Copper Mill 40B Application Letter & meeting info
Elaine Almquist
Christopher Beland
Some highlights from the document dump...
The owner of The Burren provided a signed letter supporting the redevelopment. He has apparently extended a short-term lease for the current buildings and signed a long-term lease for the new building. The letter is dated July 15, 2025, and addressed to Mayor Ballantyne. (Unclear it was actually sent then, as the DSNC is cc:'d, and it's marked "strictly confidential".)
Building design is the latest one publicly exhibited (full floorplans and visualizations shown):
- 502 residential rental units
- 25% (126) rent-restricted to affordable at 80% of area median income
- No on-site parking
- 2-3 stories tall at streetfronts: Floor 1 retail, floors 2 and 3 residential, bike room on floor 2
- 26-story tower, 275 ft, set back from Elm Street with roof terraces on floor 3 (Elm-Grove corner) and 4 (main axis of tower)
- Very wide sidewalks, 18-19 ft, with bike racks and seating
- 28% open space (9,555 sq ft), 13,000 sq ft of retail space, 327,062 sq ft total
- Diagonal covered pedestrian arcade at street level with retail on both sides
- Retail on both Elm and Grove Streets
- Residential lobby entrance on Grove Street
- Semi-indoor covered loading dock on Grove Street, hidden from 20 Grove by the side of the new building with a green wall on the outside
- Waiver requested to ignore some local form-based zoning regulations
Apartment mix with monthly rents assumed by the financial viability model vs. local market survey of comparable apartment buildings:
- Studio - 69 affordable $1472, 207 market $3500 (comparables: $2877)
- 1-bedroom - 38 affordable $1829, 114 market $4250 (comparables: $3328)
- 2-bedroom - 6 affordable $2177, 18 market $4500 (comparables: $4260)
- 3-bedroom (10% regulatory minimum) - 13 affordable $2300, 37 market $5500 (comparables: $5742)
- Accessible units (ADA Group 2): 18 market, 7 affordable
- All units elevator-accessible and single-floor (full floor plans included)
Developers note Somerville produced 42 affordable and 219 total housing units per year, 2011-2020, so this would be 2-3 years of production in one building.
Financials:
- Purchase price of existing buildings (option as of 19 Sep 2025): $42 million
- Development cost: $259.5 million
- Loan from The New England Fund (federally subsidized) via Eastern Bank: $168.7 million, assumed 4.25% interest
- Owner cash contribution: $90.8 million
- Annual operating expense per unit: $14,078
- MassHousing application fee for this many units: $27,600
MassHousing Limited Dividend policy caps annual owner profit at 10% of owner equity stake, updated at most every 5 years, with backfilling of previous under-performing years. Source: https://www.masshousing.com/-/media/Files/Developers/Financing-Policies/Limited-Dividend-Policy.ashx
The financial model (which seems a bit optimistic on rent levels) projects less than the 10% cap in annual profit: $8.7 million.
They included firm portfolios and staff bios for Copper Mill, CBT Architects, and VHB, and lists of meetings with the public and city staff and elected officials.
Copper Mill has also done or is working on buildings at:
- 75 Morrissey Boulevard, Dorchester, Boston (754 units)
- 123 Washington Street, North End, Boston (45-unit office conversion)
- New England Country Club, Bellingham (800 units)
- Brockton Fairgrounds, Brockton (1750 units)
-B.
Frank Mals
Phase 1: The Pivot to Copper Mill and Housing (2023–2024)
• September 2023: As the lab market in Greater Boston became oversaturated and "stalled," Scape exited the project. Andrew Flynn founded Copper Mill, which took over the ground lease to pursue a return to residential development.
• May 14, 2024: The City of Somerville initiated a re-engagement. Tom Galligani (Executive Director of OSPCD) met with Copper Mill to discuss the viability of residential development given the collapsing lab market.
• June–July 2024: Copper Mill and City planners held follow-up meetings to discuss permitting processes for 40B proposals and potential approaches to density and massing.
Phase 2: Public Engagement and Design Refinement (Late 2024)
• September 6, 2024: Mayor Ballantyne and Tom Galligani toured a recently completed 451-unit residential project by the developer to assess construction quality.
• October–December 2024: Copper Mill conducted a series of four voluntary public meetings at the behest of the Mayor.
◦ Meetings 1 & 2: Focused on the general concept of residential vs. lab uses and desired unit types.
◦ Meeting 3: Discussed local character and potential displacement of businesses like The Burren and Dragon Pizza.
◦ Meeting 4: Presented massing studies for a 25-story tower. Community feedback led to moving the residential lobby from Elm Street to Grove Street to preserve retail continuity.
◦ Meeting 5: February 12, 2025: A fifth public meeting was held at the Somerville Community Baptist Church with several residents unable to gain access as the space was at capacity. Developer Flynn stated that 500 units was the "inflection point" necessary to make the project's costs, including union labor and affordability requirements, financially feasible.
Phase 3: The 40B Application and Future Planning
• March 4, 2025: Copper Mill met with Mayor Ballantyne to discuss the statutory steps of the 40B process and strategies for mitigating tenant displacement.
• December 4, 2025: Copper Mill met with Mayor-Elect Jake Wilson, who expressed a preference for the project to proceed with "friendly" 40B status.
• December 22, 2025: Copper Mill officially submitted the Chapter 40B Project Site Eligibility (PEL) Application to MassHousing for the 502-unit tower.
Regarding Mayor Wilson's expressed preference for a "friendly 40B" (which is officially known as a Local Initiative Process (LIP).An LIP requires the written support of the Chief Executive Officer (the Mayor) of the municipality. The application for a LIP is typically submitted to the state by the Mayor on behalf of the municipality. Despite the Mayor’s preference for a “Friendly 40b”, and his statement on Facebook this week that this is a “Friendly 40B”, the formal Project Eligibility Letter (PEL) Application submitted on December 22, 2025, was filed by the developer, Davis Square Elm Holdings, LLC, directly to MassHousing, not the city. So as of now, this application is a standard developer-led request for Site Approval, which is a prerequisite for applying for a Comprehensive Permit from the local Zoning Board of Appeals. Perhaps this will change into a "Friendly" 40b at some stage but right now it doesn't seem that it is. I could be wrong here. Lot's of questions.
Zachary Yaro
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Ron Newman
David
My entire objection to this project has been to the temporary closure of the Burren and the risk of it not reopening. If the owner of the Burren does not object to the project, I don’t either.
