Image courtesy of Encore Enterprises.
Town officials in Bedford have rejected a developer’s attempt to rejigger a mixed-use project at a highly visible intersection in response to a changing market.
Encore Enterprises had asked town officials to let it change the Whole Foods-anchored development from an office-retail development to a retail-residential project. The team’s initial proposal called for almost 300 residential units. The final approvals Encore asked for covered three new buildings, including 40,561 square feet of retail, 20,046 square feet of restaurant space, an 11-screen movie theater, a 90-room hotel and 200 market-rate multifamily units.
The Planning Board rejected the waivers by a 6-2 vote.
The Market and Main site was originally intended as a mixed office-retail project, anchored by a Whole Foods grocery store and a 55,000-square-foot movie theater. The original project also had a 125-key hotel, 49,750 square feet of office space, 51,300 square feet of medical office space and 112,791 square feet of retail.
The project master plan was approved in 2016, with individual building designs OK’d in 2018. So far, only the Whole Foods building and two separate buildings housing a Trader Joe’s supermarket at a Friendly Toast restaurant have been built.
When Encore asked for a change of plans in fall 2019, it told town officials high office vacancy rates in the area and low commercial rents made their original plans untenable.
Town officials said they were concerned about reducing the amount of commercial development in the town – only about 10 percent of the town’s land area is developable into office, retail or other similar uses. Officials said they would have been open to the addition of housing if 25 percent of the units were set aside as affordable workforce housing. Traffic along with resident opposition were also cited as concerns.
Not all Planning Board members agreed, however. Board member Hal Newbury said his fellow Bedford residents were short-sighted.
“People continue to think apartments will raise taxes, but in fact without developments like this our taxes are going to go up,” he said citing upcoming capital projects. “We no longer have places to build significant new homes. … I don’t see where we’re going to get development of major retail in the future. That’s gone by the wayside. It’s not going to happen anymore.”
