The Boston Planning and Development Agency signed off in early February on plans for two office buildings at the site of the shuttered Suffolk Downs racetrack on the Boston-Revere line.
It was the second key approval the site had received recently, with the state expediting an environmental green light for redevelopment there.
Why the thumbs-up? Because if one site in the Boston area is going to host Amazon’s second headquarters, it’s the 161-acre East Boston parcel. The area was among the 20 finalists for that second HQ that Amazon named shortly after the start of 2018.
Come what may, Suffolk Downs developer HYM Investment Group plans to build big, big, big at the juicily located site, near as it is to two Blue Line stops and Logan Airport. With or without Amazon, HYM plans on 16.5 million square feet of new residential, retail, office, hotel, and lab space built out over as long as two decades.
Eleven million square feet of that would go in Boston and 5.5 million in Revere.