Greystar, the nation’s largest multi-family housing operator, has plans to acquire the long vacant Carter property at 100-110 West St., demolish the existing brick building and build a new 189-unit apartment complex. The company hopes to break ground as soon as January.
Representatives of South Carolina-based Greystar met for about a half hour on “an informal basis” with the Planning Board during its July 22 meeting to provide a broad overview of its plans for the 4.3-acre site. The existing 190,000 square foot, three-story building has been vacant since the Kindred Healthcare assisted living and skilled nursing facilities ceased operations in February 2018.
Greystar plans to tear down the 1950s-era building and replace it with a single three-story, wood-frame construction building that would have differentiated setbacks along its more than 600 feet of frontage on Highland Avenue.
“It goes without saying that the façade is very long, almost 650 feet all the way down,” said Greystar’s Timothy Beinert in describing how the new building would be laid out. He explained that Greystar’s goal is to make the ground-floor units fronting Highland direct-entry units and “almost look like townhomes” to match the single-family neighborhood context.
“The facade is very relentless right now,” he said. “We’re going to set that back. It’s almost as if we’ve designed it as two different buildings with the ability to set one side of the building back so we can fit more green space on Highland and also have some green space in the back for residents.”
The plan provides one parking space per unit with the spaces located in the rear of the site abutting the commuter rail tracks. There are no plans for a garage, and entrance and egress would be via the existing curb cuts on Highland and West Street.
The expectation is that 40% of the units will be one-bedroom, 35% will be two-bedroom, 15% will be studios and 10% will be three-bedroom. Town zoning requires that 12.5% of the units be affordable.
The conceptual site plan calls for an “intensive landscaping program” with courtyards, “garden amenities” and other outdoor amenities that could be accessible to the community.
All five Planning Board members responded favorably to the plan and its potential to provide much-needed housing and economic benefits to both the Needham Heights area and to the town itself in terms of increased tax revenue.
They emphasized the need to minimize traffic impacts and overall responsiveness to neighborhood concerns. Asked by Planning Director Lee Newman about the demographics of expected tenants, Greystar representative Ryan Souls said they anticipate a wide range of “young families, all the way through empty nesters and retirees that are looking to transition from a larger single-family home.”
Souls emphasized that the plans are conceptual at this point. “We just wanted to put in some visuals to start drawing our concepts,” he told the board. “These will be further developed by our architect.”
Another speculative aspect of the plans is the fact that Greystar does not yet own the property, although its representatives said they are very far along in negotiations with Welltower, the real estate investment trust which has owned the property since 2002 and has not been able to devise a new use since 2018.
Attorney Timothy Sullivan of Goulston & Storrs, who spoke along with the Greystar representatives at the meeting, said, “Welltower has an agreement with Greystar and Greystar is in their due-diligence process.”
He said the two companies have reached an agreement to execute a sale once Greystar has been issued the required permits.
Impact of MBTA zoning
Another pending element is the state-required approval of Needham’s MBTA Community Law compliance plan, which was passed at May Town Meeting but has not yet been approved by the state’s attorney general. That approval has been described by town officials as a formality and is expected to be received in mid-August.
In its “zoning summary,” Greystar indicates that its plan complies with all the town’s zoning requirements under the new MBTA zoning. This means the project is allowed “as of right” and would not need to proceed under the more arduous special-permit process that would have been required under the prior zoning regimen.
Instead, the project will be subject only to “site plan review” which allows the town to impose conditions that must be “reasonable” and related to site impacts, such as traffic flow, drainage, lighting, signage and screening.
In its project timeline, Greystar anticipates it will finalize and submit its site plan application once the MBTA zoning is approved. Souls said his firm’s plans were effectively guided by how Needham re-zoned the parcel.
“A lot of time was spent by Needham on zoning associated with this site, so a lot of the blueprint is kind of there,” Souls said.
“There’s really only so many ways you can bend and shape a building. A lot of the variables are already figured out. We’re really just executing on the plan that was put in place by Needham.”
Assuming Greystar submits its application in August, the town’s review process could begin in September, with reviews by various town departments and the Design Review Board.
Under Greystar’s project timeline, if the Planning Board completes its site plan review by November, construction could start in January and be completed by September 2027.
According to its website, Greystar “manages and operates more than $290 billion of real estate in 247 markets globally with offices throughout North America, Europe, South America, and the Asia-Pacific region.”
Its geographically closest property to Needham is the Avenu “active adult living” complex in Natick, 164 apartment units catering to the 55+ demographic.
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