A Boston developer is evaluating options for nearly 12 acres in Cambridge’s rapidly changing Alewife neighborhood after completing an $80 million acquisition.
Cabot, Cabot & Forbes acquired the Mabardy Sand and Gravel property, a U.S. Postal Service sorting facility and a multitenant warehouse following multi-year negotiations with three owners, CEO Jay Doherty said. It’s evaluating options for redevelopment including multifamily housing and commercial space.
“People haven’t fully grasped what’s happened in Alewife in the past four or five years,” Doherty said. “We do. We see this as one of the remaining development opportunities in Cambridge that we could access.”
Under the Alewife overlay district zoning, potential future uses could include multifamily, office, lab space and mixed-use projects, Doherty said.
Cabot, Cabot & Forbes partnered with an undisclosed real estate investment manager on the all-cash transaction, he said.
Doherty said the transaction is not related to a potential stadium site for the New England Revolution professional soccer team, as has been speculated on social media.
“No one talked to us about it, and it’s doubtful we’d have interest in doing this,” he said.
Cabot, Cabot & Forbes has focused on transit-oriented multifamily development in Alewife and other areas near MBTA Red Line stations in recent years.
It acquired 80 Fawcett St. for $13.6 million in 2016 and obtained approvals for the 428-unit Atwood apartment complex, which sold for $207.7 million after completion in 2015. It found a similar site near the southern end of the Red Line to develop the Deco apartments, which opened in 2016 across from the Quincy Adams station.
Other experienced local developers are focusing on Alewife for new projects catering to the still-expanding life science industry.
Lexington-based Ribon Therapeutics signed on as the first tenant in The Davis Cos.’ speculative Alewife Research Center complex, a 224,000-square-foot office and lab building at 35 Cambridgepark Drive scheduled for completion this fall. The complex has approximately 140,000 square feet available, said Mark Winters, an executive managing director at Newmark Knight Frank who represents ownership.
Davis Cos. also is acting as development manager for Invesco Real Estate after selling Invesco a 9-acre cluster of commercial parcels on Smith Place, Wilson Avenue and Moulton Street in April.
