Jefferson Apartment Group retained Beals + Thomas to provide land surveying, civil engineering and permitting services for the redevelopment of Malden Government Center. In the 1970s, the City had constructed a Government Center complex on this site consisting of Malden City Hall and Malden Police Headquarters. The imposing buildings were constructed within the footprint of the former Pleasant Street, blocking the flow of traffic and pedestrians through the downtown area and cutting-off direct access from the once-vibrant retail district to the MBTA’s Malden Center transit hub. After nearly 50 years of living with this situation, City leadership decided to reverse the actions taken in the 1970s and issued an RFP for redevelopment of the site.

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Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) had a vision for restoring Malden’s vital downtown by reopening the Pleasant Street corridor, creating easy walking access to the now-struggling retail and restaurant district and adding new, multi-unit, multi-purpose residential, retail, and commercial buildings. This vision impressed the City leadership and JAG won the opportunity to redevelop the site as a vibrant mixed-use, transit-oriented development project featuring 320 residential apartments, 22,500 square feet of retail space and 145,000 square feet of office space to replace the existing City Hall building.

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In addition to land surveying and civil engineering, B+T’s responsibility included the critical role of guiding the project proposal through a complicated zoning and permitting process. The project site consisted of an assemblage of parcels under varying ownerships that created many technical zoning intricacies that had to be vetted and approved by the city. With B+T’s assistance, the permitting challenges were overcome, allowing the project to proceed with construction.

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Read more about this project in the Boston Real Estate Times, here.