In Littleton, A Site Gets A Second Life | New owner plans $80M mixed-use development off I-495
Sam Park has known these 90 acres off Interstate 495 in Littleton for years.
The Boston-based developer worked on permit approvals during the 1980s for a former owner of the land, which was most recently owned by Cisco. But that owner’s plans, like those of several others, never materialized.
Now Park’s company, Sam Park & Co., owns the land, after paying Cisco $6 million for it in late August. The price was the result of a sluggish property market and Park said part of what made the investment a good one.
“It’s centrally located in what I almost consider the think-belt of Massachusetts,” he said.
Park’s planned mixed-use development could contain restaurants, office space, retail stores and other amenities. He has secured some approvals already.
Town officials say a mixed-use development fits with what residents want and a major property across the highway that houses IBM’s biggest development lab in North America.
The IBM campus, which originally housed Digital Equipment Corp., is a development success story for Littleton. If both sites are developed, officials say it would bring new life to the traditional village center nearby.
Park is bullish on commercial property and predicts a rebound.
Past developers also saw promise in the site, but their plans to build never materialized. Some have even told Park that the site must be cursed.
But Park thinks shifts in the market and a down economy have created a perfect opportunity for his company.
“We’re very contrarian,” he said. “We buy when land prices are low.”
Preliminary site work is underway.
The project would be done in several phases, totaling about $80 million in investment, he said.
Littleton officials have been working toward this moment, said Maren Toohill, the town’s planning administrator and permit coordinator. “We’re very pleased to see it happening now.”
Littleton voters approved an overlay district for the industrially zoned site that allows for restaurants, hotels, stores, bowling alleys, breweries and assisted-living facilities. The town was recently awarded a $1.8-million roadway safety grant aimed at easing traffic problems on Route 119. Park’s firm will pitch in another $400,000 for those improvements, which include adding a lane to each side of part of the road, plus turning lanes and traffic signals.
Park praised town officials. “The town has had enormous foresight in doing what it has done during this down economy,” he said.
Town Administrator Keith Bergman said that designating the property as Chapter 43D priority site netted the town $100,000 in state funds to perform a traffic analysis. That study came in handy when the town applied for a state roadway safety and improvement grant earlier this year.
But in order to qualify for the grant to widen and improve Route 119, the town needed to show the money would help create jobs.
It needed a developer.
With many developers sidelined by financing challenges and uncertainty, Bergman said Park’s unexpected arrival in Littleton came at the perfect time.
“It was one of the happiest days of my career when Sam called., he said.
Now, Park will need a special permit from the planning board, and an ongoing sewer feasibility study will determine if the IBM and Sam Park properties merit sewer infrastructure.
Park said his project will be less risky than a major corporate headquarters like the sort Park thinks has fallen out of favor along the I-495 corridor, as evidenced by HP and Fidelity Investments vacating their Marlborough campuses.
“It’s not solely dependent on one anchor tenant,” Park said. “We wouldn’t have made this bet if we didn’t think there was a strong market for retail and commercial at that location.”
If the IBM buyers across the road are any indication, it could be a good bet.
Two development firms purchased the IBM site for $25.5 million in 2006. After securing IBM as a tenant through 2020, they sold the site to a Georgia-based real estate investment trust for $85.5 million.
Bergman said the sale has helped put the town on the state’s radar of communities that are being proactive about development.
“We have made the decision that we want to be on that A-list,” he said.
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