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Elizabeth Merrick
Sent: Friday, January 9, 2026 10:14:16 AM
To: Ron Newman <rne...@alum.mit.edu>
Cc: Zachary Yaro <zmy...@gmail.com>; Christopher Beland <bel...@alum.mit.edu>; dsnc-bo...@googlegroups.com <dsnc-bo...@googlegroups.com>; Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [DSNC] Copper Mill 40B Application Letter & meeting info
Elaine Almquist
Elaine,Thanks for the update.If you and other Board Members do meet with Copper Mill, I expect that they will likely ask for DSNC's position on this project specifically, or at least a development project of this scale generally.I don't believe that the DSNC board, or the organization at large has discussed or voted on what position we are taking relative to the Copper Mill or any other project in Davis Square.Can you comment on how you and other board members plan to respond when asked about DSNCs position on this?Michael
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John Wilde
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John Wilde
On Jan 9, 2026, at 10:32 AM, 'Elizabeth Merrick ' via Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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Michael Chiu
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PJ Santos
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Zev Pogrebin
Jeff Byrnes
I, too, am curious how the height of a building destroys anything. As Elaine suggested, Market Central in Cambridge is a similarly-sized building (195 ft, 19 or 20 storeys), and clearly has not destroyed Central Square. It created a number of new retail spaces, plus a ton of homes for folks.
And, as Ron points out, The Burren is now secure via legal agreements. I would suggest that if we want to enjoy The Burren for another 30 years, this is an opportunity for them to stay in the same location, but in a building that isn’t tired & nearing the end of its life.
That sounds like a fantastic outcome for patrons as well as musicians who depend on it as a venue (that kinda includes me, I’ve jammed there plenty of times with my upright bass).
I also think it’s important to call this out in particular:
”Developers note Somerville produced 42 affordable and 219 total housing units per year, 2011-2020, so this would be 2-3 years of production in one building.”
That’s quite a win for market and subsidized homes, which we desperately need!
Jeff Byrnes
he/him
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Mieke Citroen
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Denise Provost
Colin McMillen
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Heidi Lewis
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Elaine Almquist
Ron Newman
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Elaine Almquist
Elaine -It looks like you were cc'd on the letter dated July 15, 2025 relating to the status of the Burren that we are now seeing on p. 5 of the 40B application.This is something I consider to be a critically important update about the proposed Elm St. Development that is of significant interest to DSNC membership. As a member of the DSNC myself, I am extremely concerned that the leadership has withheld this information from us while stating for months following your receipt of the letter that there are no updates on the Copper Mill Development.With this new information coming to light, how can the DSNC membership trust that the board is being honest and transparent with us? What, if any, other information has the DSNC board been privy to but withholding from membership about the proposed Elm Street Development and this recently filed 40B petition that has apparently been in the works for many months?Best,Rachel
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Alex Dehnert
alternate-Burren: McCarthy's (https://www.mccarthystoad.com/calendar).
It's another Irish pub, it's half a mile away in Porter, it looks like
it also has a pretty active music calendar, and AIUI it's the same team
as the Burren. (Really I think the existence of McCarthy's under the
same ownership is one of the stronger signs that they can successfully
return after construction... and perhaps also a sign that if this
location remains in limbo they might eventually focus on McCarthy's
instead, if the Burren's location becomes run-down enough to need a lot
of work.)
On 1/9/26 12:42, 'Ron Newman' via Davis Square Neighborhood Council wrote
> temporary and nearby place where the Burren's extensive music
> programming can continue uninterrupted while construction occurs at the
> Copper Mill site.
>
> Can Copper Mill, the Burren owners, the city, and possibly other owners
> of vacant properties come together to make this happen?
>
> On Fri, Jan 9, 2026, 12:38 PM Heidi Lewis <hlws...@gmail.com
> <mailto:hlws...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Does anyone know what the timeline is for the state with the 40B
> process? Wondering how fast something like this moves through.
>
> Also, when comparing this project to the Central Square project,
> isn’t it true that the Central Square tower(s) - and the Union
> Square tower - are on the outskirt of these squares and better
> positioned to not overwhelm the center with a massive tower?
>
> I’m concerned that Cooper Mill went silent for months and then went
> around the community to the state, right before the holidays.
>
> -Heidi
>
> PS: Thanks to all the previous writers for going through and
> highlighting the important details.
>
>
>> On Jan 9, 2026, at 12:22 PM, Colin McMillen
>>
>> I assume the elected board members listed here: https://
>> On Fri, Jan 9, 2026, at 12:14 PM, 'Denise Provost' via Davis
>> Square Neighborhood Council wrote:
>>>
>>> Would you please clarify for us, Elaine: who are the members of
>>> the DSNC?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Denise
>>>
>>> On Friday, January 9, 2026 at 03:41:36 PM GMT, Elaine Almquist
>>>
>>>
>>> We have not taken any public stance on the project as an
>>> organization, so at this point we are in fact-finding mode to get
>>> the info we need to DSNC and then talk amongst ourselves about
>>> what we'd like to do next. If they ask for an opinion, we will
>>> say we have no formal opinion at the moment, and that our members
>>> are paying close attention and ensuring we are engaged in the
>>> discussion, process, and decision-making at every stage.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Elaine
>>> *Elaine F. Almquist*
>>> /(she/her/hers)/
>>>
>>> BlueSky @EAlmquist <https://bsky.app/profile/
>>> ealmquist.bsky.social> Instagram: @EFAlmquist <https://
>>> www.instagram.com/efalmquist/>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jan 9, 2026, 9:59 AM Michael Chiu
>>> <michael...@gmail.com <mailto:michael...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Elaine,
>>>
>>> Thanks for the update.
>>>
>>> If you and other Board Members do meet with Copper Mill, I
>>> expect that they will likely ask for DSNC's position on this
>>> project specifically, or at least a development project of
>>> this scale generally.
>>>
>>> I don't believe that the DSNC board, or the organization at
>>> large has discussed or voted on what position we are taking
>>> relative to the Copper Mill or any other project in Davis
>>> Square.
>>>
>>> Can you comment on how you and other board members plan to
>>> respond when asked about DSNCs position on this?
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jan 8, 2026 at 10:12 PM Elaine Almquist
>>> <elaine....@gmail.com
>>>
>>> Hello Neighbors!
>>> At our DSNC meeting on Monday, Councilor Lance Davis
>>> informed us that Copper Mill, and Davis Square Elm
>>> letter from the Office of Strategic Planning and
>>> Community Development (OSPCD), and was sent the copy
>>> today. I'm writing to share the document here with all of
>>> d/1wmZLxtUo9DmDlhcnFurwQ7bsGF_5ZNWk/view?usp=drive_link>.
