Stonegate Group and Nauset Construction broke ground last week on a mixed-use project at the site of the former St. Patrick’s School that will deliver 46 apartments with 14,000 square feet of ground-floor restaurant and retail space with four additional two-family townhomes. Located at 45 E. Central St., within walking distance of the Natick Center Cultural District, the project is being developed by the Natick-based Stonegate Group. The Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved the project last year after being stalled by the pandemic.
Designed by Finegold Alexander Architects, the 89,500-square-foot friendly 40B project will provide a mix of 46 apartment units ranging from one to three bedrooms and four duplex homes containing three to four-bedroom units, with 14 apartments designated as affordable. The four-story main structure will feature destination restaurants and retail space on the ground floor with apartments above, and the townhomes will be constructed at the rear portion of the property (Lincoln & Wilson Streets). There will be a mix of surface and underground residential parking, with the Framingham/Worcester Commuter Rail to South Station located in under an 8-minute walk.
The ground breaking offered a time of levity and celebration after years of frustrating setbacks. “We’ve been waiting for this day pretty much eight years to this month since we acquired the property,” Stonegate president Dean Calivas said, before starting what would become a running joke. “We’re looking forward to getting it done in 16 months,” he quipped to laughter from the crowd who knew better—the project in reality has a tentative completion time of winter 2025.
Subsequent speakers ran with the fun in a kind of bidding war in which the numbers kept going down until finally town administrator Jamie Errickson beat them all with the outlandish claim of project completion within six months.
We’re glad everybody can laugh now. There were times when some parties standing side-by-side at the groundbreaking could barely be in the same room together. Between long meetings over permitting the project to the grinding months-long halt experienced during the COVID pandemic, this project has been a very long time coming. Patience was a word that came up a lot. Or as former Select Board member Michael Hickey said, to get to this point has taken “energy, patience, commitment, perseverance, and a thick skin doesn’t hurt.”
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Please continue to report on the construction projects around town.
Eversource on Walnut st?
Update on Main St?
Update on Natick center main st empty lot?
Nice job!
Molly Collier