The Anderson Regional Transportation Center (ARTC) is a multi-modal transit hub with commuter rail and bus service to Boston and points north. The project involved cleanup of a superfund site, and construction of the intermodal facility, new surface roads and a highway interchange.

Measure	Pre project	Post project	Change	% Change
Personal Income Per Capita	32,359	37,272	4,913	0.15%
Economic Distress	0.72	0.81	0.09	0.13%
Number of Jobs	36,600	38,834	2,234	0.06%
Business Sales (in $M's)	0	0	0	N/A
Tax Revenue (in $M's)	0	0	0	N/A
Population	35,943	36,749	806	0.02%
Property Value (median house value)	0	407,983	0	N/A
Density (ppl/sq mi)	0	2,849	0	N/A

Measure	Pre project	Post project	Change	% Change
Personal Income Per Capita	50,624	66,038	15,414	0.30%
Economic Distress	0.65	0.78	0.13	0.20%
Number of Jobs	963,028	1,072,510	109,482	0.11%
Business Sales (in $M's)	0	0	0	N/A
Tax Revenue (in $M's)	0	0	0	N/A
Population	1,431,630	1,469,800	38,170	0.03%
Property Value (median house value)	0	0	0	N/A
Density (ppl/sq mi)	1,738.56	1,784.91	46.35	0.03%

Measure	Pre project	Post project	Change	% Change
Personal Income Per Capita	42,959	55,048	12,089	0.28%
Economic Distress	0.85	0.97	0.12	0.14%
Number of Jobs	3,744,070	4,198,810	454,740	0.12%
Business Sales (in $M's)	0	0	0	N/A
Tax Revenue (in $M's)	0	0	0	N/A
Population	6,179,760	6,467,920	288,160	0.05%
Property Value (median house value)	0	408,856	0	N/A
Density (ppl/sq mi)	788.23	824.99	36.76	0.05%

Measure	Direct	Indirect	Total
Jobs	3,750.00	2,171.00	5,921.00
Income (in $M's)	146.59	84.86	231.45
Output (in $M's)	474.17	274.50	748.67

Anderson Regional Transportation Center, Woburn, MA

1.0 Synopsis

The Anderson Regional Transportation Center (ARTC) is located on the Industri-plex superfund site in Woburn, MA at the intersection of Interstates 95 and 93. After the US Environmental Protection Agency completed the cleanup of the 245 acre superfund site, the City of Woburn, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), the Massachusetts Highway Department (MHD), and the Massachusetts Port Authority (MassPort) partnered to make the site development-ready. The MBTA relocated its Mishawum commuter rail station to the site, MassPort developed remote parking for Logan airport, and MHD constructed a new interchange from Interstate 93 to directly serve the site. The Town built new roads and infrastructure within the site to support development of a commercial/industrial park. Construction of the transportation infrastructure began in 1997 and was completed in 2001. Over 1,407,000 square feet of mixed use development have been built on 118.5 acres, creating between 3,200 and 4,300 direct jobs. The assessed value of the new development (land and buildings) is over $162,117,000, bringing in more than $3 million in local tax revenues each year.

2.0 Background

2.1 Location & Transportation Connections

The ARTC is located just north of Interstate 95 (Route 128) and directly west of Interstate 93 in Woburn, Massachusetts, approximately 12 miles from downtown Boston. The transportation center provides commuter rail service to downtown Boston along the Lowell line, Amtrak service to Portland, ME on the Downeaster line, local MBTA bus service, airport bus and shuttle service to both Logan and Manchester (NH) airports, parking for 2,400 vehicles, and bicycle parking. The site is 15 miles from Logan Airport and 41 miles from Manchester Airport. rThe ARTC is accessed from Route 93 via Exit 37C, a new interchange built as part of the redevelopment of the Industri-plex site on which the Transportation Center is located. The exit provides access to Commerce Way, a new road built to serve both the ARTC and the 245 acre Industri-plex redevelopment site. (Seventy five of these acres are wetlands and will be protected as conservation land.)

