Tufts U. Plans New Building at MBTA Station

MEDFORD, MA—In a public-private partnership, Tufts University has announced plans to build a new 100,000-squre-foot building using in part air rights it acquired over the planned new Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Green Line College Avenue station.

Two-thirds of the teaching and research building will be located on land owned by Tufts and one-third will be built in air rights over the MBTA Green Line College Avenue station, which is planned to open in 2020. The new building would open in conjunction with the completion of the station. The College Avenue Station in Medford will be located at the College Avenue bridge that crosses the MBTA Lowell Line commuter rail tracks at the intersection with Boston Avenue and adjacent to Tufts University. The station is part of the multi-phased Green Line extension project that will extend the Green Line from its current terminus at Lechmere Station in East Cambridge to Somerville and Medford. Construction on the project began in 2013.

Woburn, MA-based Cummings Foundation, a private operating foundation co-founded by Tufts alumnus Bill Cummings and Joyce Cummings, is providing financial support for the project. Bill Cummings is the founder of commercial real estate firm Cummings Properties.

The new five-story building is collaboration between the City of Medford, MBTA, Tufts, and Cummings Foundation. Through the partnership, the MBTA and Tufts have signed an agreement that grants Tufts a 99-year lease of air rights over the College Avenue Station and commits Tufts to pay for associated project redesign and construction changes. Tufts will also pay for ongoing maintenance and security around the station, which will amount to significant ongoing savings to the MBTA. Tufts will be granting use of its land to the MBTA for the construction of the new station at no cost to the MBTA.

Tufts has committed to pay $550,000 over four years to the City of Medford to support improvements throughout the city. The project is in its preliminary stages and no firm development cost has been established. The Cummings Foundation has committed to fund the completion of construction of the finished shell and core, including exterior finishes, of the building. A rough preliminary estimate puts the funding by the foundation for the project in excess of $20 million, according to a foundation spokesperson.

Initial designs for the building call for classrooms, meeting and seminar rooms, offices, and other support, conference and teaching spaces. The lobby and atrium, auditoriums, classrooms, and meeting rooms will be available for use by the community. There will be no wet labs or student housing. The ground floor of the building will include some retail use to enhance the pedestrian experience, according to Tufts University. A footbridge spanning Boston Avenue is also part of the project.

“We are honored that, through the generosity of Bill and Joyce Cummings and Cummings Foundation, we have this opportunity to add an important building to the community,” says Anthony P. Monaco, president of Tufts University. “The Cummings have been wonderful friends to Tufts and to the greater community, and their philanthropy has been vital to many of Tufts' schools and programs. Their visionary project will enhance public spaces for community use and also help knit together our campus, which is separated by both the railroad right of way and Boston Avenue.”

In addition, in lieu of property taxes, Tufts has pledged to pay the City of Medford $250,000 in the year that it receives a final certificate of occupancy for the Tufts building. At the start of the second year of occupancy, Tufts and the city will an extension of the PILOT agreement, with the understanding that future payments be not less than the year one payment. The new building will be funded entirely by Tufts via Bill and Joyce Cummings and the Cummings Foundation and through university sources.

“Since I am a Medford native who received a top-notch education in Medford public schools and at Tufts University, this building holds special significance to me. We are thrilled to support a project that better integrates the University with the surrounding neighborhood,” Bill Cummings said.