Assembly Square BIG

Assembly Square is the region's rising 145-acre destination for recreation, commerce and a 21 st Century urban village. Closer to downtown Boston than most of the City of Boston and between the historic Mystic River, Interstate 93, and the Orange Line, the Assembly Square Marketplace of superstores is the first in a series of new developments that will involve a retail, residential and office community in a walkable waterfront setting. Since the mid 90s, the Assembly Sq BIG has been working with the community, local government, and developers to advocate for mixed-use development oriented toward the ancient river, the present community and the future transit service.

Broadway is Someville's string of jewels -- unique, pedestrian-scale, neighborhood business districts along the city's major three-mile business boulevard including: East Broadway, Winter Hill, Magoun Square, Ball Square, Powderhouse, and the Teele Square/Clarendon Hill area. This historic business boulevard is comparable to Union Square and Davis Square for many great dining destinations, convenient personal, professional, and financial services, and a host of boutique retailers. Over the years, the BIG has helped bring reporters and TV programs to a number of the neighborhood districts. Since the mid-90s, the BIG has also worked from one end of Broadway to the other with city agencies and residents to help redesign parking, crosswalks, traffic lights, loading zones, and bus stops. With the administration of Mayor Joseph Curtatone, the BIG has welcomed the East Somerville Main Streets program and “a return to community self-reliance and local empowerment, based on…unique assets: a diverse community, thriving economic activity, distinctive architecture and local ownership.”

^Top

Davis Sq BIG

Since the 1990s, Davis Square has been called one of the hippest places in North America (Utne Reader). The Square enjoys a vibrant, diverse urban village with an intimate streetlife of owner-operated shops and small businesses. By day, this pedestrian-scale regional nexus pulsates with a busy mix of Redline transit and community bike path commuters, famous coffeehouses, convenient markets, unique retail boutiques, financial services; personal care, business, and professional services; and health, wellness, and fitness providers. Then, the Square really revs up with Davis After Dark. The Davis Square BIG has helped add value to this phenomenon: by encouraging and amplifying the message through magazine, newspaper, and television coverage; by supporting community festivals here; by introducing new special events; by stimulating improvements such as hard-wired trees for festive lighting; by supporting a new 200-seat Davis Square Theater; and by addressing the everyday needs of the Square – traffic and parking, maintenance & beautification, and regulatory matters.

^Top

Inner Belt BIG

In the commercial real estate history of greater Boston , the Inner Belt Park has been recognized as one of the most successful industrial parks in greater Boston . Today, next to the billion-dollar NorthPoint development and nearly within the shadow of the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge , the Inner Belt Business Park is one of the four cornerstones of the urban core for robust fiber optic high bandwidth capacity. Just a few minutes from Sullivan Square 's Orange Line rapid transit station and major regional bus terminal, the Inner Belt includes: elite warehouse & distribution centers, key regional marketing and maintenance service companies, MBTA/Amtrak offices, financial services, convenient retail, and Somerville 's flagship hotel. The Inner Belt is now in the immediate path of the proposed new Green Line Extension. The Inner Belt BIG has been involved in: public works improvements; investor/developer relations; and zoning issues and planning issues.

^Top

Union Square BIG

Union Square is the most genuine international place in New England and next to everything at the lively historic crossroads of Washington Street and Somerville Avenue just about a mile from Harvard, MIT and NorthPoint. Since the mid-90s, the Chamber's Union Sq BIG has been an advocate for restoring the Square to its former pre-eminence as a business, civic, and cultural center. One catalyst in this resurgence will be the restoration of transit service (the Green Line spur). In the meantime, the BIG has focused on helping to develop the identity, image and promotion of the Square and has tackled issue of zoning, economic development, maintenance & beautification, and traffic and parking, Along the way, the BIG helped win the technical assistance of the renowned international real estate association – the Urban Land Institute. With the administration of Mayor Joseph Curtatone, the BIG welcomed the creation of the Union Square Main Street Program.

^Top