>>> to download it to read it, as the file may be too large
>>> for a preview in your browser depending on your settings.
>>>
>>> PartI/TitleVII/Chapter40B> is a state statute, which
>>> affordable housing developments under flexible rules if
>>> at least 20-25% of the units have long-term affordability
>>> restrictions if the municipality does not currently the
>>> minimum of 10% of homes in the Subsidized Housing
>>> Inventory (SHI).
>>>
>>> The letter is filed in our Copper Mill project folder
>>> b5aUwpFs5jem3ACPJnoBNpGj?usp=drive_link>, and you can
>>> proposal for the site here:
>>> drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AvEAIASFTMu6dVuA-
>>> OUFJeK_8tSPDq5L?usp=drive_link> > Development Projects
>>> <https://drive.google.com/drive/
>>> folders/16kIqhJHK6BoIfqHb5qz8eYSCIOmcTWO8?
>>> usp=drive_link> > Copper Mill Project Elm & Grove St
>>> (Burren to Dragon Pizza) <https://drive.google.com/drive/
>>> folders/13aSJsOy-b5aUwpFs5jem3ACPJnoBNpGj?usp=drive_link>
>>> Additionally, Copper Mill requested a meeting with me,
>>> and we as a board of directors are in the process of
>>> finding a time before our January meeting for as many of
>>> our board members to attend the meeting as possible, most
>>> likely on January 20th or 21st. We will send an update
>>> after that meeting with what we learn. If you have any
>>> questions you would like us to bring to that meeting,
>>> please submit them to: dsnc-bo...@googlegroups.com
>>> we can.
>>>
>>> I'm sure as we all sit down to dig through the document,
>>> more information will come to light, and more questions
>>> will arise. Please remember that while we discuss this
>>> important matter, we keep our discussion neighborly and
>>> civil, even if we have disagreement.
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>> DSNC President
>>>
>>> BlueSky @EAlmquist <https://bsky.app/profile/
>>> ealmquist.bsky.social> Instagram: @EFAlmquist <https://
>>> www.instagram.com/efalmquist/>
>>> DavisSquareNC.org <https://davissquarenc.org/> · https://
>>> linktr.ee/DavisSquareNC <https://linktr.ee/DavisSquareNC>
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>
> Heidi Lewis
> hlws...@gmail.com <mailto:hlws...@gmail.com>
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Denise Provost
Elaine Almquist
Rachel Rosenberg
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Rachel Rosenberg
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John Wilde
On Jan 9, 2026, at 11:20 AM, Zev Pogrebin <zpogre...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Elizabeth and all,
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Elaine Almquist
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ebm...@comcast.net
Sent: Friday, January 9, 2026 11:20 AM
To: Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
Brendan Ritter
Carol
Deborah Pacini
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Frank Mals
David
Robert Collins
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Susanna Coit
Christopher Beland
Personally, I'm happy with how well the developer incorporated public input into the design. Among the things we asked for and are getting were housing, ground-level small-format retail, retaining The Burren, a human-scale street wall, residential entrance on Grove Street, more open space, and a roofdeck. I was actually going to suggest doing a no-parking tower as a way to compensate for high steel prices and high interest rates, and it's great that actually makes the project work. This is the perfect location for the 24% of Somerville households with no car, including those needing accessible and income-restricted units.
I'm not happy about the owner neglecting the site for years or the developer ghosting people when a simple "we're going to postpone public engagement for a while" would have been polite.
In a binding legal sense, the community lost its right to require a smaller project by saying "no" to housing too many times in recent years, including saying "no" to a 6-story building on this site that was proposed in the 2010s. That is why Somerville is below the 10% city-wide affordable housing threshold that triggers Chapter 40B's anti-NIMBY provisions.
The developer has very little incentive to participate in a conversation about how they could do a smaller project and get less reward for the huge financial risk they are taking and the years of delay they have put up with. They have explicitly indicated they are uninterested in doing so. From what I gather, once this project is deemed eligible and gets bank financing, they will be able to build it more or less by right, so we have very little leverage to force a smaller building or negotiate community benefits.
However, now that Copper Mill has published detailed financial projections for the project, we can do our own rough evaluation of some compromise alternatives. For example, we could ask whether it would be feasible to take the same design and cut the tower to 11 stories.
Unfortunately, the Copper Mill application does not provide a realistic basis to estimate the financial feasibility of 5-6 story wood construction. We do know from the city report that this type of construction in Davis is currently not generally considered an attractive real estate investment because of a combination of market conditions and the 20% affordable housing requirement. It's possible Copper Mill would be able to fund a wood building without a loan, which would make a huge difference to profitability. We could ask (or hire) a third-party expert to run these calculations, but Copper Mill can probably just shrug and say "no thanks" to a proposal that they build that instead.
For an 11-story tower, I can calculate exact annual figures for:
- Lost rent: $11,639,958 (rent mix on removed floors, -5% vacancy)
- Avoided operating costs: $4,193,456 (298 units)
I cannot give an exact figure for how much would be saved in construction costs. Assuming the first three floors cost twice as much as the upper floors to build (they are about twice as big), that reduces the $154,600,000 construction cost by 15/29ths (51.7%), or about $80 million.
- Annual debt service reduction: $3,770,729 (52.6%)
- Net change to annual cash flow: $3,770,729 + $4,193,456 - $11,639,958 = -$4,048,543
- 26-story cash flow: $8,709,647/yr
- 11-story cash flow: $4,661,104/yr
- 11-story debt service: $3,397,959/yr
Importantly, the annual net profit from the 11-story tower is very close to the minimum cash flow required by the lender (1.25x debt service, $4,247,448/yr). If my estimate of saved construction cost is 10% too generous, that means the 11-story tower could not be financed.
If it can be financed, the 11-story tower appears 54% less profitable. On a $90,825,000 investment, that's the difference between a 9.6% annual return and a 4.7% annual return. (There's a regulatory cap of 10% for this program.) I'll also note that the financial projection assumes an interest-only loan, so the owners would need to make less profit for a while if they ever want to increase their equity.
Looking at the 2025 Somerville Financial Feasibility Analysis, market expectations for Return on Cost are 5.75%-6.50%. If I understand the definition correctly, on a total development cost of $259,500,000, the 26-story tower has an ROC of 3.35%, and the 11-story tower has an ROC of 1.80%. That implies to me that private finance markets would consider either of these designs to be very unattractive real estate investments. (I could get a CD at the bank with a higher interest rate than the 11-story tower.) I assume what makes it feasible to build the tower are the government-subsidized loan and the substantial amount of cash to be invested by the developer.
