Developing the 'last of the frontiers'
Along Route 9 in Southborough, condos, apartments target young professionals, empty nesters
New units take shape in the partially completed Meeting House Lane development in Southborough.
(Suzanne Kreiter / Globe Staff Photo)Route 9, the sprawl-choked spine of Boston's western suburbs, hits a pocket of fresh air when it reaches Southborough. To the north is the open water of the Sudbury Reservoir. To the south, for much of the road, are trees. Just trees.
"It's kind of the last of the frontiers," said Karen LaChance of ERA Key Realty Services in Framingham.
But far suburbs such as Southborough are increasingly home to the tech workers and other commuters who work in companies that form the huge economic base arranged around Interstate 495. So perhaps it was inevitable this open stretch amid so much other suburban sprawl would catch the eye of developers. Much of the land along the strip is zoned for commercial and industrial uses, but environmental hurdles and state housing laws have made it easier for residential development for the corridor.
But this part of Southborough won't see typical suburban subdivisions; rather, builders are proposing condos and apartments - collectively more than 300 units in three separate developments, to target young professionals who need easy access to Route 9, I-495 or the Mass Turnpike, and "empty nesters," older couples with grown children who want to downsize. Each of the three developments were or would be built under the state's affordable housing law, which will provide a significant number of lower-cost units.
"We're really looking at two markets," said Natick-based developer Robert Heavey, who is seeking permission to build Woodland Meadows, a 40-unit condo complex, off Route 9. "We're looking at the market for smaller units, young couples. We're then looking at the market where the kids are kind of getting out of the house and [their parents] don't want the space anymore. We're jumping over the family market."
With many young professionals working longer hours and waiting to have children, apartments and condos snug against transit routes are likely to become more popular, said Kevin Giblin, a developer with Southborough's Brendon Homes. Giblin has partnered with Avalon Bay Communities to build 200 to 250 rental apartments off Route 9. They have not yet filed for building permits, but the company's vice president for development, Michael Roberts, said they were planning to do so soon.
At the 29-unit Meeting House Lane development, Sherri Gaynor, 60, represents the new face of the neighborhood.
Gaynor's husband is a Boston lawyer who will likely retire in the next few years, though until then he plans to drive to work. The couple's two children left their Framingham Colonial long ago. She and her husband are now preparing to shift to a more relaxed lifestyle, spending winters in their Florida home and the rest of the year in Southborough at a condo with no lawn to mow in the summer.
When they found a three-story townhouse in Meeting House Lane, they were hooked, even though it wasn't easy to leave their old home, she said. "It had a beautiful lawn and it was really a very beautiful house," Gaynor said. "But I didn't need four bedrooms anymore. It seems to be a baby boomer thing. We've had our houses and now we're going into condos."
The market rate for condos in Meeting House Lane are in the $500,000s; A smaller, two-bedroom condo in Meeting House Lane that qualifies as an affordable-housing unit costs around $173,000, said Southborough Town Planner Vera Kolias.
Adjusting has been easy, Gaynor said. While busy Route 9 is nearby, you wouldn't know it looking out her window, she said. "There is a car dealership across the street and there is a pool place down the street," she said. "But from my unit I don't see them."
Of course, apartments and condos already line other sections of Route 9. To the west, Shrewsbury has numerous complexes designed for commuters. But developers like Heavey and Giblin are now more likely to offer special touches to attract people who in the past would have opted for a traditional single-family home.
"These young kids are different buyers," said Giblin. "They're not willing to buy an older home, a fixer-upper. Their generation is too busy and too connected. They'd rather buy a condo with cathedral ceilings wired for plasma TVs."
Heavey said a pool, jogging trails, and a fully equipped fitness center, not just a room with an exercise bike, would draw people who otherwise would buy closer to the city. "We feel we need the amenities to make it attractive," he said. "There's going to be a lot of choices for a while because the market is slow."
Avalon Bay's complex and Woodland Meadows have been proposed under Chapter 40B, the state law that allows developers to bypass local zoning if 20 to 25 percent of the development includes affordable housing.
The Meeting House Lane condominiums had already been approved by the state as a 40B project, in 2004, and is partially complete.
Last year, Trammell Crow Residential of Needham said it wanted to build 240 apartments near Route 9 under the law, but recently rescinded that plan. The firm did not return calls seeking comment.
Market-rate, two-bedroom units in Woodland Meadows will cost around $450,000, for example, while similar-sized condos reserved as affordable housing will be priced at around $144,000, according to Kolias.
Chapter 40B is crucial for housing along Route 9, say developers and realtors, because conditions for commercial and industrial development on the road in Southborough are far from ideal.
Commercial zones along Route 9 are narrow, extending from 250 to 750 feet off the road, said Kolias. Larger industrial-zoned parcels further off Route 9, near I-495, are suitable for big developments. But the lack of a town sewer system makes them more expensive to build because developers have to include septic systems in their projects, Kolias said. What's more, Southborough's water table is especially high, said Department of Public Works Superintendent Karen Galligan, adding even more costs to septic construction.
On either side of Southborough, Framingham and Westborough both offer public sewer systems and have experienced titanic waves of development over the years. Such sprawl has gobbled up open space and congested the transportation routes that made the western suburbs attractive to commuters. As that growth now moves into Southborough, observers said clustered development - in apartments and condos - will become more common.
"This Metro West area is the best location. The quality of life is outstanding," Giblin said. But, he added, "Now that there's not a lot of land left, you've got to be innovative in how you use it."
