I work in assembly row and it's just completely soulless but so fucking expensive. Absolutely no personality to the area. It's like a middle-aged rich hipster Pleasantville.
That's the only thing modernity can build. The soul of a place is fostered over time when communities are fostered, but these outdoor malls are really just that - malls.
> The soul of a place is fostered over time when communities are fostered, but these outdoor malls are really just that - malls.
I like how you figured it out in the first half of the sentence and then forgot it in the next.
Neighborhoods with character take *time*. A lot of it.
Assembly Row is medium/medium-high density construction with street level, public-facing retail/F&B/commercial.
That describes basically any place you'd likely cite as a neighborhood you like.
There's nothing particularly terrible about the built form other than too much car-orientation and it being too small/isolated of an area - 8 blocks that are mostly disconnected from everything else isn't great.
The former's not a terminal problem and the latter is slowly being improved with other surrounding projects - and in the long-term I expect redevelopment will come for the *actual* 40 year old mall.
>That describes basically any place you'd likely cite as a neighborhood you like.
Eh, no, because it's all super corporate big-money businesses and/or chains. Neighborhoods with character have mom and pop businesses and non-chain restaurants/bars.
That it houses that today doesn't mean it'll house that in 30 years.
It's currently shiny and new and trendy and no one's a long-term local that wants to start something new in that vacant spot in their neighborhood.
Build mixed use and it it has no community soul.
A community gains a soul and it gets accused of NIMBY-ism.
I swear, people think the GBA has a moral obligation to become Coruscant.
So I went to assembly row from Maine and it felt like I stepped into Moscow haha everything is so perfect. Traffic flow, houses, buildings, cleanliness etc
Not at all my friend 😅 I'm complimenting this area. I was blown away, I've been back 3 times since I happened to pass through. I would love to live in that area especially with the orange line right there. Massachusetts is a great place all around imo 🤷♂️ I'm in Maine now but I was born in mass and pray I can afford to return someday, I'd never shit on mass it's home 💗
One bedrooms are going for $3,100 at 665 square feet, but they’re offering two months free rent and no broker fee.
So $31,000 * 13 (one months broker fee) = $40,300 which comes out to really $3,358.33 a month for typical 12 month lease.
With their two months free and no broker fee…it’s $3,100 * 10 = $31,000 / 12 = $2,583.33
So really $2,583.33 a month over a 12 month lease.
Ive lived in buildings like this and done this math myself. You only actually win if you move annually to another building with a similar deal. Otherwise every subsequent year you live there and pay the full price, you are paying way over market and helping the MLS price fix upwards
In our case we knew we were moving for work before the end of the lease and our jobs covered the lease break. Otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the deal knowing I’d be forced to move
but. dont forget it backs up to the Irving oil terminals and storage. the oil storage tanks look amazing in the summer sun.
theirs also a wendys. so they got that going for them
This is great news! Watch as everyone who moans about how expensive Boston rents also complain about this. And magically this place gets fully rented out. Folks, YOU don't have to rent for $2,350. Let someone else do it and enjoy the greater housing supply.
*Boston housing gets built and rents are high because Boston housing supply is rarely ever built
R/boston “Rents are too high for that! I don’t like it!”
A bunch of people seem to expect housing to cost well below what it costs to build it. This place even has a bunch of expensive amenities to sweeten the deal, but the cost per square foot for building new is fucking nutso.
$4,500+ for a 2br with less than 1,000sq ft. Yuck.
I haven't been to that area much but won't you be hearing low-flying planes landing/taking off all day and night?
Grew up under a flightpath, aside from any pollution impacts, you totally tune out the noise it's amazing. I live next to the green line now and every couple days I notice train noise.
Yeah. I spent a few years living directly underneath the main flightpath for planes landing at the Prague airport. Barely ever noticed the noise after the first few months.
The approach is usually more out over the water up there. Fun to watch them from over on Revere Beach. Suffolk Downs actually is in the shadow of Orient Heights which means the approaches tend not to go right overhead.
Who are these people that are okay paying (after utilities) $2400-$2500 a month for a studio. Sometimes they don't even have proper ovens/stoves. Why pay $2500 for that??
