It's one of the biggest developments we're watching in 2015, and it's moving rapidly forward: the 169-unit West of Chestnut, the first phase of a much larger project in downtown Quincy. Gate Residential is leading its development. They're the same folks who brought you Somerville's transit-oriented Maxwell's Green and Fort Point's enigmatic Ten Farnsworth. And they have got high hopes for West of Chestnut and for downtown Quincy in general.
Kyle Warwick, a principal at Gate, tells Boston.com columnist Scott Van Voorhis that West of Chestnut is specifically targeting the 35-and-under crowd, trying to draw them out of their clusters in Cambridge, Somerville and Boston. How so? Two ways.
One way: Wait. Rents continue to rise Hub-wide, never mind the number of new apartments popping up. Eventually, the thinking goes, tenants will choose downtown Quincy out of simple financial necessity. Studios at West of Chestnut are going for $1,700 a month; 1-BRs for $2,000; and 2-BRs for $2,500. The second way Gate hopes to draw younger, hipper tenants is with amenities such as a media room as well as a dog-washing station and what's being called a "network cafe."
Now! These approaches might, indeed, work and downtown Quincy might gentrify into some sort of Davis Square branch office. But such an outcome is predicated on the idea of ease. That is, the scenario is only possible because the area is near Boston, Cambridge and Somerville. And it's nearest Boston et al via the Quincy Center T stop (which, coincidentally, is next-door to West of Chestnut). Much of the change, then, that Gate, and the powers that be in Quincy, hope for hinges on the T. And we all know how the T has been running lately. Stay tuned.
· Is Quincy the Next Cambridge and Somerville? [Boston.com]
· The 10 Hub Real Estate Developments to Watch in 2015 [Curbed Boston]
· Somerville's Downward-Facing Doghouse and Hub's Apt. Future [Curbed Boston]
· Tome, Sweet Tome: 10 Farnsworth's Epic Marketing Manuscript [Curbed Boston]
· New Names, New Plans for Quincy's Big Downtown Project [Curbed Boston]
· Where Boston Apartment Rents Are Highest and Lowest [Curbed Boston]
· Where the Young People Are Living in Greater Boston [Curbed Boston]
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