2.2 Community Character & Project Context

Middlesex County had an estimated population of 1,469,798 in 2007. The population of the City of Woburn was 36,871 in 2008. The County population increased by 27% between 1996 and 2007, while the population of Woburn increased just 2% between 1990 and 2007. This difference in growth rates reflects that much of Woburn's residential land was built out prior to 1990.rThe economy of Woburn has evolved over the past several decades. Throughout the last century manufacturing predominated, with firms making chemicals, pesticides, glue, munitions and leather products operating in the City. Byproducts from these manufacturing facilities contaminated the Industri-plex site. In the 1980s and 1990s, the economy of the Route 128 corridor changed from manufacturing to high tech, and became a popular location for office and retail development as well. Woburn languished behind other locations along the corridor because of the notoriety it received as the home of the superfund site. However, the site cleanup and transportation investments opened up land at a critical junction between two of the busiest highways serving the greater Boston area. Since the cleanup, Woburn has attracted considerable investment in high technology, office, retail and hotel development. Despite this investment, the employment growth rate in Woburn has been slower than the County and the State, reflecting that the city is still recovering from bad publicity that resulted from the superfund site. Between 1996 and 2007, employment in Woburn increased from 36,600 to 38,834, an increase of 6.1 percent. Employment in Middlesex County increased by 11.4 percent during that period, while State employment increased by 12.1 percent. Woburn's role as a regional employment center is evidenced by the fact that there are more jobs in Woburn than residents.

3.0 Project Description & Motives

Three distinct transportation improvements were made at the Woburn Industri-plex site: a new transportation center, a new interchange, and new surface roads. The ARTC, which opened in 2001, replaced the nearby Mishawum commuter rail station. The new station cost $10 million ($2000) and the cost was shared equally between the MBTA, Mass Highway, and MassPort. The MBTA invested an additional $7 million ($2000) in track improvements. The 34 acre station includes a 13,207 square foot building housing a 364 square foot Dunkin' Donuts, and 2,400 parking spaces, of which 900 are long-term spaces for Logan remote parking. The Transportation Center was named for Jimmy Anderson, a thirteen year old boy who died from leukemia due to exposure from contaminants on the site prior to its cleanup. A new three level modified T trumpet interchange (exit 37C Commerce Way) from Interstate I-93 was built for $15 million ($2000) to provide direct highway access to the Industri-plex site. The interchange opened in 2000. In addition, $5,000,000 ($2000) was invested in new roads connecting the new interchange to development parcels within the Industri-plex site. These improvements were funded by a combination of two state Public Works Economic Development grants and private developers. In total, $37 million ($2000) of public and private dollars were invested in new transportation infrastructure at the site. The EPA worked with the businesses responsible for the site contamination to establish a mechanism for the redevelopment of the Industri-plex site, a major goal of the City of Woburn. A custodial trust was established to limit the future responsibility of those who had contaminated the site, and to provide some return on the investment in the site cleanup. The City's main objective was to create jobs, return the site to the tax rolls, and help resolve quality of life issues in the City. The state supported these local objectives. The EPA's goal was to ensure the protection of human health and the environment. The custodial trust created the partnership with the state transportation agencies and the City that spearheaded the transportation improvements to the site in an effort to attract investors. The custodial trust also helped assemble land and donated some land for public purposes, such as the ARTC. The planned infrastructure improvements resulted in positive publicity, which ultimately attracted developers to the site even before the transportation investments were completed.

