Brookfield JV buys Boston-area site for 6,500 homes
A 1,400-acre master plan south of Boston more than doubles the housing the site's prior zoning allowed.
A joint venture of Brookfield Properties and New England Development has paid $65 million for the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station, one of the largest development sites in metro Boston, with plans for 6,500 housing units and 2 million square feet of commercial space. The partners have acquired or secured 1,300 of the roughly 1,400 acres, which span Weymouth, Abington and Rockland about 15 miles south of the city.
Why it matters. Massachusetts has spent years pushing municipalities to unlock housing near transit, and this site — long stalled under prior ownership — is now positioned to become one of the state’s biggest master-planned communities. The approved program more than doubles the 2,855 units the previous zoning allowed, a scale that could measurably move the region’s constrained supply. Governor Maura Healey framed the deal as a template: it “will create thousands of new homes, support good-paying jobs and transform a long-underutilized site into an engine of opportunity for the South Shore,” she said.
The numbers. Beyond the housing and commercial components, the plan preserves more than 880 acres for open space and wildlife habitat. Brookfield and New England Development, the retail-and-mixed-use firm behind projects across the Northeast, will phase the buildout over years rather than deliver it at once.
What’s next. Infrastructure work — roads, utilities and grading — is expected to begin in fall 2026, the precursor to vertical development. The project joins a wave of large suburban master plans nationally as institutional owners chase scale in supply-short metros; for a fuller picture of where capital is flowing, see our national coverage. Execution risk remains substantial: multi-decade builds live or die on absorption, financing cycles and the patience of their sponsors.