Suffolk Downs Project to Begin on Revere Side

At an Orient Heights Neighborhood Council (OHNC) meeting Monday night, representatives from HYM were on hand to discuss progress on the Suffolk Downs mixed-use development project.

HYM’s Michael Barowsky kicked things off saying that all the barns and stables on the Revere side of the project near Beachmont MBTA have been demolished and infrastructure work has begun around what will eventually become the Beachmont Square gateway section under Phase One of the project.

Barowsky said part of Phase One will include erecting the first, second and third residential buildings as well as a hotel, office space and a life science building.

“There are five key buildings that are part of this phase of the development including a small boutique office building in the corner of the site,” said Barowsky. “Our first residential building as well as our second residential building will have about 450 units and we’ll also be bringing a hotel during our initial phase, which will be on the corner of a new street that we’re building into the site. We will also be constructing our first Life Science Building this year that we are really excited about. Finally, we have an additional residential building for a total of 1.7 million square feet of development for Phase One.”

Barowsky said this Phase will be built out over the next three years beginning this year.

“We’re building out all the roadways, plazas and doing some roadway work off site as well,” he said.

Part of Phase One will also include the construction of the Beachmont Square entry plaza, which is roughly an acre.

“There’s some built-in seating in the stairs on one of the buildings and we’ll actually have room for performance in a grassy area in the middle,” said Barowsky. “This is of course open to everybody as a park and a plaza with retail and outdoor seating. This plaza is really to welcome the community.”

Barowsky added that the ground floor retail in the first phase will consist of local and regional retailers and restaurants.

“We will not be doing any “big-box” stores on the site,” he said. “We are already adjacent to a Super Stop & Shop and a Target.”

Lastly, an outdoor performance theater being built as part of Phase One will double as a stormwater detention basin.

“This is something that would be built towards the end of our initial phase,” said Barowsky. “Again, this will be open to all and we think it’s a great public amenity.”