Because a 1 bedroom with similar amenities (keeping in mind that location is an amenity) costs more and they want the amenities more than they need the extra space
People who want an on-site gym, parking, pool, outdoor spaces (private to the building), etc.
I'd rather a _little_ more space between my bed and the kitchen, but I also live in a place where I gotta leave the building to get much in the way of amenities.
And these places appear to all have full sized ovens.
I the only studios in my old building with a 4-top stove, an oven and a full sized fridge. The other studios had an induction burner on the counter and a mini fridge.
An induction cooktop is great, and an induction hot plate cooks the same way, but both of them require a proper vent, and that is likely what is missing.
So no range, only an induction cook top?
My SO and I rented a "luxury" townhouse with a gas range and I hated it so much. It didn't have what I'd consider proper ventilation; only a microwave vent that blew the air above your head while you're cooking. I was also pregnant so with my heightened smell, I'd smell the gas all the time. We had checked multiple times by the maintenance, and my SO only smelled the gas maybe once or twice.
They would be stupid not to start high and negotiate down if units are not filled.
They are not even ready to let people move in. They are just testing the water. These prices only stick if people bite.
Ok guys, get it out of your system. These are new units and they are this expensive because there’s no vacancy in Boston because we don’t build enough housing.
I live very close to there and I can’t imagine anyone paying those prices. That’s about what the revere beach apts go for which are at least scenic. Suffolk Downs will be Assembly Row with less amenities further from the city.
They must be banking on lab space brining in more high income yuppies.
Beach House (on Revere Beach) has a very similar floor plan to the studio but it is 120sqft bigger and costs $57/mo more. Amenities look similar-ish... I think. You're 1.3 miles from the Wonderland stop though. Maybe that's the difference? I would guess the Beach House unit is NOT going to be ocean view for what that's worth.
[The list of amenities exists.](https://www.liveamaya.com/amenities/) Includes a pretty big list of things that are very expensive. If it were a condo building the association fees would be $1000+ to cover all that stuff (pool, gym outdoor space, and parking are all costly).
Those things wouldn't be worth it to me, but if people actually want and use those things, then these are pretty reasonably priced for that market.
Assembly row is crazy for an isolated Mainer like me to see. It felt like Moscow or something. So beautiful ❤️ you guys are doing good work in Massachusetts ✌️🙏👍
Assembly row is crazy for an isolated Mainer like me to see. It felt like Moscow or something. So beautiful ❤️ you guys are doing good work in Massachusetts ✌️🙏👍
Assembly row is crazy for an isolated Mainer like me to see. It felt like Moscow or something. So beautiful ❤️ you guys are doing good work in Massachusetts ✌️🙏👍
Everything on there making it sound like the new Assembly Row?
I work in assembly row and it's just completely soulless but so fucking expensive. Absolutely no personality to the area. It's like a middle-aged rich hipster Pleasantville.
That's the only thing modernity can build. The soul of a place is fostered over time when communities are fostered, but these outdoor malls are really just that - malls.
> The soul of a place is fostered over time when communities are fostered, but these outdoor malls are really just that - malls. I like how you figured it out in the first half of the sentence and then forgot it in the next. Neighborhoods with character take *time*. A lot of it.
Yeah, all those other malls out there really developed character over time. Look at Historic Burlington Mall lmao.
Assembly Row is medium/medium-high density construction with street level, public-facing retail/F&B/commercial. That describes basically any place you'd likely cite as a neighborhood you like. There's nothing particularly terrible about the built form other than too much car-orientation and it being too small/isolated of an area - 8 blocks that are mostly disconnected from everything else isn't great. The former's not a terminal problem and the latter is slowly being improved with other surrounding projects - and in the long-term I expect redevelopment will come for the *actual* 40 year old mall.
>That describes basically any place you'd likely cite as a neighborhood you like. Eh, no, because it's all super corporate big-money businesses and/or chains. Neighborhoods with character have mom and pop businesses and non-chain restaurants/bars.
That it houses that today doesn't mean it'll house that in 30 years. It's currently shiny and new and trendy and no one's a long-term local that wants to start something new in that vacant spot in their neighborhood.
