DCAMM Seeks Redevelopment of Bunker Hill CC Campus

Photo courtesy of DCAMM

Bunker Hill Community College’s 32-acre campus in Charlestown has the potential to add multifamily housing and a new life science industry cluster under a public-private redevelopment process beginning this month.

The state Department of Capital Asset Management and Management is seeking a master developer to raze and replace the college’s seven buildings on New Rutherford Avenue. Brokerage Newmark issued an offering memo this week for the project. DCAMM said it plans to select a developer by the end of 2024, following property tours and a call for offers.

Developers could take advantage of the recent rezoning of the Rutherford Avenue corridor by the Boston Planning & Development Agency. The PLAN: Charlestown allows building heights up to approximately 28 stories in a neighborhood dominated by industrial buildings and parking lots in the shadow of Interstate 93.

The property will be offered under a long-term ground lease. Successful proposals should maximize industry partnerships designed to improve students’ job opportunities, DCAMM announced.

“Our project on the BHCC campus will bolster the college’s positive impact on our state while creating an opportunity to contribute to our administration’s housing development goals in this exceptional location,” Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said in a statement.

The college campus off New Rutherford Avenue includes seven connected buildings totaling 506,000 square feet along the southern portion of the site, five of which were completed in the mid-1970s. Developers would be required to provide 360,000 square feet of academic space for the school in the new project, and phase the project to avoid disruption of college operations.

That would leave “substantial upside massing potential” for private development, the offering states, primarily on the northern portion of the property where athletic fields are located.

The offering memo emphasizes the property’s proximity to life science clusters in Kendall Square, Cambridge Crossing and East Somerville.

Developers will be evaluated based upon experience in mixed-use urban developments and higher education projects, commitment to diversity, design and development proposals and business terms.