WCAC

 

Two large developers have shifted gears on multi-million dollar projects in Waltham, opting to build luxury apartments instead of life sciences labs. 

 

In 2023, Lincoln Property Company received a special permit from the city council to build an office/lab at 1362 Main Street, a windblown lot with a lumber yard and a few other buildings.

Now Lincoln’s residential arm, Willow Bridge, wants instead to construct a 369-unit luxury apartment building on the 5-acre site.

 

25% or 93 of the units at the proposed West Main Apartments would be affordable, to be offered by lottery to potential tenants earning up to 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI).

Meanwhile, another developer, The Davis Companies, has also abandoned lab plans for the former Home Suites Hotel/Naked Fish Restaurant property at 455 Totten Pond Road.

 

The developer appeared recently before the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) to air plans for an apartment building with 315 units, 79 of which would be affordable at 80% AMI [see video above]. Residential abutters opposed the lab, and are now opposing the apartment building on similar grounds.

Both developers are seeking comprehensive permits from the ZBA under the state’s Chapter 40B law.

 

40B allows developers to sidestep local zoning regulations if their projects include affordable units. Currently Waltham falls short of a state-mandated 10% threshold for affordable housing units. 

At a recent hearing, some said that they don’t consider affordable units at 80% AMI truly affordable. As a result, they are pushing developers to include more units at 60% AMI—which has happened with other recent 40Bs in Waltham.

The two developers are not the only ones in the region to pull the plug on life sciences projects. After a glut of lab construction in recent years, vacancies have increased as property developers struggle to attract tenants.