Developer wants council hearing on Eurovest start

REVERE – The developer of the $500 million Eurovest project is preparing to unveil plans for a parking garage and a relocated Wonderland bus stop to City Councilors.Joseph DiGangi hopes to meet sometime in the fall with the council and focus on his efforts to secure state and federal permits and prepare environment reports for the oceanfront commercial and residential project.Eurovest plans to build the $485 million project over 13 years, including a 125-room hotel, 300,000 square feet of retail space including restaurants, a 12,000 square foot cultural area and 145,000 square feet of office space as well as two garages with 2,100 parking spaces.The beginning phase of the project involves moving the commuter drop off lane on the ocean side of the Wonderland Blue Line station to the North Shore Road side.The city will then spend $200,000 awarded to it by federal environmental officials last April to clean up land next to Wonderland station contaminated by oil and other material.The station land was once the location of an above ground train yard. The federal brownfields money will pay to determine the extent of hazardous waste contamination on the land and pay for clean up costs.DiGangi is assembling permits for the project while the city amasses public funding to help it move forward.In addition to the brownfields money, Revere has a federal commitment to spend $6 million on relocating the drop off lane and $18 million in federal transit and state transit-oriented development money.”The brownfields site assessment funds will help leverage over $23.3 million of public investment for this development and transform a contaminated and underutilized property into a showcase of intelligent design and thoughtful urban planning at a major transit hub,” Revere mayor Thomas Ambrosino stated in a October 2007 letter soliciting the brownfields money.He wrote in the letter that the Eurovest project will require 2,000 construction jobs and create 600 to 800 permanent jobs.