Project design in Revere set for inspection

REVERE – Eurovest developers will lay out their preliminary designs for the Waterfront Square project Friday from 10 a.m. to noon at 300 Ocean Ave.The design review is a chance for local residents and anyone interested in Revere Beach development to look over plans for Waterfront Square, including Eurovest’s proposals to build 902 residential units, a 100-room hotel and 28,000 square feet of retail space.Eurovest also wants to build two parking garages with 3,000 spaces on the north and south ends of the acre development site near Wonderland station. Plans for the $500 million project will begin with the relocation of the commuter rail drop off and bus lanes from the Ocean Avenue side of the Wonderland station to the North Shore Road side.Waterfront Square is one of five Massachusetts projects on target, Gov. Deval Patrick’s office announced in June, to split up to $60 million this year to cover construction costs. The money is a combination of state funding and federal stimulus money and the governor’s office plans to announce specific spending amounts for Waterfront and the other projects later this summer.The city swapped land with the state last December to help European developer Joseph DiGangi assemble the Waterfront Square site. The city gave the Department of Conservation and Recreation 80 acres of local marshland in return for state parcels worth $4 million to $5 million.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 city plans to spend $200,000 awarded to it by federal environmental officials in April 2007 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 told councilors late last year Eurovest will employ 2,000 construction workers and create 600 to 800 permanent jobs.Plans for Waterfront Square are moving forward as other big beachfront projects, including developer Steven Fustolo’s Ocean Club and Richard Clayman’s plan for a 172-unit condominium development, remain on the drawing board.