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1600 Osgood Street Redevelopment Master Plan is a plan for the revitalization of the former Lucent Plant located at the northern most section of Route 125 in North Andover.
The History of Merrimack Valley Works:
Originally owned by Western Electric, the Lucent Technologies Merrimack Valley Works plant at 1600 Osgood Street is a distinguished, impressive compound that has defined the image of North Andover?s northernmost industrial area since the mid-1950s. The site consists of 169 acres, including 40 acres on the south side that have never been developed. In addition to nearly 2 million square feet (ft2) of manufacturing, office and warehouse space in 30 permanent and temporary buildings, the property includes 40 acres of roadways and parking, 6,000 parking spaces and four little league ball fields. The centerpiece of the site is its 1.5 million ft2 manufacturing facility.Western Electric built the North Andover plant between 1954-1956. The company?s arrival marked a significant turning point in North Andover?s economy, for while much of
the region was suffering from the decline in textiles manufacturing, Western Electric made North Andover into a new kind of ?company town.? For three decades, Western Electric employed 10,000-12,000 people in North Andover. The property eventually transferred from Western Electric to AT&T, and in 1996, AT&T sold the property to Lucent for $45 million. Toward the end of the 1990s, Lucent Technologies began to downsize, gradually laying off and relocating employees in North Andover and at other U.S. facilities. The layoffs, buyouts and early retirement packages intensified, and in mid-2001 Lucent reduced its payroll by nearly 900 jobs.
Last year, 1600 Osgood Street, LLC ? the Andover-based Ozzy Properties, Inc. ? purchased the site for approximately $13.86 million with the goal of attracting high-tech/high-end industrial tenants. Today, the property is almost entirely vacant, with only a few hundred remaining Lucent Technologies employees filling its halls. The town and the people still employed there remain uncertain about the property?s future. For both North Andover and the region, the stakes are obviously high. For the new owners, however, the risks are enormous: dividing 1.5 million ft2 of single-user manufacturing space for multiple-tenant occupancy is daunting at best, and it is made far more challenging by the precarious state of the nation?s economy. Local, state and federal resources will have a major impact on the successful redevelopment of this property, for it
is hardly the only industrial space available in Eastern Massachusetts. While the Lucent site has economic, psychological and social significance to its present and former workforce and residents of North Andover, it is a massive plant that was designed and built to meet the industry-specific needs of one company.
1600 Osgood Street is served by public water and sewer, Essex County Gas Company, and Massachusetts Electric. Both freight and passenger trains run on the tracks behind the site, beyond which is the Merrimack River. Interstate 495 is only five minutes away via Route 125, the Ward Hill Connector and interchange 48 to the north, but access to the site from the regional highway system is not optimal, especially for tenants requiring oversized trucks and frequent deliveries. One commercial real estate services firm said recently that ?the plant is somewhat off the beaten path.?10 Although the access routes to and from I-495 south are not ideal, it is important to remember that Lucent Technologies was the destination point for 12,000 commuters not so long ago. Transportation routes alone should not be an
insurmountable barrier to redevelopment.
Ozzy Properties purchased 1600 Osgood Street anticipating that the extensive space and Lucent?s recent investment of $75 million in facility improvements would make the site appealing to highend manufacturing establishments and thereby lure another large tenant. The staying power to be selective about the right ?first tenant? will be crucial to the long-term reinvention of this property. Not surprisingly, many of the earliest inquiries have come from lower-end industrial firms. While Ozzy Properties has to remain open about potential tenants, they know that the initial leases could have a significant impact on their ability to market the property to quality tenants in the future. The issues are not only tenant compatibility and image, but also the sheer number of permutations involved in dividing such a large space.
Currently, Ozzy Properties is focusing on biotechnology companies that are in the early stages of product development and will need production space in the near future. In addition, the owner wants to maintain the existing ?campus? setting, adding some landscaping and modest site improvements in the short run. Ozzy Properties has designed new entrances at the north and south walls, handicapped accessible entrances and elevators, campus improvements to soften the appearance, common atrium space and breezeways, connections from the office building to manufacturing floor for contiguous corporate layouts, and new loading docks and shipping/receiving areas.
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