Dorchester’s The BEAT—redevelopment of ex-Boston Globe HQ—checks off milestones

The steelwork is done and a snazzy sign is up at the redevelopment of the Boston Globe’s former 16.5-acre headquarters at 135 Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester.

Developer Nordblom Company’s $300 million gut-rehab is due to become a 700,000-square-foot “next Kendall Square” with laboratory and office space as well as room for manufacturing and amenities such as a brewery and beer garden.

The steelwork wrapped last week, and the windows and brick facades are coming in November. And, this week, the development—dubbed The BEAT, as in the Boston Exchange for Accelerated Technology and in homage to the beat reporters of the storied newspaper who worked at the site—got a colorful and highly visible sign on its water tank. It was courtesy of Dorchester-based Best Dressed Signs.

“The recent focus has been on the user experience,” Todd Fremont-Smith, a top executive at Nordblom, said in a statement on the construction progress. “Like any desirable town or city, what draws new companies to relocate or establish a headquarters there begins with the offerings for employees.”

Nordblom Company

Other amenities will include a fitness center, a roof deck, a mini-basketball court (indoors), and a golf simulator. The BEAT is also due to include 865 parking spots and indoor bicycle storage. It’s near I-93 and the JFK/UMass stop of the Red Line.

Construction is supposed to wrap on what Nordblom is now describing as a “genius factory” ahead of a spring 2020 rollout. Stay tuned.