SAUGUS — Selectmen got an inside look at the new UPS facility on the eastern side of town, praising the transformative nature of the project and touting its impact on the local economy.
Four of the five board members — Chair Anthony Cogliano, Vice Chair Debra Panetta, and Selectmen Corinne Riley and Jeff Cicolini — toured the property on the Salem Turnpike earlier this week, a visit years in the making. Talk of redevelopment on the turnpike dates back as far as 2019, when developer Hilco proposed cleaning up the property, a former junkyard and auto-body shop.
After months of debate among the board, members in 2020 approved a special permit by a 4-1 margin, giving Hilco the go-ahead to redevelop the site. The lone member to vote against granting the permit was Selectman Michael Serino, who did so after imposing a number of conditions.
Hilco later returned to the board, seeking to amend the permit to allow 24-hour operation of the UPS facility that now sits on the site. That proposal drew pushback from neighbors, who feared trucks making their way to UPS passing through their neighborhood at all hours of the day. But, with seven new conditions imposed on the permit, selectmen once again approved it in 2021.
Now, nearly two years later, those same board members got an inside look at the redevelopment.
Cogliano said he is “thrilled at the end result.”
“Hilco… has lived up to everything they promised and UPS will be a great addition to Saugus,” he said.
Elected in 2019, he said the proposed development was one of the first big tests for the newly-constituted board, and praised Cicolini and Riley for their support of the redevelopment from day one.
“This was my first chance to show… there is a better way to do business in Saugus,” Cogliano said.
Panetta said the facility is “impressive” and praised the work Hilco had done to landscape the Saugus RiverWalk, including removing a dilapidated pier on the site. The new “state-of-the-art” facility will create 250 jobs, she said.
No trucks going to the new facility will pass through Ballard Street, a point Panetta emphasized as a key condition imposed by the selectmen to protect the neighborhood.
“It looks so much nicer than the junkyard that was there before,” she said.
Riley said supporting the permit was a “no-brainer.”
The future of the RiverWalk, essentially a walking trail along the Saugus River behind the UPS property, is unclear, with no firm opening date set. Officials told selectmen the trail may not open until the Route 107 bridge-replacement project is complete, which is several years off.
But, both Cicolini and Panetta said the RiverWalk appears complete.
