Cambridge’s Mass + Main can move forward in Central Square

The 283-unit Mass + Main in Cambridge’s Central Square, one of the city’s biggest new developments, can now move forward after the Massasoit Elks Lodge dropped its challenge to the project.

Recall that the lodge at 55 Bishop Allen Drive had in February sued the city over the apartment-and-retail project’s potential impact on neighbors such as itself.

The suit came a month after the city’s Planning Board OK’d Mass + Main, which is due to include two buildings, one of them 195 feet tall. Twenty percent of its units have been designated as affordable.

How did developer Twining Properties, which has been trying to build Mass + Main for four years, get the Elks’ support? By promising to pay for improvements to their lodge, per Cambridge Day’s Marc Levy.

Twining now expects to open the project by the fall of 2019.

• Mass+Main development can go forward; settlement with Elks Lodge ends challenge [Day]
• Mass + Main lawsuit halts work on major Cambridge project [Curbed Boston]
• Central Square’s Mass + Main clears last hurdle [Curbed Boston]
• The 5 Cambridge Developments Everyone Should Be Watching [Curbed Boston]