Even waiving the 25% affordable housing requirement would not make an attractive private market investment. That would add $3,449,616/yr in rent for the 26-story tower (4.69% ROC) and $2,003,412/yr to the 11-story tower (2.57% ROC). This aligns with the consultant who said any type of steel construction in Davis is financially unattractive.
There are many risks for Copper Mill with this project. For example, the studio market rent assumed in this application ($3500/mo) is 18% higher than the identified comparables ($2877/mo). If Copper Mill's rent projections are 18% too high, that would cut $3,717,240 per year in rent from the 26-story tower, and $1,622,047 from the 11-story tower, which would put the latter substantially below the financing minimum. If there are large-scale disruptions in the rental market similar to what happened in 2020, because of the debt leverage, either project could lose money in some years.
-B.
Christopher Beland
On Fri, 2026-01-09 at 12:37 -0500, Heidi Lewis wrote:
Also, when comparing this project to the Central Square project, isn’t it true that the Central Square tower(s) - and the Union Square tower - are on the outskirt of these squares and better positioned to not overwhelm the center with a massive tower?
Aggregated community input shows a preference for concentrating the tallest buildings in Davis Square on two blocks abutting the central intersection: the first block between Elm and Highland (which includes the Copper Mill site), and the first block between Highland and the MBTA busway. (See attached map from the pre-COVID draft Davis Square Neighborhood Plan.)
In Central, there are already two towers at the main intersection (and commercial and residential towers up Mass Ave toward Harvard and scattered on side streets). I'd actually say the 13-story tower at 675 Mass Ave is not the best. It's a big grey box that comes right up to the sidewalk with an inset entrance that doesn't do much to make it feel human-scale or provide a place to sit. The sheer drop makes a lot of street-level wind. (That is also a problem with the bacon building in Union, and I'm disappointed about that.) Market Central (which is halfway to MIT) I think is an improvement because it has at least a little offset at 6 stories, and the outdoor seating and covered pedestrian walkway are very nice. I'm excited about the Copper Mill proposal because it's designed better than any of these buildings. It's only 2 or 3 stories tall along Elm Street, de-crowds the sidewalk while providing outdoor seating, and also has an awesome covered outdoor retail walkway.
I think the thing that keeps towers from overwhelming the pedestrian experience is not which block they're located on, but setting back the tallest parts so people never find themselves staring directly up at them. But sheer walls can also still work sometimes. I was surprised to get cozy feeling in urban canyons in Manhattan and Providence where there's lots of pedestrian seating and trees. Perhaps because this recreates the human-evolution-friendly attributes of a natural canyon?
Unlike in Davis and Central, the Union Square rapid transit station is not located directly at the main intersection. The Union Square bacon building is a direct abutter to the new Green Line stop. Several parcels next to the T have already been upzoned for tall buildings, so the area around the Green Line will probably become a notable center of density for some period of time. Higher demand closer to the T makes taller buildings financially more feasible there, and it's also the obvious place to put no-parking buildings to optimize traffic. What happens in the main intersection will depend on the city-wide upzoning initiative. The parcels next to the T were a lot easier to redevelop in the short term, politically and physically, because they were mostly junk yards which were a poor use of high-value real estate.
-B.
Christopher Beland
On Fri, 2026-01-09 at 13:17 -0500, Rachel Rosenberg wrote:
I just wanted to clarify that even though it looks similar, there’s a lot of programming at the Burren that can’t be moved to McCarthy’s due to differences in venue size.
I phoned up McCarthy's, and they said that upstairs at McCarthy's and Toad are roughly equivalent to the two stages at The Burren. I'm told in Porter there's an overall seating capacity of 202, with 100 upstairs (exactly the same as what you said for The Burren Backroom), and Toad is a bit smaller at 70.
It sounds like the Davis-Porter area will have pretty much the same musical performance capacity during construction as it did before McCarthy's opened?
-B.
Christopher Beland
People think of Paris as topped out at 6 stories or so, but it has towers scattered around its less-expensive outer neighborhoods - (to be fair, many ugly) apartment towers built in the 1960s and 1970s, and the bleh Tour Montparnasse.
One tower built in the 7th Arrondissement at the beginning of the elevator era (when taller buildings first became practical) was considered so ugly a group of 300 artists signed a petition against it:
"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection ... of this useless and monstrous [tower] ... To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years ... we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal."
The government rammed the controversial project through and it was built anyway. It does loom over the entire central city, and at night looks like a garish combination of a lighthouse and a twinkling Christmas tree. According to a snarky legend, one author hated it so much he ate lunch there every day, because it was the only place in the city where it could not be seen. The base is now so overcrowded it's surrounded by a glass wall to prevent terror attacks.
In English, it's known as the Eiffel Tower. I'll take the controversial stance that actually it's not that bad to look at.
There's also a more recent and beautiful business district full of monumental and eclectic towers called La Défense. It's visible from a lot of the city and intentionally put in a continuous line with the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Élysées, and the Louvre.
Davis Square is not an avenue of Parisian Haussmann buildings or the visually unified historic districts of Back Bay or Beacon Hill. When I think of Davis Square, I think of the nice but wastefully-low 1920s-ish row buildings (Mike's, HMart, Liquor World, and JP Licks being the nicer ones), and the lovely historic one-offs (Somerville Theatre, Bank of America). But the other half of the streetscape is a mix of modern buildings (CVS, Citizens Bank, Atrius Health), ugly Energy Crisis bunkers (Starbucks, MBTA headhouses, Middlesex bank), and weird stuff that doesn't match anything (Rosebud, the offices above Diesel and The Foundry, the 403 Highland underpass). These all vary between one and four stories somewhat randomly. Haussmann would certainly have most of the neighborhood demolished and replaced with buildings of a uniform height, and the streets realigned.
Some of the most interesting parts of Boston contrast completely different styles, like low but fancy historic buildings vs. modern skyscrapers in Copley Square and around the Old State House and Quincy Market. The fact that those contrasts work and that Davis is already a mix of styles makes me think the Copper Mill tower would work here aesthetically.
-B.
Erik Nygren
Alex P
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Michael Chiu
- Somerville has 82K and a density of 7.6K/sqkm
- Paris has a population of 2M and nearly 3x the density at19K/sqkm. Paris also has great public transportation and it rarely has accumulated snow (Boston averages 50"/year)
- If you include Boston in the mix, Paris is still 3x bigger as a city and 4x bigger as a metro area.
