SOMERVILLE, MA — The Union Square community and Rafi Properties reached a community benefits agreement that allows for the preservation of art, music, and youth community spaces while the Boston-based real estate developer begins a major expansion to the Somernova business park campus on Properzi Way.
The Union Square Neighborhood Council facilitated a process in which residents, workers, property owners, and volunteers could vote on the CBA at St. Anthony’s School last week. According to the USNC, more than 70% of participants voted in favor of the agreement.
Rafi Properties aims to redevelop Somernova to create more space for technology start-up businesses The Engine, Greentown Labs, and Form Energy. A main component of the CBA for the USNC is 100,000 square feet of space that is guaranteed to be used for Arts and Creative Enterprise. The Council expressed gratitude to the community members who spread the word about the importance of preserving the community spaces of Somernova and rallying residents to vote.
“The biggest take-way for the USNC is that community-driven processes work, and that together we can bring about transformational change that works for Somerville. A coalition of neighbors, artists, volunteers, and abutters twice stopped the Somernova project,” The USNC said in a statement. “We further joined forces with local non-profits and labor unions, to fight for a development that better responds to the needs of residents, workers, creatives and Somerville youth, resulting in a CBA that contains provisions that offset the negative impacts large-scale development brings.”
Rafi Properties and Somernova must now go through a four-part zoning amendment process led by the City Council.
May 27, 2025