Central Square’s Mass + Main clears last hurdle

285 apartments, two buildings

By Tom Acitelli@tomacitelli Jan 26, 2017, 11:10am EST

Cambridge’s Planning Board has unanimously signed off on a 285-unit apartment development in the city’s Central Square area called Mass+Main.

It is one of the biggest new developments in Cambridge.

The project has been a long time coming—the City Council O.K.’d a zoning change for it in May 2015—and the number of apartments within has risen rather steadily since the spring of 2016.

Mass+Main will consist of two buildings: one 19 stories and fronting on Massachusetts Avenue, the other six stories and fronting on Columbia Street. Of the 285 apartments, 228 will be market-rate.

The three-story Apollo Building at Mass. Ave. and Columbia Street will be incorporated into the development as well. (Developer Twining Properties is also behind a related project nearby, the conversion of a parking garage at 47 Bishop Allen Drive into a four-story, 23-unit apartment building.)

Mass+Main is due to include ground-floor retail, too, and passageways connecting public spaces.

Twining plans to start construction this summer. In the meantime, check out the renderings, including one for the 47 Bishop Allen development.