Sept. 8, 2026

Good Morning,

Max Woolf here; hope you enjoyed the long weekend and are ready to dive into a busy fall.

In this special edition of our newsletter, we’re highlighting 10 developments across our five Charles River Regional Chamber communities that we will be watching closely this fall.

Together, these projects could deliver more than 2,200 new homes for families, retirees and workers, while also bringing new commercial space, investment and vitality to commercial and village centers.

Brookline: A big bet on Chestnut Hill 

Few things matter more to Brookline’s financial future than what happens along Boylston Street in Chestnut Hill.

Full of vacant office space and surface parking lots, the area is ripe for redevelopment. This spring, Town Meeting approved sweeping zoning changes designed to remake the area and clear the way for City Realty’s proposed mixed-use campus, which began permitting last month.

If all goes according to plan, the development will transform Brookline’s side of Chestnut Hill (across the street from The Street) with three buildings ranging from seven to 12 stories, containing 266 homes, a 200-room hotel, medical office and retail space.

City Realty will also be on the hook for roughly $6.2 million in annual property tax payments, $10 million in affordable housing payments and another $12 million in improvements to adjacent roadways and infrastructure.

Sounds like a pretty good deal. Let’s just hope this final permitting step doesn’t take as long as the first, and that financing and building costs pencil out.

What we’re also watching: Outside of Chestnut Hill, some of the town’s only other major development opportunities may be its parking lots. 

As the Select Board explores redeveloping municipal lots on Centre Street and in Brookline Village, a private lot at 26 Pleasant Street in Coolidge Corner could move this fall.

Developer Nordblom is seeking Town Meeting approval to replace the lot with 96 apartments — bringing new homes and over a hundred new customers to the heart of Brookline’s busiest commercial district.

Wellesley: MassBay remains in lawsuit limbo 

While Brookline is looking to build on its parking lots, the Town of Wellesley is fighting to preserve one.

The saga over the state’s attempt to transform MassBay Community College’s surface lot into 180 homes culminated this summer in a town-led lawsuit.

Even after the state assured the community the forest would be protected, and after a majority of Town Meeting members called on the Select Board to negotiate, the town filed a complaint in Norfolk Superior Court.

With the July deadline for the state’s RFP now passed, the project appears to be in limbo as the lawyers get busy and the bulldozers stay quiet.

We still contend this project is a win-win-win: permanently protecting the adjacent forest from development, generating funding for MassBay’s planned campus improvements and delivering desperately needed multifamily housing in one of the state’s most expensive communities.

What we’re also watching: Beyond MassBay, much of Wellesley’s development activity still runs through Town Meeting. 

In recent years, that has become a tough nut to crack for developers.

Enter Jumbo Capital, a Quincy-based developer that has made some splashy purchases in town and is now looking to transform an old Route 9 office building into a senior living facility on the six-acre site.

The project will need Town Meeting approval, so the real test will come when Jumbo decides when and how to make its case to the body.

Watertown: Will the garage stick? 

In Watertown, the city’s biggest development question this fall is what to do with its municipal lots in the Square.

With major changes ahead, City Manager George Proakis has argued that the area needs more room to grow and more parking to support local businesses.

His solution is a public-private partnership that would consolidate much of the Square’s parking into a new public garage while adding housing, retail and a park alongside it.

However, the garage has become the sticking point.

At a hearing last month, the public was divided on the project. Meanwhile, national developer Hg80 is waiting in the wings after acquiring rights to several key properties abutting the existing lot.

This fall, we’ll find out if the City Council agrees with Proakis — and the chamber — that a garage is needed to support the Square’s next chapter. (However, we are worried about the loss of space during construction.)

What we’re also watching: Elsewhere in the Square, one already-approved project could soon get a second life.

Eaglebrook Capital won approval last year for a 52-unit condo building at 108 Water Street, but the project has yet to break ground, and the site is now being shopped around.

Nonprofit developer MetroWest CD has expressed interest and last month asked the city’s Affordable Housing Trust for help purchasing the site. If the deal moves forward, Executive Director Barney Heath says the project would instead become 100% affordable housing.

Newton: The parking lot we hope shrinks

I apologize, but there is one more parking lot we need to talk about — and it is the biggest of them all.

The surface lot at Riverside Station in Newton has roughly 1,000 homes for cars. It has zero homes for people, generates relatively little tax revenue or jobs, and sits in a transportation haven next to both the Mass Pike, I-95, and the Green Line.

This fall, we’re crossing our fingers that Mark Development’s latest Riverside proposal is finally the one that gets built — and that there will never be another public hearing about it again.

This time around, the changes are relatively modest. Mark wants to convert two of the project’s six residential buildings to senior living, including continuing care and memory care, while shrinking the underground garage to reflect lower parking demand. 

The bigger change may be behind the scenes: national developers Greystar and Harbert have joined the project, each taking roughly a one-third stake alongside Mark.

What we're also watching: MBTA Communities zoning is already delivering results across our region, helping bring hundreds of new homes into the places best suited for them.

This fall, we hope to see movement on the first two 100% affordable projects enabled under the new zoning (three, if you count the Watertown example above). Beacon Communities is planning a pair of projects: one at the Rice Valley building in Newtonville and another at the former Santander building in West Newton.

Together, they would create 128 affordable homes in two of Newton’s busiest village centers: great for our businesses and the folks who are going to love living next to them.

Needham: What finally gets built at Muzi?  

Needham’s own megaproject has been stuck in neutral for years.

The former Muzi Ford dealership and car wash site was rezoned for lab and office development in 2021, permitted the following year, and then scrapped in 2025 as the life-science market cooled.

Now owner Bulfinch Companies is pursuing a very different vision: a 500-unit senior-oriented mixed-use development that Planning Director Lee Newman has described as comparable to North Hill. Bulfinch President Robert Schlager has said the senior-housing focus was driven in part by a belief that it would have less impact on — and face less resistance from — the surrounding Needham Heights neighborhood. 

Senior housing is unquestionably an important need. But on a parcel this large, in one of Needham’s most visible sites, it would be a shame if the final plan offered little or nothing for younger families and workers too.

Bulfinch had once hoped to bring new zoning to Fall Town Meeting. That timeline has now slipped, with town officials saying a vote is more likely in spring or fall 2027.

What we’re also watching: Developer J. Derenzo has owned the former Hillcrest Gardens site on Great Plain Ave. for years, patiently waiting for the town-led rezoning of the area that never came. This spring, he finally had to petition Town Meeting himself for the zoning change.

His proposal calls for a four-story building with 26 homes above ground-floor commercial space, exactly the kind of mixed-use development Needham Center needs and was supposed to encourage under MBTA Communities zoning.

The fact that Derenzo had to wait this long and go it alone is disappointing, but we are happy to see this project progress. Derenzo hopes to complete permitting early next year.

Thank you for reading our first-ever top ten list. Next month, we’ll feature our top ten worst spelling errors from Chamber President Greg Reibman.  

Max Woolf (he, him)

Public Policy and Government Affairs Manager

Charles River Regional Chamber

617-431-6101