The long-awaited partial demolition of the old Star Market building took place last week, with crowds gathering to cheer on the activities. — Photo by Bobbie Toner

By Jeffrey Shwom

The first pieces of roofing at a former Star Market came down Saturday, symbolizing the start of a multiyear housing and mixed-use building project on Winter Hill.

A crowd gathered across the street at Winter Hill Brewing cheered the first pulls of a construction excavator’s claw to the facade of the long-closed grocery store at 299 Broadway.

“This has been a long time coming,” said Winter Hill Brewing owner Bert Holdredge at the neighborhood demolition party he hosted at his taproom and coffee bar. “I never thought I’d see this day.”

Noting the nearly 3 acres of “blight,” Holdredge said he supported the project “in an area that needs a little bit of rejuvenation” and a city that “desperately needs housing.”

Mark Development and its partners, Beacon Communities and RISE Together, plan for the 2.6-acre parcel to hold two mixed-use buildings with 288 apartments and retail, outdoor community gathering areas, and an arts and creative civic enterprise space, according to the project website. Around half of the homes will be affordable, meaning they will be offered only to households earning 80% or below of the area median income.

The whole building is expected to be demolished within a week, and a formal ground-breaking ceremony and project kickoff will be held early next year, representatives of the developers said.

Mayor-elect Jake Wilson, who lives less than two-tenths of a mile from the site, spoke of 299 Broadway as a model project to help ease an affordable housing shortage in Somerville.

“We have a goal of getting 20% affordable in [all of] Somerville. Mathematically, we all know we will never get there if every project is that 20% minimum inclusionary zoning,” Wilson said. “That is why we need projects like this that can push us toward that goal.”

The long-awaited partial demolition of the old Star Market building took place last week, with crowds gathering to cheer on the activities. — Photo by Jeffrey Shwom

The Winter Hill Brewing party drew project neighbors, politicians, and community supporters, and mixed the festive with the civic. Resident Katie Scull said her group of friends – including a dog adorned in a Christmas sweater – came for a “fun hangout and fun Somerville thing to do in the morning.” Among them, though, was Joey Gardner, who lives about two blocks from the project site and said he was “pretty excited for this project to commence.”

“It’s kind of sad to have so many blighted areas in the region, so it’s kind of cool to see housing come in,” Gardner said.

Gardner said he would be happy to see the developers deliver third spaces – social gathering spaces outside of the home. The project includes 15,000 square feet of plaza and park space for civic use, 3,000 square feet of community and “flexible meeting” space, and an arts and creative enterprise space.

Event co-host and city councilor Jesse Clingan said that when he first ran for office in 2017, “every single door I went to brought up ‘What’s going to happen with the old Star Market?’ For this to be finally happening for the city is huge for this community.”

Clingan was hopeful that community input during the public process would be included in the final project. “A lot of the things that were in the original neighborhood plan for Winter Hill have been incorporated,” he said, citing a public corridor between the two buildings that goes to a public park on Sewall Street. The Winter Hill Neighborhood Plan was adopted in 2016 with priorities of rejuvenating Broadway as a commercial main street and “to reconnect Winter Hill to the rest of the city” physically and culturally.