Westwood Station Concept Plans Could Come by Year's End

Westwood officials are expecting concept plans for Westwood Station to be in by either the end of the year or early 2011, the Westwood Board of Selectmen indicated Monday night. 

The project, which had been stalled due to contract negotiations, picked up speed earlier this month after Woburn-based Eastern Real Estate purchased the property. 

Meanwhile, New England Development, which has been long involved with the project, will remain on as Eastern Real Estate's co-developer, handling the retail portion of the project. The two organizations are currently working on contracts on how to proceed with the project, the Board of Selectmen said.

"They are working together as full partners, and the expectation they have is that this will close late this year or very early in the new year," said Board of Selectmen Chair Nancy Hyde Monday night. 

While the announcement of Eastern Real Estate's purchase of the project and property was a big step forward, Glenn Garber, the project's permitting manager, acknowledged that it was only the starting point.

As such, officials won't have a clear idea of what the next steps for the project are until Eastern Real Estate and New England Development finalize their deal.

"We really don't know much," Garber said Tuesday. "I don't think the transfer will occur for a while. They haven't passed the papers yet because of the complexity of the deal, and just the transferring of the land will take a while, but we still anticipate some kind of mixed use.

"I think it will be different than the existing permitted plan, I think (because) of necessity, this market and the economy. That's really all we know. There's a lot of things to talk about, even before they come in with some kind of concept plan."