4.0 Project Impacts

4.1 Transportation Impacts

4.2 Demographic, Economic & Land Use Impacts

The transportation improvements made to the Industri-plex site in Woburn have been critical to the redevelopment of this prime development area along the Route 128 corridor. In 1997, Dayton-Hudson bought an 18 acre site to build a retail development anchored by Target. National Development Corporation followed suit by purchasing 75 acres of the superfund site and creating a master plan for MetroNorth Commerce Center, featuring 1.3 million square feet of office, hotel and retail space. The sites have been developed by these two firms, who paid a combined total of $17 million for a total of 118 acres and invested over $280 million in development costs. To date, 1.4 million square feet have been developed. This includes 102,000 square feet of retail anchored by Target, 856,000 square feet of office, 128,000 square feet of office/laboratory space, a 140-room Marriott Residence Inn, and the 33,000 square foot Boston Athletic Club. Tenants in the master planned area include Raytheon, Analog Devices, Teradyne, GSI Lumonics, Cummings Properties, IBM, AW Chesterton, ArQule (a biotech firm) and PayChex. In addition to the MetroNorth Commerce Center development, MetroNorth has assembled 25 acres for future development on adjacent land. Other major retailers that have been attracted to the site include PetsMart and a Chipotle's Mexican Grill restaurant.rThe new development in the Industri-plex was assessed at $162,116,700 in 2010 (land and buildings) and brings in over $3 million in tax revenue to the city each year. Residential property values within 2 miles of the site have increased by over $4.6 million (most probably as a result of the site clean-up.) Well over $1.5 million in sales tax is generated in the development area. A total of between 3,200 and 4,300 new jobs have been created at businesses in this new development.rThe majority of the development is auto-dependent and occurred because of the access provided by the interchange, although the presence of the ARTC is used in marketing the site to prospective tenants. The development has been designed in a campus style, with large parking lots serving every building. While there are sidewalks, the large spaces between each building and the separation of retail from office uses does not encourage walking. The City is currently planning for the development of some sites closer to the transit center and is rezoning these properties to accommodate higher density, multi-family dwelling units with the expectation that people who live in these units will commute to jobs in downtown Boston via the commuter rail. Site cleanup continues on portions of the Industri-plex site, and more development sites will open up as cleanup is completed.

5.0 Non-Transportation Factors

The Industri-plex area would never have been redeveloped without the investment of over $100 million for the cleanup of the superfund site. In addition, the City of Woburn rezoned the Industri-plex site from industrial to commercial/industrial to allow a broader use of businesses in the area. The City also adopted changes to the permitting process to help expedite development. Proposed zoning changes for land near the transit center will help facility residential development in the area.

6.0 Resources

6.1 Citations

ES-202 data:http://lmi2.detma.org/lmi/lmi_es_a.asp
Greenfield Environmental Trust Group, The Industri-plex Superfund Site, Woburn, MA: Winner “Brownfields 2000 Phoenix Award”:
http://www.g-etg.com/case-study-Industri-plex.html
Massachusetts Highway Department, Office of Transportation Planning, I-93/I-95 Interchange Transportation Study: Transit Services, March 2006
Brooks, Cynthia N., “A Model for Redeveloping Complex, Highly Contaminated Sites”
"The Industri-plex Site in Woburn, MA" in WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol. 94, 2006:
http://www.g-etg.com/pdf/Industri-plex%20article%20by%20Cindy%20-%20A%20Model%20for%20Redevelopment.pdf
Wernstedt, Kris and Katherine N. Probst, Land Use and Remedy Selection: Experience from the Field “The Industri-plex Site, July 1997”:
http://ideas.repec.org/p/rff/dpaper/dp-97-27.html
http://www.g-etg.com/pdf/Article%20by%20Cynthia%20Brooks.pdf
http://data.visionappraisal.com/WoburnMA/DEFAULT.asp
http://www.massport.com/about/press01/press_news_woburn.html
http://www.g-etg.com/pdf/Article%20by%20Cynthia%20Brooks.pdf
http://www.natdev.com/how-we-do-it/metronorth.htm
http://www.city-data.com/city/Woburn-Massachusetts.html

6.2 Interviews

Organization

Department of Community Development, City of Woburn

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

National Development Corporation

Public Private Development Unit, Office of Transportation Planning, MassDOT

Woburn Assessors' Office

Footnotes

Case study developed by Susan Jones Moses and Associates

Project: Anderson Regional Transportation Center, Woburn, MA

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