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Frank Mals
Zev Pogrebin
Alex Dehnert
> housing challenge).
directly help with that (as context, from Beland's 1/8 23:03 email,
"Developers note Somerville produced 42 affordable and 219 total housing
units per year, 2011-2020, so this would be 2-3 years of production in
one building"). It'll also add 376 new market-rate units, which probably
won't directly help with affordability (they'll be new and therefore
probably expensive), but research shows
(https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2025/07/31/new-housing-slows-rent-growth-most-for-older-more-affordable-units)
that metros adding the most units see rental prices drop most for class
C (older) buildings (and conversely, it's lower-income zip codes where
prices tend to be increasing fastest with the US's limited production).
Also, what's the alternative? Building new housing spread over the city?
Mayor Wilson has expressed in the past
(https://www.jakeforsomerville.org/august_20_campaign_newsletter) that
this will result in displacement, as "naturally affordable" housing
(e.g. older triple deckers) is replaced with newer, more expensive
units. Copper Mill has the virtue that there's (essentially?) no
existing housing where it's being built, so while there will be some
(hopefully short-lived) disruption of existing retail tenants, it
doesn't involve demolishing nearly as much housing (or retail) as
shorter buildings would to get the same capacity.
> We need growth in the inner suburbs
> Cambridge is about to undertake massive upscaling all along our border
> (they are truly short housing), we need to see how that plays out.
developers to build it all at once, so we (and Cambridge) will have some
time before change is really extensive to be sure it's going well.
~~Alex
On 1/10/26 10:02, Alex P wrote:
> Please stop comparing Somerville to Paris.
> We are part of greater Boston, the 30th largest city in the US.
> We need growth in the inner suburbs, and our transformation zones where
> the towers belong. Protect and enhance our historic squares with mid
> rise structures.
> Our narrow streets are not well served by an out of scale tower. The
> union square tower is well outside of the central district.
> People should move to the Seaport if that is the vibe they want.
> Somerville is vibrant because of its arts culture, these developments
> all diminish the opportunity for those who made Somerville Somerville...
> this tower will not help our affordability crisis (distinct from the
> housing challenge).
> Cambridge is about to undertake massive upscaling all along our border
> (they are truly short housing), we need to see how that plays out.
> Stick to improving our tax base!
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 7:14 AM 'Christopher Beland' via Davis Square
> Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com
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Rachel Rosenberg
Jim Gallagher
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Kevin McIntosh
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Jayne Goethe
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John Wilde
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David Booth
Council wrote:
> . . .
> smaller project by saying "no" to housing too many times in recent
> years, including saying "no" to a 6-story building on this site that was
> proposed in the 2010s. That is why Somerville is below the 10% city-wide
> affordable housing threshold that triggers Chapter 40B's anti-NIMBY
> provisions.
in-scale housing stock, we will be forced by Chapter 40B to accept
out-of-scale buildings.
Somerville *does* need to grow taller, because that is the only way we
can add housing without reducing green space -- but hopefully at a more
reasonable height scale.
As a rough starting point, I think a zoning change to allow by-right
construction of about 10-15 stories at major public transport centers
(such as Davis Square), and 5-6 story wood construction everywhere else
might be sensible.
David Booth
Frank Mals
Meredith Porter
To: "Heidi Lewis" <hlws...@gmail.com>
Cc: "Davis Square Neighborhood Council" <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 9, 2026 11:35:16 PM
Subject: [DSNC] Comparison with Central and Union towers
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Meredith Porter
The claim that the community lost its right of require a smaller project also appears to be incorrect. As others have noted, the MGL 40B 10% affordable housing threshold is only one of the criteria laid out in 760 CMR 56.03(3), and Somerville has submitted calculations in recent years showing that it is far in excess of the 1.5% General Land Area Minimum that would qualify it for Safe Harbor.
On Fri, 2026-01-09 at 10:11 PM, Christopher Beland wrote:
> In a binding legal sense, the community lost its right to require a smaller project by saying "no" to housing too many times in recent years, including saying "no" to a 6-story building on this site that was proposed in the 2010s. That is why Somerville is below the 10% city-wide affordable housing threshold that triggers Chapter 40B's anti-NIMBY provisions.
Meredith ("Merit," he/him)
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Elizabeth Merrick
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2026 11:02:03 PM
To: Christopher Beland <bel...@alum.mit.edu>
Cc: Heidi Lewis <hlws...@gmail.com>; Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [DSNC] Comparison with Central and Union towers
David
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hu...@comcast.net
Hello Meredith,
This is a fascinating discussion. I have no insight on the questions relating to 40B compliance, and whether issues relating to that might moot the entire Davis Square tower project.
As for the proposed project itself, as described, several writers have ably offered pros and cons. From the outset, I have leaned towards the pro side, feeling that as a transportation hub Davis Square lends itself well to significant participation in a badly needed effort to increase the regional housing supply. And, I believe a well-designed project, even if it introduces a new scale to the neighborhood, can be an asset to the community.
That said, I do have concerns, which I would hope the leaders of our group might raise in a meeting with Copper Mill.
First of all, who and what is Copper Mill? Their website remains a shockingly spare cipher, even a year after this question was raised directly to Copper Mill's CEO Andrew Flynn in a Davis Square community meeting.
I put together a list of questions a year ago that I circulated to the then mayor, Lance Davis, Jake Wilson, Jack Connolly, and Denise Provost, in the wake of a community meeting:
I. Finance and organization
1.) Andrew Flynn seems to be running a surprisingly small organization for one with such ambitious plans
a. In addition to the proposed Davis Square tower, Copper Mill seeks to build projects of similar scope in Dorchester and the North End [and I believe Brockton]
2.) Copper Mill itself is only a year old [now two years]—
a. What is Andrew Flynn’s track record with similar projects prior to Copper Mill?
b. Is there a single example of a project of similar scope that Andrew Flynn successfully completed?
3.) Where will Copper Mill find the staff to oversee multiple simultaneous complex projects?
4.) What does Copper Mill’s balance sheet look like?
a. Where do they get financing?
i. Who are POB Capital?
b. Do they have a letter(s) of credit?
i. For how much?
ii. What are the terms?
5.) One of the participants in the meeting raised a question of a bond to protect the city against a partially completed tower
a. That seems very pertinent (viz. the trio of abandoned towers in downtown LA)
b. Better would be in addition to have guarantees from stronger, more established partners
6.) Is Copper Mill a stalking horse for someone else to begin with?
a. Who, and if this is true, could they pocket a permit to build by right and put up something altogether different from the project as currently described?
