Innovation at an affordable price could replace Dorchester’s dormant printing presses.
Development firm Nordblom Co. filed plans Tuesday for a plan to redevelop the former Boston Globe headquarters in Dorchester into a multi-tenant innovation park. The vision is to attract companies that want to be near the city without paying rents seen in more established neighborhoods, the Boston Globe reports. The project, named The BEAT (The Boston Exchange for Accelerated Technology), alludes to the beat reporters who used to work in the building.
While an earlier master plan called for apartments at the site, Nordblom Senior Vice President Todd Fremont-Smith told the Globe the project makes more sense as an office campus. The developer would gut the interior of the 695K SF building and replace it with open space that would attract smaller and larger tenants. The former printing press could become a food hall, and the developer is in talks with a craft brewer for a taproom within the project.
Norblom plans to move fast. To still tap into Boston’s hot office market, it is aiming to finish the permitting process by the summer and open the building to tenants by mid-2019. The developer acquired the Boston Globe building in 2017 after two previous deals on the property fell through. Center Court Partners and Concord-based Winstanley Enterprises both backed out of deals before Nordblom signed a contract in August.
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