Inside the construction of one of Somerville’s first luxury condo buildings
197 Union Square will be a big change for the neighborhood. We got in early.
Though the proposed MBTA Green line extension into Somerville is now in question, it was this prospect that helped propel parts of the city toward a gentrified world more often seen in Boston and Cambridge.
197 Union Square, a 30-unit luxury condo building currently under construction, is opening a new chapter, and a new neighborhood.
“There’s just nothing here,’’ Barbara Mihalko, the sales director for 197 Union Square, said regarding the luxury housing market in the neighborhood. “It’s a re-gentrification of Union Square. Nothing has been developed. This will be the first of many to come.’’
The Union Square neighborhood, which is currently accessible by bus and has been promised a branch on the extended Green line, is filled with triple-decker houses, serving as both single- and multifamily homes. 197 Union Square will be the first big luxury condo building in the neighborhood – and among the first major residential complexes in Somerville.
The Boston Globe noted the rising prices in Union Square back in 2014, partially due to the lure of the T stop. Despite rising doubt over the future of the Green line extension and neighborhood groups agitating for a slowdown in the gentrification process, that trend hasn’t reversed.
Story continues after gallery.
See inside the construction at 197 Union Square:
The current Zillow Home Value Index is $520,400 and has risen 8.3 percent in the past year. In fact, Somerville has seen some of the highest home and condo price increases this year in Eastern Massachusetts.
With demand comes supply.
The one- and two-bedroom condos currently under construction at 197 Union Square range from the mid-$400,000s to the mid-$600,000s. Many of them are over 1,000 square feet, have open-concept living spaces, floor-to-ceiling windows, views of the Boston skyline, and NEST thermostats.
One-time fees for parking spaces range from $25,000 to $35,000.
The only major housing complexes that would appear to be competing for the same clientele as 197 Union Square are the Avalon at Assembly Row and Windsor at Maxwell’s Green, located outside Davis Square. But those are both apartment complexes, renting two bedrooms in the $3,000 to $4,500 range.
Mihalko said that 50 percent of 197 Union Square’s 30 condos have already sold even though they won’t be move-in ready until sometime in the first quarter of 2016.
Mihalko emphasized there was nothing else in the area like this building, which will have a gym, roof deck, laundry in each unit, a parking garage, bike storage, and floor-to-ceiling windows.
“People have been pushed out of Cambridge,’’ she said, regarding the rising prices there as well. “There is a lot of music and arts in Union Square. It is more of a destination and more of a convenience.’’
And she’s hoping to start a trend.
“There are lots of locals purchasing,’’ Mihalko said. “It is going to raise the value of the neighborhood for other new construction.’’
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