The Boston Marine Industrial Park (“BMIP”) is a 191-acre industrial park located on the South Boston waterfront and owned by the Economic Development and Industrial Corporation (EDIC).

BMIP is located in a part of South Boston known as Commonwealth Flats, which originally consisted of a vast area of used intertidal flats.  The Commonwealth Flats area was filled by the Commonwealth for economic development purposes in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  During that time, land, piers and channels were created for receiving imported raw materials and distributing manufactured products.

In 1920, the U.S. Department of Defense acquired a portion of the Commonwealth Flats (including all of what is now BMIP) in two separate purchases – 167 acres to be used as the South Boston Naval Annex and 58 acres for use as South Boston Army Annex.  Most of the buildings still in use in BMIP were erected from 1914 to the mid- 1940s by the military.  During World War II, 50,000 people worked around the clock at these South Boston military facilities, repairing and overhauling American ships, and warehousing and distributing a wide range of military goods and supplies.  During the post-war era, activity in both the Navy and Army annex declined significantly, leaving many of the building and structures to fall into disrepair.

After the U.S. Department of Defense closed the South Boston Naval Annex in 1974, the City of Boston and the Commonwealth recognized that the Naval Annex was a prime site to pursue EDIC’s legislative mandate to encourage economic development in Boston’s industrial areas.  In 1977, the City of Boston, acting through the EDIC, secured ownership of the 167-acre South Boston Naval Annex from the U.S. Department of Defense.  The “Marine Industrial Park” as the area came to be known, was created to provide jobs for City residents and enhance the City’s economy.  In 1983, the EDIC purchased another 24 acres that were formerly part of the South Boston Army Base.

Since the initial purchase of the Naval Annex, the City has made a substantial public investment in the park, including more than $55 million of improvements to the park’s infrastructure.  These investments have in turn leveraged more that $170 million in private investment by tenants in upgrading and constructing new facilities within the park. BRA/EDIC achievements at and improvements to the BMIP include:

  • Cleared land and demolished buildings to prepare industrial sites.
  • Brought more than 3.3 million square feet of reused military facilities onto the market as industrial space.
  • Installed miles of new or upgraded utilities (water, gas, electric, telecom)
  • Rebuild and built miles of existing roadways with granite curbing, sidewalks, and storm drainage.
  • Rehabilitated and constructed maritime facilities, including piers, berths, and gantry cranes.
  • A 1,834 car central parking garage facility.

The EDIC Engineering & Construction Department and BMIP Operations Department staff continues to maintain the common area infrastructure and utility systems at the park, manage all public construction, and review and approve renovation plans for leased space.

Because more than ninety percent of BMIP lies within a Designated Port Area (DPA) under Massachusetts State Law Chapter 91, the BRA/EDIC is mandated to manage the park in a way which will not only promote industrial activity and job growth within the City of Boston, but also protect and preserve the accessibility and economic future of the Port of Boston.  Toward that end, the BRA/EDIC is committed to carefully regulating land use at BMIP by actively promoting the development and utilization of waterside parcels for water-dependent use and the development and utilization of interior parcels for compatible industrial use (i.e., non-water dependent uses with direct benefits to the water-dependent activity occurring in the park).

The area around BMIP is quickly growing in its importance to the City of Boston and the entire region.  This is due, in large part, to the fact that currently billions of dollars of both private and public investment are being made in new and upgraded real estate facilities, transportation infrastructure, and environmental projects in the area.  While some of these projects, such as the nearby Massachusetts Convention Center and the Boston Harbor Cleanup (Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant) will have indirect benefit to industrial activity in the area, several of the public projects occurring in South Boston involve major transportation improvements and will therefore directly benefit all companies that do business at Boston Marine Industrial Park.

As part of the Federal Interstate Highway Program, the Commonwealth has constructed a third harbor Tunnel connecting downtown Boston with East Boston and Logan International Airport.  The South Boston entrance to the Third Harbor Tunnel (now called the “Ted Williams Tunnel”) has substantially enhanced the marketability of the park.

Over the last twenty-five years, EDIC has managed and leased the facilities at the BMIP in an effort both to promote maritime and industrial reuses of existing facilities and to encourage private-sector investment job-creating industries.  Because of the unique combination of port and marine related activities, business creation, job generation and public services that continue to occur at Boston Marine Industrial Park, the park is and will remain a tremendously valuable asset to the South Boston community, the City of Boston, the City at large, and the Commonwealth.