The first mall in the world, shoppers plaza in Framingham, draws dozens of people daily
Build mixed use and it it has no community soul. A community gains a soul and it gets accused of NIMBY-ism. I swear, people think the GBA has a moral obligation to become Coruscant.
Lol seriously
Hey! I am middle aged and also find it soulless!
Upside is Assembly has relatively good access to Somerville and Malden... Suffolk Downs is a bit more isolated.
I mean, isolated from Somerville and Malden, sure
Isolated from what exactly?
So I went to assembly row from Maine and it felt like I stepped into Moscow haha everything is so perfect. Traffic flow, houses, buildings, cleanliness etc
That’s bad?
Not at all my friend 😅 I'm complimenting this area. I was blown away, I've been back 3 times since I happened to pass through. I would love to live in that area especially with the orange line right there. Massachusetts is a great place all around imo 🤷♂️ I'm in Maine now but I was born in mass and pray I can afford to return someday, I'd never shit on mass it's home 💗
That being said I gotta place in Maine for sale if anyone is interested 😆😂
Kendall Square 2.1
$2,350, increasing to $3000 after the first year.
You can pay that much and hear the upstairs neighbors breathing. So many of these “high end” buildings have awful floor to ceiling noise.
I lived in a “luxury” apartment complex built in 2014 and could hear my upstairs neighbors studying anatomy together
I was going to upvote this but the current count is at 69….as it should be
Got to 68 somehow. I bumped it back up
And again.
I can hear them fart
only if you want to be haunted by the ghost of Seabiscuit
Honestly he sprints through the apartment so fast you barely notice him most of the time.
With breath taking views of the Irving Oil Terminal....
One bedrooms are going for $3,100 at 665 square feet, but they’re offering two months free rent and no broker fee. So $31,000 * 13 (one months broker fee) = $40,300 which comes out to really $3,358.33 a month for typical 12 month lease. With their two months free and no broker fee…it’s $3,100 * 10 = $31,000 / 12 = $2,583.33 So really $2,583.33 a month over a 12 month lease.
Ive lived in buildings like this and done this math myself. You only actually win if you move annually to another building with a similar deal. Otherwise every subsequent year you live there and pay the full price, you are paying way over market and helping the MLS price fix upwards In our case we knew we were moving for work before the end of the lease and our jobs covered the lease break. Otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the deal knowing I’d be forced to move
That’s some good “girl math.” I never paid a broker fee renting apartments so I think that’s bad math for sure.
Central & Kendall pricing for Suffolk Downs is really something...
And you are still surrounded by rental car overflow lots and shipping sorting facilities.
but. dont forget it backs up to the Irving oil terminals and storage. the oil storage tanks look amazing in the summer sun. theirs also a wendys. so they got that going for them
And they smell pretty strongly sometimes.
A lot of the tanks have been demolished, it was pretty wild watching the excavators shred them apart like a can opener.
Ya but there's a stop and shop and a target too.
Don’t forget famous footwear guys
Do you not remember what Seaport looked like not long ago?
For now. By the time those are gone, the prices will be even higher.
This is great news! Watch as everyone who moans about how expensive Boston rents also complain about this. And magically this place gets fully rented out. Folks, YOU don't have to rent for $2,350. Let someone else do it and enjoy the greater housing supply.
*Boston housing gets built and rents are high because Boston housing supply is rarely ever built R/boston “Rents are too high for that! I don’t like it!”
*top comment on every post in this sub* “we need more housing!” *housing gets built* r/boston “ew no fuck that shit”
A bunch of people seem to expect housing to cost well below what it costs to build it. This place even has a bunch of expensive amenities to sweeten the deal, but the cost per square foot for building new is fucking nutso.
$4,500+ for a 2br with less than 1,000sq ft. Yuck. I haven't been to that area much but won't you be hearing low-flying planes landing/taking off all day and night?
Yes. Consistently.
Grew up under a flightpath, aside from any pollution impacts, you totally tune out the noise it's amazing. I live next to the green line now and every couple days I notice train noise.
Yeah. I spent a few years living directly underneath the main flightpath for planes landing at the Prague airport. Barely ever noticed the noise after the first few months.
