At Legacy Place, an education in development

As a group of MIT graduate students toured Legacy Place last week, one asked Robert Frazier, the vice president of W/S Development Associates, how much of a project needs to be leased before you can get a construction loan.

Frazier said a good 80 to 85 percent needs to be leased before banks will commit financing. "They want to see all the companies lined up," he said.

For Alberto Cailao, 30, who came to the MIT Center for Real Estate to learn the financing of economic design, the main takeaway from his Legacy Place visit was along the same lines.

"They got most of their tenants before the crash, before October," he said. "(Their) being able to do that allowed the bank to loan them money."

Legacy Place, backed by a $200 million construction loan from Sovereign Bank, is a plaza along Rte. 1, with stores set to be open by August.

An MIT administrator and 10 grad students - enrolled in the one-year master's of science and real estate development program - got an up-close look at the project, from W/S Development and National Amusements.

The group toured L.L. Bean - the first Legacy Place store, set to open on July 24 - checked out the exterior of Whole Foods Market, and stood by the Pavilion Building, in the center of the 675,000-square-foot project.

There, Brad Dutton of Suffolk Construction pointed out that workers were going " full speed on sidewalks." He said of a nearby construction crew, "These guys will stay here pouring sidewalks as late as they can."

The central parking lot, on the western side of the Pavilion Building, has been paved. Dutton said the lot on the other side, between the Pavilion and the Cinema de Lux complex, should be done by next week.

The Pavilion Building is overshadowed by the three-story parking garage just north of it, which Dutton said is 888-feet long, and includes 14,000 tons of steel.

The group climbed the garage stairs to view Legacy Place from the top.

There are about 3,000 parking spaces on the property.

"We may be overparked for 80 percent of the year, but for those 12 prime days of the year when retailers are really trying to get people in their doors, we'll have ample parking," Frazier said.

Frazier spoke about Westwood Station - the "smart growth" project that would, in theory, be much larger than Legacy Place. Its developer is still searching for a construction loan, however, so the project has not broken ground yet.

"In Dedham we have smart growth, but it evolved over time," Frazier said, pointing out that the Dedham Corporate Center rail station, Holiday Inn, Fox 25, two apartment complexes, and now Legacy Place have all come together in the immediate area. "While it wasn't put together in a nice, cohesive master plan ... really what you've got here, you might call smart growth."

Philip Wang, 35, a Hong Kong native whose background is in investment banking and mixed-use developments in Hong Kong and Macao, said the price tag of Legacy Place seemed somewhat expensive - compared to a Macao casino he knows of that cost about $250 million to build.

"In comparison, this is a shopping mall. So I don't know in terms of the return, how fast can the investors actually get their return back for the project," he said.

When nearing Legacy Place, Wang said he first noticed P.F. Chang's China Bistro - specifically its two large statues out front.

"That's the building that I recognized because there's two big horses, right off Rte. 1, so I can see it right away," he said. "So I think that's kind of an attraction that differentiates this particular shopping center from the others."

Daily News staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.