UPDATED, Jan. 13: The MBTA has ended its search for a partner to redevelop the 30 acres around the Alewife Red Line station and the five-level parking garage, according to a Jan. 12 report.
The decision to end the procurement process to select a developer comes at a time when the area communities were planning on having an improved transportation hub, including replacing the aging parking garage and adding a stop on the Fitchburg Commuter Rail line, and using the redevelopment to address the infrastructure issues that now allow untreated sewage to drain into the Alewife Brook through Combined Sewer Overflows.
This story was first reported by Christian MilNeil on StreetsblogMASS.
An MBTA spokesperson wrote in an email to StreetsblogMASS that “current market conditions are not favorable to maximizing the property’s value for transportation priorities” and that the agency would be cancelling its search for a joint development partner for the land it owns around Alewife station.
“It’s not surprising that a private developer is uninterested in building there,” Arlington Select Board chair Diane Mahon said on Jan. 13. “The Alewife MBTA parking garage sites in the middle of the Great Swamp, on top of some old sewer pipes, dating back to 1896. One of those pipes is responsible for discharging tens of millions of gallons of raw sewage into Alewife Brook. It is the worst CSO outfall in all of Boston. The MWRA needs to first stop the sewage pollution that flows there. Then the MBTA might find an interested developer.”
The aging Alewife Station garage, which has already seen structural renovations, needs to come down. Without money in its budget to build a replacement garage, the MBTA announced the bidding process in August to partner with a private development firm to demolish the structure and build back, while also developing the surrounding land that the transportation agency owns – more than 30 acres. The original proposal called for a development partner to be chosen by the end of 2025.
“A major market shift occurred during the procurement, which would have impacted pre-development labor costs including labor and material,” the spokesperson wrote to StreetsblogMASS. “The property value at Alewife remains strong and the MBTA is committed to working with the City of Cambridge and other stakeholders to improve the station in a way that benefits the community.”
In August, Arlington’s Select Board and town manager used the announcement to call for the state and the MBTA to use any redevelopment to fix the problem of raw sewage that currently drains into the Alewife Brook through Combined Sewer Overflows. Cambridge officials followed suit a few months later.
The MBTA’s leadership over the summer sought to determine how many parking spaces would be needed at the new site and planned to conduct a parking-needs assessment. At that time, the MBTA and the city of Cambridge hosted forums for real estate developers on potential development at the 30-acre Alewife site, which includes a 2,700-space concrete parking garage that has deteriorated despite ongoing repairs.
Scott Bosworth, the MBTA’s Chief of Transit-Oriented Development, said that the T was no longer interested in paying the considerable costs of owning and maintaining so much parking on the site, according to the report.
The demolition of the large concrete parking garage, built in the 1980s, would be a complex challenge for the selected developer, as it will likely need to be dismantled in pieces. While the site’s being rebuilt, off-site parking will be required for the estimated 1,600 drivers who use the site daily, out of about 5,000 daily riders. Moreover, that figure is expected to continue rising, reaching 7,500 by 2028, when “deconstruction” was supposed to begin, MBTA officials said. The garage also sits on top of floodplains.
Many changes in the neighborhood
The redevelopment of Alewife stations comes amid a flurry of changes in the neighborhood, including the rapid purchase and development of land by developers seeking to build laboratory and office space in the region.
Ahead of the August forum, the Cambridge City Council requested that the city work with the MBTA on advocating for city priorities – notably, the possibility of a commuter rail station and commuter rail crossing for pedestrians. There has been a long-standing call for both a commuter rail station and a commuter rail pedestrian bridge. Currently, pedestrians and bicycles can cross the rail only via Blanchard Road or Alewife Brook Parkway.
Healthpeak buys millions
The station and bridge have been city goals for years – ones that it specifically included in its recent rezoning of the “Quadrangle” area where Healthpeak Properties bought hundreds of millions of dollars of real estate. Healthpeak may one day deliver its own pedestrian bridge, which, under new zoning regulations, would allow it to build denser developments.
Cambridge is expected to rezone the “Triangle” and “Shopping Center” regions of Alewife; the former includes the Alewife station garage, according to Cambridge Day.
“The MBTA is a different place today than it was a year ago, and it continues to get better and better,” Bosworth said in August. “We have a team here that is committed to accountability, that respects the taxpayers’ investments and ownership of things. And I can tell you that as long as this team here is involved, this project will absolutely have the oversight and importance put on it that it deserves.”
Nov. 12, 2025: Select Board discusses response to MWRA proposal to allow flow of sewage into Alewife Brook
This story, published Jan. 12, 2026, used information from previously published stories. It will be updated.
