Friday, May 17, 2013
Construction could begin this summer after board gives tacit approval of project's massing and height.
It may have just been a straw vote among the four Belmont Planning Board members at its Thursday meeting on May 16, but the unanimous tally all but assures the long-stalled Cushing Village retail and residential development will receive a special permit in the next 30 to 60 days that would allow construction of the 185,000 square foot project to begin. "This is a milestone. This vote will move the project forward," said Planning Board Chair Sami Baghdady after he and the members symbolically approved the project's height and mass, creating an "envelope" that allows the developer and abutters an assurance of a specific size and boundary to the adjacent neighborhood. "We're ready to go," said Chris Starr, the president of the development …
42.38052
-71.1746
Common St & Trapelo Rd, Belmont, MA
/articles/milestone-belmont-planning-board-oks-cushing-village-envelope
/locations/9396582
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Italian in Cushing Square with a South End Mexican eatery opening a sister location in the Center.
A pair of 60-plus seat restaurants – an Italian eatery from the successful chef/owner of Waltham's La Campania and a sister location of a top-rated Mexican restaurant in the South End – are proposing to open this year in Belmont, adding to the town's growing reputation as a destination location for good dining. Located in the location once occupied by a shoe repair shop at 436 Common St. in Cushing Square, La Maione Pizzeria Con Cucina will be an Italian eatery focusing on Neapolitan-style pizza and southern Italian "soul food" from chef John Maione who has owned La Campania on Main Street for more than a decade. Over in Belmont Center, El Centro Mexican Restaurant will be the suburban outpost of the South End-based standout located on …
42.39759
-71.17528
66 Leonard St, Belmont, MA
/articles/two-restaurants-heading-to-belmont
/locations/9391447
42.38155
-71.174953
436 Common St, Belmont, MA
/articles/two-restaurants-heading-to-belmont
/locations/9391448
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Board still hopes to present retail/residential development to Town Meeting; developer presents "final" project plan. But where's the clock tower?
If the year-long review process of the $80 million Cushing Village project could be compared to next week's Boston Marathon, the 184,000 square foot, three building residential/retail project has reached Kenmore Square and is in the last mile of the race heading for finish line. At last night's Belmont Planning Board meeting, April 9, Cushing Village developer Smith Legacy Partners provided packets to the board and the public of 40 over-sized pages containing its Project Plan, an all encompassing set of detailed technical drawings and schematics that will form the basis of its final submission to the Board, according to lead developer, Chris Starr. "Yes, this is it. This is basically what we will be submitting," Starr said of the Project …
42.38052
-71.1746
Common St & Trapelo Rd, Belmont, MA
/articles/belmont-cushing-village-nears-planning-board-s-finish-line
/locations/9207426
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
By how much depends on which of the analyses is used.
Whether it's $80,000 or $316,000, the conclusion of competing economic reports on the impact of the proposed residential/retail Cushing Village development in the heart of Cushing Square will be a net upside to future town budgets. "Whatever number you take, it does have a positive (number) before it," said Belmont Planning Committee Chairman Sami Baghdady at the Committee's Tuesday, March 12 meeting, as the economic and fiscal analyses completed by the Planning Board's Elizabeth Allison and the developer, Smith Legacy differed in a single area; the impact of the three-building complex on Belmont schools, particularly in the number of students the 115 apartment unit complex will attract. While the Partners defended their figures showing …
42.38052
-71.1746
Trapelo Rd & Common St, Belmont, MA
/articles/bet-on-it-cushing-village-to-increase-revenue
/locations/9007752
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Committee co-chairman list recommendations to increase sustainability of proposed project.
With the Belmont Planning Board deciding at its previous meeting to review other aspects of the proposed Cushing Village development, the focus of the three-building complex situated on three blocks in the heart of Cushing Square turned on recommendations to make the residential and retail proposal as energy and environmentally friendly as possible According to Belmont Energy Committee Chairman Roger Colton, developer Chris Starr and his development team, Smith Legacy Partners, should view the recommendations of his and other sustainability proponents are making as a chance to produce a more profitable and sound project. "I urge both the Planning Board and the Cushing Village Development Team tonight to view the recommendations I have …
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Planning Board Chairman predicts vote on Belmont's largest development in late April.
