2024 Winter Issue of Urban Land - 34

censorship system that has existed in
some form since the years leading up
to the turn of the millennium, making it
harder to move data out of China.
Gibbs said that the crackdown,
alongside souring relations with the
U.S., has stopped the inflow of smaller
and medium-sized companies to China.
Most large multinational firms aren't
leaving entirely, but they are isolating
their China operations, acording to
Gibbs. " A CEO recently sent a memo
to employees [that stated] if you leave
China, you can't take any devices with
you, " he said.
Wong noted that the net outflow of
funds from China, which hit a sevenyear
high in September , is driven by
foreign companies scaling back their
operations and wealthy residents
shifting funds abroad.
A superpower with an unwritten
future
Speaking on an earlier panel at the
same symposium, Rohan Sikri , senior
partner at the Xander Group and
the chair of ULI India Organizing
Committee, emphasized that, despite
its economic struggles-which include
factory orders shrinking, according to
October surveys-China's status as a
manufacturing powerhouse is not to be
underestimated. " China manufactures
98 percent of [iPhones], " Sikri said.
" Even if 98 becomes 90 percent, that's
... a huge number of manufacturing
dollars, and [it obviously creates] real
estate opportunities. "
HANNAH MIET is a is a freelance writer and commercial
real estate content marketer based in Los Angeles. She
launched the L.A. bureau of The Real Deal as its founding
editor and led real estate coverage at the Los Angeles Business
Journal. Her feature writing has appeared in Newsweek and
The New York Times. .
KISHORE VARANASI, MARK ROOPENIAN
Cambridge Crossing: A Mixed-Use Life Science
Campus in Boston
KAREN JORDAN
cambridgE crossing, a 4.5 millionsquare-foot
(418,063.7 square meters)
mixed-use space in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, was one of this year's
recipients of the ULI Americas Awards
for Excellence. As Kishore Varanasi-a
principal at Boston-based architectural
design firm CBT Architects who has
been involved with the project for
around 21 years-said Tuesday, " The site
had a lot of potential, but nobody knew
it. "
Varanasi was joined by Mark
Roopenian, managing director at
developer DivcoWest, and Iram
Farooq, assistant manager for
community development with
the city of Cambridge, to discuss
" Cambridge Crossing: Learning from
the 20-Year Evolution of a Dense, Urban
Development into a Thriving Mixed-Use,
Life-Science Community " at the ULI Fall
Meeting in Los Angeles.
The roughly 43-acre (17.4 hectares)
project, built at the site of an
abandoned railyard, has about 2.4
million square feet (223,027 square
meters) of residential space, including
about 2,700 residential units, according
to Varanasi. The project had multiple
master plans from different developers,
34
URBAN LAND WINTER 202 4
dating as far back as 2003. DivcoWest
purchased the property nine years ago.
" It was a huge effort, when we
bought the project, to look at things
through the eyes of the users, "
Roopenian said. " It resulted in a
whole bunch of changes, which were
consistent with the original plan. "
The developer also removed any retail
component from the project's individual
buildings to create what he refers to as
a " beating heart. " Roopenian called that
change successful, as the commercial
area is right on the park, and retailers
enjoy being around other retailers.
When they came to the project's
100,000 square feet (9,290 square
meters) of retail, Varanasi said that
they " wanted to marry the open
space system with retail. " This decision
led to construction of The Shed,
which is at the center of Cambridge
Crossing. Comprised of two buildings
connected by a glass canopy, The Shed
was inspired by the site's history of
transportation, according to Varanasi.
There are also about 11 acres (4.4
hectares) of open space, including a
pond.
" If you visit the site today, it just feels
natural, " Roopenian said. He noted that
the project had " great bones " from the
start. It includes two Massachusetts Bay
Transportation Authority stops. The
project's location is also ideal, according
to Roopenian.
Roopenian sees the project's
proximity to Harvard and MIT as
advantageous. It provides, he said, " an
established life-science ecosystem, from
the idea of the chemistry student at
MIT, all the way through to, now, big
pharma [populating] it, so you have a
fully developed ecosystem. "
Whereas life science was less well
known at the beginning of the project,
Varanasi pointed out, it now features
prominently on the site. The life science
tenants include Philips, Sanofi, Bristol
Myers Squibb, Cerevel Therapeutics, and
Astellas.
A sea wall, found while digging on
the site, is also now part of the project
and lends it character. Varanasi said that
the wall brought " a level of earthiness "
that has helped make all members of
the community feel welcome.
Roopenian said that one of the
measuring sticks when developing
a project of this size is how well the
project blends into the community.
He stressed the importance of being
2024 Winter Issue of Urban Land

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