Ted Tye grew up in Haverhill, went to Tufts and Harvard Business School, and has spent his career at National Development, the firm he helped found more than 30 years before we recorded this episode. As he likes to point out, the company is neither national nor only a developer. It develops, manages property across eastern Massachusetts, runs an investment management business that had raised its fourth fund, and owns Cranshaw Construction.
I first got to know the firm's work when I was learning public affairs on its Market Street project in Lynnfield. In this episode of The PR Bunker Podcast, recorded during COVID, Ted and I talk about placemaking, how social media and Zoom changed community meetings, and what National Development had in the pipeline.
A few takeaways from the conversation:
Ted said the common thread in the firm's most interesting projects is remaking places. Market Street replaced a struggling country club and a closed conference center with a village of homes and retail. Ink Block sits on the former Boston Herald site, which Ted called as decrepit a block as you could find in the city, and the firm was completing its seventh building there. National Development created the story of what Ink Block would be and then built it, and his favorite test is that Boston cab and Uber drivers now know where you mean.
Community engagement used to mean knocking on doors, sitting in people's living rooms and handing out a sheet of paper. Ted said the biggest change in his career has been social media, where one opponent on a soapbox can post anything and people assume it's true. COVID added another shift by moving packed public hearings onto Zoom. Someone at the BPDA told him it may have increased participation, since people can eat dinner with their families and then join from the next room, and he hoped that would stick.
Ted's philosophy is that when one sector is down another is up, and the move toward mixing uses within projects favored a firm working across residential, senior housing, retail, life science, office and hotels. At the time, the pipeline included Seven, a 14-story co-living building at Ink Block, the Cole Hersee building in South Boston with Tatte, a spin studio and Castle Island Brewing, life science projects at 15 Necco Street, the WBZ site in Allston and the Mount Auburn Club in Watertown, and senior housing in White Plains, Stamford and Lexington.
Ted pointed listeners to the National Development website to learn more about the firm and its projects.
Listen to the full episode above.
Reading is the hello. SBGA is where we get to yes.
What is Ink Block in Boston?
Ink Block is a mixed-use neighborhood National Development built on the former Boston Herald site. At the time of this episode the firm was completing its seventh building there, a co-living project called Seven.
How did COVID change community meetings for real estate projects?
Ted said moving public hearings to Zoom may have increased participation, because residents could join from home after dinner instead of spending an evening in a packed hall.
What does National Development do?
It develops real estate, manages property in eastern Massachusetts, runs an investment management business and owns Cranshaw Construction, with projects across residential, senior housing, retail, life science, office and hotels.
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