Somerville’s planning board is meeting next month to consider the next step in developer US2’s nine-story life sciences building in Union Square.
US2 has proposed a 280,000-square-foot mixed-use development with ground-level retail at 50 Webster Ave. The project would kick off the second phase of the USQ development, one of the most important components in the remaking of Union Square along with the Green Line Extension’s opening earlier this year.
USQ calls for 2.4 million square feet of development, including 1,000 units of housing. Its first phase, now under construction, features a seven-story lab building at 10 Prospect St. that is set to open next year, as well as a residential project at 50 Prospect.
The first hearing on the project is scheduled for Aug. 4. It’s possible more hearings will be scheduled after that date.
Also coming before the board is a 16,000-square-foot plaza at 62 Prospect St., next to the proposed lab building at a five-way intersection. The project would include a small amphitheater with “seat steps” and would “provide a gateway” to Boynton Yards, the other major mixed-use development underway off Union Square, according to a US2 filing. Boynton Yards, which is being developed by DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners and Leggat McCall Properties, plans to include at least 1.3 million square feet of lab and office space as well as 450 apartments.
The 50 Webster project would include a 270-space, below-grade parking garage. The building’s architect of record is Boston’s SGA, and its landscape architect New York-based Marvel.