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Growth engines
Newest rail lines helping to boost property values

By Thomas Grillo

From The Boston Globe, 1/12/2003

SOMERVILLE - In the 1970s, Davis Square was a hodgepodge of department stores, pizza joints, and mom and pop stores. But today, less than two decades after the MBTA's Red Line arrived, the district is transformed, a bustling center that rivals Harvard Square.

''Davis Square was just another Somerville intersection, not a destination point,'' said Ian Judge, a native of the city who is general manager of the Somerville Theatre. ''But the Red Line came, and Davis Square got its hip factor.''

Hip was not the only benefit: Property values in Somerville have quadrupled since 1984, when a single- or multi-family home could be bought for $80,000 or less.

It's impossible to know precisely how much a subway line or commuter rail station boosts property values, real estate experts point out. But it's widely agreed that mass transit can help revive a depressed commercial center.

Somerville may be an example of one of the biggest successes, but it's not alone in gaining mass transit. Since the 1980s, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has spent about $2.2 billion on new subway and rail lines, including nearly three dozen more stations.

''There's no question that a new T stop improves property values,'' said Barbara Lucas, transportation planner for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. ''Realtors always use it as a big selling point.''

Consider the expansions:

Commuter rail service west of Framingham began in 1994, to Worcester. A Grafton stop was added in 2000; last year, Westborough, Southborough, and Ashland were added to the line.

The Middleborough-Lakeville commuter rail line opened in 1997, with stops for Quincy, Braintree, Holbrook/Randolph, Brockton, and Bridgewater.

The Kingston-Plymouth branch also started service in 1997, serving Quincy, South Weymouth, Abington, Whitman, Hanson, and Halifax.

A spur to Newburyport opened in 1998, with stops at North Beverly, Hamilton/Wenham, Ipswich, and Rowley.

And there's more to come:

MBTA rail service to New Bedford and Fall River is in the planning stage, and additional South Shore service is scheduled to begin in 2005, to Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, Cohasset, and Scituate.

Statewide, median home values rose by about one-third, to $225,000, from 1984 to 2001, according to data from The Warren Group. But in just the years 1995 to 2001, the statewide median price rose by about two-thirds.

And rail service may be giving the median price an even bigger boost in many places. An analysis of the data shows that the median price of single-family homes nearly doubled in 19 communities after they gained MBTA service.

Brockton, for example, which got three commuter rail stops, had one of the biggest increases in median single-family home price: from $71,503 in 1995 to $194,000 in 2002 - up 171 percent.

Grafton, which got rail service two years ago, saw home values soar from $161,125 in 1998 to $284,250 last year - a 76 percent increase.

In Worcester, home values have swelled since the trains began running, from a $89,000 median sales price in 1994 to $170,000 in 2002, or a 91 percent increase.

Rosalind Levine, a realtor with R.S Residential in Worcester, said commuter rail makes it possible for buyers priced out of Boston to consider Central Massachusetts.

''We love the commuter rail and want more stops,'' she said. ''Anyone who finds Greater Boston's prices prohibitive can buy here affordably and be in South Station in 50 minutes.''

Some communities and developers have been quick to seize the new opportunities that rail lines bring. Ashland voters, for example, in anticipation of the commuter rail service, approved a zoning change to allow housing in what had been an industrial district near the train stop.

Texas-based JPI, one of the nation's largest developers of luxury apartments, has proposed building 500 one- and two-bedroom apartments on the 210-acre site. Later phases of the project would include condominiums and assisted-living units.

JPI also wants to build 300 units across the street from the commuter rail station in Dedham, and 266 units in Salem at the former Parker Brothers site.

Not every community has welcomed such development, though.

Last fall, Kingston voters defeated a transit-oriented district that would have allowed homes and businesses on 150 acres near the commuter rail station.

Proponents urged the town to concentrate development there while preserving open space elsewhere. Opponents, though, warning of ''the nightmares of urban living,'' predicted higher taxes and more traffic.

Brockton has three commuter rail stops and a mayor who supports building housing, but developers face a daunting task trying to build apartments in vacant downtown factories.

Gatehouse Group, of Mansfield, wants to build 85 loft style apartments for mixed-income tenants at the former Strathmore Shoe Factory, but downtown businesses are opposed, saying the city has enough housing for lower-income people.

''The Chamber [of Commerce] wants 100 percent of the units to be market rate, but Brockton is not Providence,'' said Dean Harrison, a Gatehouse vice president. ''If there were a way to sell this project as all market rate, a developer would have stepped forward by now.''

Pasquale Ciaramella, executive director of the Old Colony Planning Council, acknowledged that while there have been proposals to breathe life into downtown Brockton, little has been accomplished. Part of the problem, he said, is a lack of parking and fears about crime.

Framingham only recently rezoned to allow housing downtown near the commuter rail line. Kathleen Bartolini, the town's planning director, said more than 300 apartments in three downtown projects are on the way, at the empty Dennison complex, the Arcade, and the Kendall Building.

''It took time for people to realize that upper-story housing in the downtown was an asset,'' she said. ''Some oppose multifamily construction - fearing that low-income housing would attract the wrong element and the additional traffic would exacerbate an already congested area.''

Still, other cities see an MBTA station as a lifeline.

Stephen Harausz, Lynn's economic development director, said he's pinning his hopes on a proposed Blue Line extension to help the struggling downtown. The subway line currently stops in Revere.

''A T stop would be a tremendous lift in commercial investment and would fuel condominium sales within 1,500 feet of the station for people who can't afford Chelsea and Somerville,'' he said.

Thomas Grillo can be reached at tgrillo@hotmail.com.

This story ran on page H1 of the Boston Globe on 1/12/2003.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.

From www.boston.com/globe.