II. Planning
1.) Meeting participants pointed out the need for Copper Mill to supply among other things
i. Detailed parking plan
1. I would note that, even if 25% of Somerville residents have no car, that doesn’t mean only households from this population will reside in the proposed tower—some will inevitably have cars.
a. How many?
b. We need a plan showing additional pressure on parking around the square.
ii. Detailed traffic plan
iii. Annualized shadow distribution over surrounding properties
III. Logistics of Construction
1.) Mr. Flynn stated that cranes for construction would be contained within the boundaries of the property
i. This must be stipulated in any construction permit.
2.) Where will construction material be staged for the project?
i. Steel girders
ii. Bags of cement
iii. Wall studs
iv. Plasterboard
v. Plate Glass
vi. Etc., etc.
3.) How will dust, dirt, debris, etc. be managed to minimize impact on the neighborhood?
4.) There will be a large number of work vehicles associated with construction; pickups, tradesmen’s vans, etc.
i. Where will they park?
ii. This needs careful attention, possibly involving a shuttle of some sort.
5.) What guarantees can Copper Mill offer for timely completion of the project?
(As a side-note, I don’t understand the interest in scaling the proposed project down to eleven stories from twenty-five. What does that achieve, apart from making the economics more difficult? Eleven stories is already out of scale with the neighborhood, if that is the concern.)
-Hume
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David Booth
On 1/10/26 19:34, Frank Mals wrote:
> Chris Beland and David Booth:
>
> housing too many times" and "that is why Somerville is below the 10%
> city-wide affordable housing threshold that triggers Chapter 40B's
> anti-NIMBY provisions". The city is below the 10% threshold, however
> that is merely one of three Safe Harbor provisions in 40B, and the city
> has established that we qualify for one of those provisions not once,
> but twice in the last six years, most recently in 2023.
Harbor provisions in 40B" that you cite, because I do not see the term
"Safe Harbor" mentioned anywhere in Chapter 40B:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22harbor%22+site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fmalegislature.gov%2FLaws%2FGeneralLaws%2FPartI%2FTitleVII%2FChapter40B&num=10&sca_esv=78d783ca4d51d4ce&sxsrf=ANbL-n7BP8BHyiBDGNCNP_6Myy47MZ3G3w%3A1768146103417&ei=t8RjafiVGfugiLMPtObeEQ&ved=0ahUKEwi4zZ7D6YOSAxV7EGIAHTSzNwIQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=%22harbor%22+site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fmalegislature.gov%2FLaws%2FGeneralLaws%2FPartI%2FTitleVII%2FChapter40B&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiUiJoYXJib3IiIHNpdGU6aHR0cHM6Ly9tYWxlZ2lzbGF0dXJlLmdvdi9MYXdzL0dlbmVyYWxMYXdzL1BhcnRJL1RpdGxlVklJL0NoYXB0ZXI0MEJI1w9QsgdYsQ1wAngAkAEAmAHjAaAB0QaqAQUyLjMuMbgBA8gBAPgBAZgCAKACAJgDAIgGAZIHAKAHjgKyBwC4BwDCBwDIBwCACAA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#cobssid=s
I found this page describing 40B Safe Harbor, but I do not know how
accurate it is:
https://communityscale.io/what-is-40b-safe-harbor/
It would be nice to have an authoritative reference.
Am I correct to understand that, even though Somerville does NOT meet
the requirement for 10% affordable housing, the Safe Harbor loophole
that you cited means that the City would NOT be forced to accept the
currently proposed 26-story Copper Mill development under Chapter 40B?
If so, that means that some negotiation with the developer may still be
possible.
However, it does not change my opinion that Somerville urgently needs to
be more proactive in allowing and encouraging more housing development
with increased, but not totally out-of-scale, heights.
>
> The provision that the city has established qualification for is *GLAM*.
> SHI-eligible housing exists on sites comprising more than 1.5% of the
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/subsidized-housing-inventory-shi
Thanks,
David Booth
>
> In the 2020 during the Clarendon Hill process GLAM Safe Harbor assertion
> was submitted by the city to DHCD on June 24, 2020. In the submission,
> the City asserts that 3.8% of the General Land Area is dedicated to
> safe harbor.*On July 10, 2020, DHCD responded to the City's submission
> and noted that *the Applicant did not challenge the City's safe harbor
> assertion.*
>
> In February 2023
> (https://s3.amazonaws.com/somervillema-live/s3fs-public/2023-02/Decision299Broadway.pdf <https://s3.amazonaws.com/somervillema-live/s3fs-public/2023-02/Decision299Broadway.pdf>), the calculation was that properties listed on the most recent SHI (excluding group homes and those with unlisted addresses) accounted for over 2.5% of the City's General Land Area.
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Jeff Byrnes
That’s referred to as a “traditional” or “unfriendly” 40B.
Somerville has a history of not blocking 40B proposals, and this style is called a “friendly” 40B.
The 299 Broadway project is one such example of this, as is (I think) Clarendon Hill’s rebuild.
Cambridge has a similar history of being welcoming to 40B projects.
So even if Somerville satisfies the requirements to claim Safe Harbor, those requirements are only relevant if the City decides to block a proposal, either directly, or via our ZBA deciding to deny approval.
If the City doesn’t oppose the proposal, Safe Harbor is irrelevant because the proponent does not need to appeal to the state level to have that opposition overruled.
Jeff Byrnes
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Meredith Porter
Yes, this can be a bit confusing because the Safe Harbor criteria aren't called out in MGL Chapter 40B itself. As with other laws, the details of implementation are only found in the regulations, in this case 760 CMR 56.03 (https://www.mass.gov/doc/760-cmr-56-comprehensive-permit-low-or-moderate-income-housing/download). The term "Safe Harbor" is commonly used, but I don't believe it appears in the law or the regulations. The thresholds that we're discussing are called "Statutory Minima" in the regulations, and they're spelled out in the definition of "Consistent with Local Needs" in MGL Chapter 40B Section 20. This is all quite technical, and the reference you cited describing Safe Harbor seems to be a good one.
You're correct that "SHI" stands for "Subsidized Housing Inventory."
Somerville's 2023 General Land Area Minimum (GLAM) calculation in the 2023 Star Market (299 Broadway) decision that Frank cited below is helpful.
The 2020 ZBA decision on the Clarendon Hill project that Frank mentioned below sheds a lot of light on 40B and Safe Harbor:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/somervillema-live/s3fs-public/Clarendon%20Hill%2040B%20-%20Decision%20Filed%20with%20City%20Clerk.pdf
Here are some more details:
Clarendon Hill submitted a Comprehensive Permit and the application was deemed complete on May 1, 2020. The ZBA opened the public hearing on June 10, 2020. At that meeting, they voted that OSPCD staff submit a General Land Area Minimum (GLAM) Safe Harbor assertion to the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The GLAM Safe Harbor assertion was submitted to DHCD on June 24, 2020, within the 15 days required by MGL 40B. In the submission, the City asserts that 3.8% of the General Land Area is dedicated to affordable housing; this exceeds the 1.5% minimum required to achieve safe harbor. On July 10, 2020, DHCD responded to the City's submission and noted that the Applicant did not challenge the City's safe harbor assertion.
