Last week East Cambridge’s newest high-rise Twenty|20 officially opened its doors for a wave of new residents. The luxury apartment complex boasts a number of upscale amenities, including a rooftop terrace, fitness center, indoor basketball court, bike garage and a pet grooming station. Just half a mile to the west, builders are putting the finishing touches on the Zinc, another luxury apartment complex set to open in the fall of 2015. The Zinc offers a concierge and an in-house spin studio. Both buildings aim to provide tenants with a modern, professional community. By the fall, there will be nearly 750 new units available within a one-mile radius. Cambridge-based realtor David Pap attributes the recent residential boom to a preceding commercial one. “Over the past few decades there has been a lot of rapid development in East Cambridge, especially for pharmaceutical companies — high tech companies as well. Anyone working in one of these companies would like living in the area.” Thomas O’Brien, Managing Director at Twenty|20 partner HYM Investment Group says: “East Cambridge is becoming the center of the job creation engine for Massachusetts. Life sciences and tech – those are the jobs that are driving the economy. This building is at the forefront of where that next big wave of growth is happening.” Although the neighborhood has a lingering industrial feel, it’s growing fast, with places such as the Zinc and Twenty|20 attracting young professionals.
“It’s on the fringe,” says Pap. “Right now there’s more of an industrial feel and less of a neighborhood one. But all of East Cambridge used to be fringe. Now it’s a central area. The more you develop in the fringe areas the more you attract developers and the areas become normalized.”
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