largely free of the jet fuel and garbage that were dumped there when it was an active base. Still, about 20 potentially toxic sites remain, including a former dump that sits about 1,000 feet from where the first houses will be built this fall. Under a plan approved by federal regulators, those spots must be cleaned by 2012 at the latest and fenced in before that to keep residents away.
As Chase cruised along the streets earlier this month, waving at construction workers from his sport utility vehicle, he marveled at the building of what he called "your one-stop, live-work-play experience." Even before the start of a planned advertising campaign, he said, 400 prospective buyers have submitted their names and financial information through the development's website, surpassing expectations. The website, he said, receives 4,500 hits a month.
"We have our foot on the gas right now, and the feedback we're getting back from the market now is we should not let up," Chase said.
But just getting shovels in the ground has not been easy. In 1997 the federal government closed the base, 67 years after it opened as a home to blimps that patrolled the Atlantic. Local officials immediately began debating the future of such a prized piece of land so close to Boston. Officials initially planned to build a 2 million-square-foot megamall on the site, then scrapped the idea because it would not generate enough revenue and jobs.
In 2004, LNR floated plans to build the village and said its commercial space would generate 3,500 jobs. The company also sweetened the deal by offering to divide $22 million between Weymouth, where most of the former base lies, and Rockland and Abington, which share the rest of the site. In 2004 and 2005, the towns formally approved the plan.
"It's an economic stimulus for the region, but definitely for Weymouth it's going to be a plus," said Michael Smart, president of the Weymouth Town Council.
An LNR marketing study identifies the development's biggest target audience as "upwardly mobile young adults migrating out of Boston, as well as Gen-Xers from neighboring communities." But it's clearly not limiting itself to yuppies. The study also features photos of a family picnicking and a gray-haired couple drinking coffee in a cafe.
Houses will be sold at prices that Chase said are equal to or less than current market rates; 10 percent will be offered at more affordable rates under state guidelines. They will include 3,000-square-foot "golf homes" near the links that will retail for about $825,000, 2,500-square-foot "garden courts" with yards that will sell for about $687,000, and 1,000-square-foot condos that will sell for about $275,000.
Former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette and former Olympic soccer star Kristine Lilly are developing a $22 million sports complex on the former base, which will include two hockey rinks, outdoor basketball courts, a 2,500-seat stadium, a skateboard park, and weight-lifting and physical therapy facilities. And several Hollywood executives want to build a movie studio on the site if they can win a tax break from the Legislature.
The details throughout - including stone walls, and a tree-lined parkway modeled after Back Bay's Commonwealth Avenue - are designed to evoke "traditional Massachusetts towns," according to LNR's marketing materials.
Plans are for the 2,855 houses to be built in phases over 10 years, which Chase said will ensure that hundreds are not empty at a time, a sight sure to scare prospective buyers. About two-thirds of the first 500 units will be rented, he said, because the rental market is currently stronger than the for-sale market.
Even if the units are not occupied, LNR will build the entire village. Indeed, it must to recoup its $1 billion investment, Chase said. The estimated 400 to 700 children in the complex will attend Weymouth schools. Local officials are considering temporary classrooms; if the children overwhelm those, LNR will build a new school on site.
As he toured the base earlier this month, Chase showed off a new welcome center, where prospective buyers can check out glossy panels that show men walking through the development with golf bags slung over their shoulders, children kicking a soccer ball, and a woman relaxing in a hammock. The building opened to the public Saturday, the first key test of its ability to lure customers in the throes of a housing slump.
"They are going forward, and what they have done is very good," said John W. Rogers, a former superintendent of schools in Rockland and part-time realtor who served on the commission with Terravecchia. "The question is, are they going to sell? I don't know."
Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.
