Size of Plymouth Prudential Project ‘Unheard Of’ in Suburban Redevelopment
Officials broke ground Wednesday on a massive redevelopment project of the former Prudential campus in Plymouth, kicking off the construction work with an obligatory shovel toss of dirt.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Plymouth Mayor Jeff Wosje. “How often does a city get a change to redevelop 75 acres in the middle of our city?”
The project — known as The Boulevard — comes after the 450,000 square-foot Prudential office building was torn down earlier this year.
“A project of this scale, there’s a lot of things that go into it,” said Dan Salzer of Scannell Properties, which is working in partnership with Plymouth-based Roers Cos. “You know, we don’t just snap our fingers and have it come together.”
He called a suburban redevelopment project of this size “unheard of.”
“Location, location, location as they say in real estate is true,” he said. “It’s a key fundamental of real estate, and you don’t often get an opportunity at a site like this.”
Construction crews prepare the former Prudential site in Plymouth for new development.
Future Construction
The plans for the project call for about 800 apartment units to be constructed at the site. There’s also a new prototype Coborn’s grocery store on its way. Summit Orthopedics is already under construction.
More retailers are expected to head to the site.
“The whole idea of what we tried to achieve is building a city within a city,” Wosje said. “So you’re going to have some retail in here, you’re going to have a grocery store in here. Summit Orthopedics is going over here. And then there’s going to be a 13-acre park where you can see the trees over my shoulder.”
A waterfront plaza will offer residents more restaurant options.
“Neighbors from nearby and the attached neighborhoods, they’ll be able to walk here and go to the restaurants here, they’ll be able to enjoy the park,” Wosje said. “It’s going to be pretty exciting to see this — it became the centerpiece of the whole development.”
Wosje estimated that about $350 million in redevelopment projects will end up at the site. But it won’t be transformed over night.
“It’s a five-year project, it takes time to fill out those and build out all the retail and business,” Salzer said.
