The Boston Redevelopment Authority and the MBTA have been working together to create a hotbed industrial and manufacturing zone within the City, at the crossroads of four distinct neighborhoods.
The Newmarket Industrial-Commercial Neighborhood District, a chunk of land including Dorchester, South Boston, the South End, and Roxbury, thanks to a BRA rezoning project, is now a distinct development parcel. With more than 700 companies specializing in “food processing, distribution and other light manufacturing industries,” Newmarket is an employment hub.
“Boston’s industrial and manufacturing sectors account for more than 54,000 jobs, and new zoning for Newmarket will keep good jobs in the City of Boston,” Mayor Walsh said. “This neighborhood is at the center of our city’s cutting-edge industrial economy and with this new zoning, we’re confident its evolution will continue.”
Zoning Article 90 makes Newmarket its own unique district, with clearly defined boundaries. Previous zoning boundaries for the district were established based about 50 years ago, to reflect the economy of the 1960s.
Needless to say, the today’s economy is a tad different. According to the BRA, new district zoning identifies 51 specific uses for Newmarket that call for the production of green and clean technology, the addition of breweries, wineries, and creative industries, such as art studios, architecture and industrial design, and video game development. However, Newmarket’s food production and distribution will remain an integral part Newmarket’s identity.
“The new zoning will protect essential industrial and commercial businesses in one of Boston’s core industrial districts,” Sue Sullivan, executive director of the Newmarket Business Association said in a statement.
The rezoning of the district came in the wake of the Newmarket commuter rail station opening last July, located north of the Massachusetts Ave Bridge and adjacent to the South Bay Shopping Center.
With Newmarket accounting for $4 billion in annual revenue, and home to more than 1,000 business, the recent rezoning is could lay the groundwork for transit oriented development in commercial and industrial areas going forward, similar to the Orange Line Assembly Square project.
Image via the Boston Redevelopment Authority
