Developers eye Swampscott sites

SWAMPSCOTT – The town received two proposals each for the town-owned temple and former middle school sites and the chair of the Town Building Oversight Committee said he hopes the committee will present its recommendations on the proposals to selectmen in mid-October.”With operating budgets being as fiscally constrained as is seen in communities all across America, you can imagine what an improvement these properties would be in terms of the revenue to the town,” said Town Building Oversight Committee Chair Martin Grasso on Wednesday afternoon.This is the second time that the town has issued request-for-proposals (RFPs) to developers for the two town-owned sites, Town Administrator Andrew Maylor told the Item in a previous interview. Maylor said the committee first reviews the projects based on whether they meet the criteria established in the RFP and then the committee finds out at what price the developers propose to buy the property. The committee then makes its recommendation to the selectmen, Maylor explained.The previous effort in summer 2010 resulted in the same number of proposals and the building oversight committee ended up recommending only one – a 32-bed assisted-living center for patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Selectmen rejected the proposal’s bid of $1.2 million for the property, however.Only one of the original proposed developers – Stratford Capital Group – resubmitted a development proposal.Rich Hayden, executive vice president and principal of Stratford Capital Group, described his company’s proposal as an “adaptive-reuse” that converts the school at 1894 Greenwood Ave. into 41 one- and two-bedroom affordable apartments for residents 55 years and older. The project anticipates funding through affordable-housing tax credits and income restrictions for residents will apply, Hayden said.”Essentially, it’s your working-class status of people if you will,” Hayden said. “It’s not a Section 8 property, but there will be maximum income restrictions of 60 percent of area-median income.” Four units will be restricted to those earning no more than 30 percent of the area-median income, he added.Hayden said that although some of the additions to the school will be razed for parking, the main school building on Greenwood Avenue will remain the same.”It’s a beautiful, beautiful building,” Hayden said. “If we were selected? we would love to work with it, (historical reuse of schools) is the bread and butter of our firm.”Grasso said the firm’s previous proposal was not recommended due to financing.Groom Construction also submitted a proposal for the site but was not able to be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.Two developers submitted proposals for the 2.2-acre Humphrey Street Temple Israel site.Nonprofit affordable-housing organization B’nai B’rith Housing New England has submitted a proposal for senior housing at the site, but Executive Director Susan Gittelman declined to answer specifics about the proposal, citing the review process which has not yet made the proposals public.”Our interest flows out of what we have been seeing and reading about, which is the greater need of seniors to stay in the community,” she said. She added that the proposal was similar to other projects in which the organization has been involved and that are detailed on the organization’s website. These projects include affordable and mixed-income housing in Newton, Sudbury and Brighton.Charing Cross Realty Trust also submitted a proposal for the site but owner Phil Singleton also declined to comment, citing the review process.Grasso said that he expects the building oversight committee will hold at least one public meeting over the next few weeks to discuss the projects.