The ZBA heard public comments on June 10, June 24, July 15, and August 5, 2020. City staff presented draft conditions on September 2. On September 30, the ZBA closed the public hearing, deliberated and approved the Comprehensive Permit with conditions.
Best regards,
Meredith ("Merit," he/him)
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Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2026 12:06:01 PM
Subject: Re: [DSNC] Financial analysis of 11-story tower alternative
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Denise Provost
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Mieke Citroen
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Carol
Ann Camara
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Mieke Citroen
Christopher Beland
On Sun, 2026-01-11 at 11:19 -0500, hu...@comcast.net wrote:
I put together a list of questions a year ago that I circulated to the then mayor, Lance Davis, Jake Wilson, Jack Connolly, and Denise Provost, in the wake of a community meeting:
Re: Developer competence and financing...
Many of your questions are answered on pages 116 thru 148 of the 40B application document dump, including a list of Copper Mill projects and employee biographies.
According to page 18 of the application packet, they will be financing the project with $90,825,000 in cash and $168,675,000 in loans. Part of that is a contingency fund in case of cost overruns, and they have to do a bond or escrow to make sure any excess profits get paid to the government or in case thy don't let the government fully inspect their actual costs.
Yes, they have a letter from Eastern Bank saying they want to do the underwriting for the loan using the New England Fund, which is government-subsidized. There are no terms yet, but the application assumes a 5-year 4.5% loan where the principal would never be paid off. As a private company, Copper Mill doesn't have to make their internal finances public, and I would be really suprised if they were willing to do so (unless there's some requirement in the 40B process I don't know about). Eastern Bank has stated they must perform due diligence before actually issuing loans. I expect the bank will be given a look at more confidential financials, and if they are not sure about the Copper Mill team's ability to complete a profitable project or to cough up $91 million, they will not underwrite. The staff bios for Copper Mill list experiences working in finance at the scale of hundreds of millions to trillions of dollars, with diverse professional backgrounds ranging from permitting to securities. They have people who have worked at Ernst and Young and Suffolk Construction. They have graduates from Harvard and MIT and an active Professor of Real Estate Finance at Wentworth. I have myself worked at companies owned by millionaires with more money than sense, but nothing about Copper Mill or its partners raises red flags for me.
Copper Mill is able to do huge projects with a small staff because major tasks have been outsourced to very well-established companies that have their own managers - CBT Architects and VHB. It seems unlikely they'll hire a fly-by-night contractor to put up this quarter-billion-dollar building. You can read in the application employee bios for CBT and VHB staff too, and there's a long list of big projects they've successfully completed. The application form says familiarity with operating affordable housing is required for MassHousing approval, and Copper Mill has an attestation. The Copper Mill role seems to be largely finding opportunities, doing the deal-making, setting parameters that make a project profitable, and being a communications hub with the consultants, government, and the public. Even much smaller development projects have to plug together multiple companies like this, because no one company really has all the expertise and resources to do everything.
These are a lot more hoops than we ask most developers to go through before getting approval to build. This developer jumps through them with flying colors, but I would think twice about rejecting a 40B application from a new and untested company. We need all the affordable housing we can get, we need healthy competition to keep prices close tot the cost of production, and we need the innovations that tend to come from smaller, newer firms.
Even though it's very much not a single-person or even a single-company operation, since you're focused on him personally, Andrew Flynn's bio reads as follows:
Mr. Flynn is a Boston-based commercial real estate developer specializing in the development of mixed-use urban assets. Mr. Flynn is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Copper Mill, LLC which focuses on thoughtful mixed-use developments in premier innovation hubs across Greater Boston. Mr. Flynn has managed private investment vehicles which focus on the development of urban infill assets, including the development of The Bon (Boylston Street) and the Beacon Hill Hotel (Charles Street Hospitality). Over the course of his career, Mr. Flynn has deployed private capital across the spectrum of real estate asset classes and throughout the capital structure – Mr. Flynn was previously with The Related Companies and Colony Capital. Mr. Flynn is a graduate of Boston College High School and Harvard College, and returned to Boston after many years in New York City. Mr. Flynn serves as a Trustee of the Boston Arts Academy Foundation, a Trustee of the Bellforge Arts Center and a Trustee of the Sandy Beach Association.
What prompts the question about POB Capital? A simple web search finds: https://www.pobcapital.com/ I see in the news that they have invested in the Morrissey Boulevard project that Copper Mill is doing in Dorchester, but their name does not appear on the application. As far as I know, they aren't involved in the Davis Square project?
Re: Design changes later
I'm not yet familiar with all the 40B rules, but it's my understanding is that this is similar to a special permit - Copper Mill would be granted approval for this specific design. That's different from a zoning change which might be issued in response to a presentation that showcases a specific design, but a different design that still meets the broad parameters set in the zoning ordinance could be built instead.
Re: Transportation
1. I would note that, even if 25% of Somerville residents have no car, that doesn’t mean only households from this population will reside in the proposed tower—some will inevitably have cars.
a. How many?
b. We need a plan showing additional pressure on parking around the square. ii. Detailed traffic plan
Because this site is within 1/2 mile of a rapid transit station and is not in an NR zone, the Copper Mill tower will be added to the list of addresses where residents cannot be issued Somerville resident street parking permits. There might be an exception for a person with a disability who requires a car, but there are no existing residential parking zones on adjoining streets that would be affected by that allocation. Most tower residents who wanted to keep a car would have to buy or rent a private parking spot somewhere else. I'm not sure the building owner would have any way of knowing how many people do that. I assume you were only concerned about street parking, and not the marketplace for local private off-street parking?
The private parking spaces behind Dragon Pizza and the public metered spaces on this side of Grove Street (I count 16 from Google Maps) would be eliminated. That and any Elm Street or Grove Street Lot spaces allocated to a resident with a disability would put pressure on metered street parking and business permit parking (for employees). The fact that the new building will have a rear loading zone would reduce pressure on Elm Street loading zones and considerably reduce double parking of trucks.
