$55M from State Puts Pressure on Westwood Station

In its fifth year of planning, the fall of 2010 may prove the most pivotal for the Westwood Station project.

If developers want to hold onto $55 million in state aid for road and infrastructure improvements, they must make vertical progress on the construction site this fall, according to a January letter sent by the state.

"We are extremely optimistic of it moving forward, but beyond that, we cannot predict," said Glenn Garber, the town's Station permitting manager.

While the original plan, first proposed in 2006, calls for mixed-use development, a second plan is in the works, but not officially presented yet, that would be a more conventional approach to development, Garber said.

"It reflects the economic reality of this economy," he said. "Development happens incrementally now – in smaller chunks."

The official and larger plan would involve 4.2 million square feet of space near the Rte. 128 MBTA station between Canton Street and Blue Hill Drive. The dialed back plan would be 75 percent smaller, and include 450,000 square feet of retail development. Unlike the official proposal, the second one wouldn't include office space or residential buildings, according to site plans on the town's website.

"The present proposal hasn't come forward," Garber said. "It has no official status."

Both proposals call for a pair of giant anchor stores – suggested by site plans to be Target and Wegman's Supermarket – and several smaller stores.

Boston-based developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes will need to make vertical progress – the site already has some foundation laid – in order use the $55 million in state aid.

That money would finance improvements to Canton Street and Blue Hill Drive so both roads could handle increased traffic. It also would pay for a new street for the project that would run to the north of the retail space, Westwood Station Boulevard.

"That's the essential right of way," Garber said. "That is the spine of the new project."