After nearly a year since first meeting, the Belmont Planning Board has sent out a tentative "save the date" for its big decision on the largest commercial development in Belmont. Belmont Planning Board Chairman Sami Baghdady told Belmont Patch that he is pushing for a final up-or-down vote on the Cushing Village development before the annual Town Meeting set to assemble on April 29. "I hope that we will be a position to vote on the project in a few month. My goal is before Town Meeting," said Baghdady. Baghdady's announcement came after the chairman proclaimed that the board was prepared to move forward after 11 months of reviewing the critical "shape, size and mass" dimensions of the proposed 184,000 square-foot in the heart of Cushing …
42.38052
-71.1746
Common St & Trapelo Rd, Belmont, MA
/articles/decision-on-cushing-village-by-town-meeting
/locations/8657325
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Abutters and neighborhood group wants height limits on Hyland while developers squeeze exterior a bit more after resident comments.
Just say no, a neighborhood organization that abuts the proposed Cushing Village development is telling the Belmont Planning Board. No, the Cushing Square Neighborhood Association isn't concerned about a decision by Planning Board Chairman Sami Baghdady that by early in the New Year the board would take up possible regulations on any marijuana dispensaries that wish to take up residence in the "Town of Homes." The association wants the board to just say no to a fourth floor on one of the three buildings that make up the $80 million, residential/retail mixed-use project in the heart of Cushing Square being presented by developer Chris Starr and his Smith Legacy Partners development company. The association told the board at its Dec. 11 …
42.37942
-71.17543
Belmont St & Common St, Belmont, MA
/articles/no-to-four-residents-seek-three-story-limit-on-cushing-village-building
/locations/8430053
Friday, December 7, 2012
Neighbors group seeks a 3D visit to the project as well as pushed back from their homes.
Preliminary designs for the final of three buildings to make up the proposed Cushing Village retail/residential project in Cushing Square were brought before the Belmont Planning Board and residents who filled the Board of Selectmen's Room on Wednesday, Dec. 5, The Hyland, a nearly 60,000 square-foot, multi-use building that cascades from the corner of Belmont and Common streets on the Watertown/Belmont town line to Horne Road, joins the Pomona and Winslow to provide the first overview of the completed complex first envisioned by developer Chris Starr and his Smith Legacy Partners half a decade ago. But the first detail look of the building, which would house a fitness center, the majority of the project's parking and up to 47 housing …
42.37942
-71.17543
Belmont St & Common St, Belmont, MA
/articles/belmont-s-cushing-village-ends-initial-presentation-on-a-hy-land
/locations/8331374
Thursday, November 15, 2012
A little bit of Paris to Belmont in the center of Cushing Square; traffic could be under a management plan.
When the image of what will be the centerpiece of developer's Chris Starr's Cushing Village development was projected onto the screen during the Planning Board's meeting Tuesday night, the rendering brought an immediate response from one resident. "Oh, my Lord!" said the Belmont Street resident who would live two houses from the $80 million project, referring to the four-story building (She refused repeated efforts to be identified, only to say that she doesn't "talk to anyone.") The outburst, which prompted Planning Board Chairman Sami Baghdady to remind people that keep their comments on design issues for a later date, came as Smith Legacy Partners presented a flushed out design for the Pomona Building, the largest of the three buildings…
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Developer Chris Starr submits first economic analysis: town nets $300K in tax revenue.
It was show and tell Tuesday night, Oct. 9, for Cushing Village and Smith Legacy Partners, the development company run by Chris Starr, as it came before the Belmont Planning Board. And not only did Starr and his team present a "near complete" design for the smallest of the three buildings that would make up the $30 million retail and residential housing development in the heart of Cushing Square, they also came bearing the first view of the project from a dollar's point of view. In the initial economic analysis of the project, Starr believes Belmont could expect a net annual gain to public coffers of $300,000 once the development is up and operating. "These numbers show an economic boost for the community which I hope will bring Cushing …
42.38052
-71.1746
Common St & Trapelo Rd, Belmont, MA
/articles/one-down-cushing-village-developer-brings-easy-building-to-planning
/locations/7992863
Matt Sullivan
9:55 am on Friday, May 17, 2013
sully121 10 hours ago Report Abuse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This was a great night for Belmont. After years of discussion and changes in the proposal the Planning Board has voted to move forward with Cushing Village. What we have now is a development that is much improved and should make everyone happy, Thank you! Read more: Planning Board … more ›