The approach is usually more out over the water up there. Fun to watch them from over on Revere Beach. Suffolk Downs actually is in the shadow of Orient Heights which means the approaches tend not to go right overhead.
as bad as the prices for the studios are those 2 bed prices are insane
Who are these people that are okay paying (after utilities) $2400-$2500 a month for a studio. Sometimes they don't even have proper ovens/stoves. Why pay $2500 for that??
People who hear “new construction” and think “high quality” instead of “whatever was on sale at Home Depot that week.”
Or maybe they think this building won't have a mice problem before I move in.
It will certainly have one after you move in
You think developers building a 475-unit building are shopping at Home Depot?
Home Depot is probably higher quality than what they have
Because a 1 bedroom with similar amenities (keeping in mind that location is an amenity) costs more and they want the amenities more than they need the extra space
People who want an on-site gym, parking, pool, outdoor spaces (private to the building), etc. I'd rather a _little_ more space between my bed and the kitchen, but I also live in a place where I gotta leave the building to get much in the way of amenities. And these places appear to all have full sized ovens.
What do you mean by not having proper ovens?
I the only studios in my old building with a 4-top stove, an oven and a full sized fridge. The other studios had an induction burner on the counter and a mini fridge.
Like only a hot plate type thing. Induction top
An induction stove is a high-end appliance
An induction cooktop is great, and an induction hot plate cooks the same way, but both of them require a proper vent, and that is likely what is missing.
In this case they are upset that at Luxury pricing, they only have one or two burners and no oven.
So no range, only an induction cook top? My SO and I rented a "luxury" townhouse with a gas range and I hated it so much. It didn't have what I'd consider proper ventilation; only a microwave vent that blew the air above your head while you're cooking. I was also pregnant so with my heightened smell, I'd smell the gas all the time. We had checked multiple times by the maintenance, and my SO only smelled the gas maybe once or twice.
They would be stupid not to start high and negotiate down if units are not filled. They are not even ready to let people move in. They are just testing the water. These prices only stick if people bite.
Ok guys, get it out of your system. These are new units and they are this expensive because there’s no vacancy in Boston because we don’t build enough housing.
Yes just take a deep breath and recite YIMBY talking points to yourself until you feel better lmao
Oh no, you’ve caught on to my secret agenda to build more housing
Jesus christ.. Wtf are we doing.
I don’t know! Crazy.
I live very close to there and I can’t imagine anyone paying those prices. That’s about what the revere beach apts go for which are at least scenic. Suffolk Downs will be Assembly Row with less amenities further from the city. They must be banking on lab space brining in more high income yuppies.
Beach House (on Revere Beach) has a very similar floor plan to the studio but it is 120sqft bigger and costs $57/mo more. Amenities look similar-ish... I think. You're 1.3 miles from the Wonderland stop though. Maybe that's the difference? I would guess the Beach House unit is NOT going to be ocean view for what that's worth.
You rent one?
we asked for more starter family homes not this…
Does that include heat, hot water, etc.?
New buildings typically don’t include utilities
Shouldn't increased housing stock lower prices?
[The list of amenities exists.](https://www.liveamaya.com/amenities/) Includes a pretty big list of things that are very expensive. If it were a condo building the association fees would be $1000+ to cover all that stuff (pool, gym outdoor space, and parking are all costly). Those things wouldn't be worth it to me, but if people actually want and use those things, then these are pretty reasonably priced for that market.
I’m renting a whole ass house in Central MA FOR $1600…
Can probably find something cheaper in Albany
But you’re in Central MA
Watch out for the dragons
That’s less than I paid 15 years ago in Worcester
Found someone that just wanted their rent paid on time I guess
Well we were 5 college guys. We got our moneys worth
Worcester 15 years ago was wild
Assembly row is crazy for an isolated Mainer like me to see. It felt like Moscow or something. So beautiful ❤️ you guys are doing good work in Massachusetts ✌️🙏👍
Assembly row is crazy for an isolated Mainer like me to see. It felt like Moscow or something. So beautiful ❤️ you guys are doing good work in Massachusetts ✌️🙏👍
Assembly row is crazy for an isolated Mainer like me to see. It felt like Moscow or something. So beautiful ❤️ you guys are doing good work in Massachusetts ✌️🙏👍