The Elmway Action Group has been investigating parking issues in this corridor. Elm Street metered parking between Grove and Cutter Ave tends to be under-used at peak times, so that could absorb some of the displaced customers. We have also found that many Elm Street drivers are unaware there is cheap, metered off-street parking lots at Grove Street (x2), Herbert Street, Cutter Ave, and Buena Vista Road. Simply adding signage to Elm Street would make the process of parking nearby a lot less frustrating, and that's something I will recommend to the city whether or not the Copper Mill tower is constructed. We have also learned that the owner of the Citizens Bank building might be amenable to leasing its surface lot out for metered parking when the bank is closed. This would mesh well with the local peak demand for parking around dinner time, Thursday thru Sunday. My previous research indicated that adding 500 no-car households will probably create enough demand for 2 additional parking spots allocated to a car sharing service like ZipCar. I'm sure it will also generate more demand for ride hailing services like Lyft near the residential entrance on Grove Street, which is worth thinking through.
It's certainly possible to add residents and employees while reducing car traffic, which has been the recent long-term trend in Kendall Square. Part of that would happen as part of this design: Copper Mill would add a bike lane on Grove Street and indoor bike parking for residents. Adding a no-parking building would mean more people could walk or T to work and shop when previously they would have to drive to or through Davis, and some people would sell their cars. It's a major selling point that this building is in a neighborhood where it's easy not to own a car, and that's most of what makes it so in-demand.
But the success in Kendall has also depended on active no-driving programs operated by employers and MIT. I think it's reasonable to ask for the same thing for employers on the Copper Mill retail level, and maybe a couple of ZipCar spaces somewhere nearby. I know the city can add traffic management program conditions to special permits; I'm curious how that works for 40B.
Re: Construction impacts
The MassHousing application does not address construction impacts. Maybe they need to pick a builder and do more planning before those questions can be answered, or maybe it's just out of scope for what MassHousing cares about. Certainly worth asking about, and I'm not sure when in the 40B process that's normally dealt with.
Re: Shadows
I'm also not sure when shadow studies are normally done, but it's not hard to think through what the impact will be. The sun moves from southeast to southwest during the day, ranging from 20 degrees above horizon at noon at winter solistice and 70 degrees at summer solistice. Here's a graph, if you want to get wonky: https://www.gaisma.com/en/location/boston-massachusetts.html
The apartments facing the back of the tower from 20 Grove Street are clearly going to get a lot less direct sunlight, as will the businesses facing the back of 402A Highland Ave. From Google Maps it looks like the latter also has some solar panels on the roof. The impact for the apartments will be similar to what first-floor residents get when there are two triple-deckers next to each other. Comparing the direct-sunlight and shadow sides of my own house, I can say the sky and bounce from other buildings provide enough indirect sunlight to make a room bright. The tower will be scattering light back toward the shady side of a lot of buildings.
Most of the shadow is going to fall on the unoccupied roofs of the commercial buildings to the northwest and northeast. Other windows, roads, and parks are further away, so any shadows they get will be passing, for a small part of the day. Direct sunlight is nice if you want to grow sun-loving plants (as I do in my south-facing windows), but in many situations it's undesirable. This is why we environmentally and people-friendly buildings and parks and cafes have trees and louvered pergola and sun umbrellas and full-height windowshades. (Next time you're in a park on a warm sunny day, notice how picnics tend to cluster in the shade.)
As best I can tell, there are only 17 apartments at 20 Grove Street, and I'm guessing only half of them are on the sunny side of the building. The tower will add hundreds of apartments (on the south side) that get a ton of direct sunlight, more than a lot of (maybe most?) residences in Somerville because of how densely our 1-3 story buildings are packed. Hundreds of apartments on both sides will also have spectacular views which are currently very rare in Davis Square. So for people who like direct sunlight in their windows or who don't want to stare out at another building, this project will be a net improvement, if not a breath of fresh air. (At least for those who can afford the high rent or score a spot in almost any of the 126 affordable units.)
5.) What guarantees can Copper Mill offer for timely completion of the project?
If I were the developer, I would find this question exasperating. The honest answer is that this is not a thing that can be guaranteed. All sorts of things can happen to a construction project while under way: unexpected underground discoveries, lawsuits, supply shortages, defective materials, labor strikes, bad weather, macroeconomic shocks, and a pandemic. It's pretty much guaranteed that there will be delays caused by city government and utility companies. There's no way that a CEO can promise that among the employees at half a dozen different companies, even if they are experienced and trusted, no one is going to mess up and cause an avoidable delay.
Asking this question makes the developer choose among promising something they can't deliver, telling someone who clearly wants to be at the receiving end of a rock-solid guarantee something that will probably make them and half the room angry, or avoiding the question and coming off as smarmy.
We do know that once the wheels are in motion, every month that the building is unfinished means another huge interest payment, another month of not collecting any rent, and another month a lot of money and attention is tied up in this project and can't be used for other opportunities. The owner and Copper Mill have a strong financial incentive to move things along quickly, and I expect management there to be breathing down the necks of everyone involved to meet their self-imposed deadlines. As neighbors, we don't have control over many factors that could cause delays, but we can as voters motivate the city to prioritize responses that help construction projects wrap up quickly, and enforce any agreements and applicable ordinances about construction impact.
We can also influence community-caused delays. We would all suffer if we get a years-old pit in the middle of Davis Square thanks to a lawsuit that isn't going to change the outcome working its way through the courts. Maybe we can avoid that kind of scenario if we help everyone get informed ASAP, everyone has a chance to be substantively heard, and whatever challenges that are going to be made are made up front. If the project is going to be completely derailed, it's best that happens before e.g. The Burren has to shut down. If it's going to be built, it's best that happens uninterrupted. (I hope this email discussion is helping.)
(As a side-note, I don’t understand the interest in scaling the proposed project down to eleven stories from twenty-five. What does that achieve, apart from making the economics more difficult? Eleven stories is already out of scale with the neighborhood, if that is the concern.)
I agree; with this design, the 2-3 story frontages are what we experience as pedestrians, and as humans it's hard to tell the difference between a set-back 11-story tower and a set-back 26-story tower until you find a place you can see it clearly and stop and stare and count windows.
Nevertheless, I have heard some neighbors say they would support a 12-story tower but not a 25-story one. Maybe a field trip to Central Square or Back Bay near the Pru would help people refine their ideas about their own feelings; we've heard from folks in Union who don't feel the way they expected to about the bacon building.
One reason I ran through the calculations for an 11-story tower is that I think some people simply don't believe Copper Mill when they say a smaller building wouldn't be financially feasible. Now with real numbers in hand I can say that yeah, doing 24 stories instead of 26 probably makes a below-average profit margin somewhat smaller, but cutting the tower to what some people wanted to "compromise" on probably makes it too risky to build in current market conditions.
-B.