Repairs underway at 104 Main Street
Published on August 20th, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - Within the past few weeks, a charred and dilapidated building on 104 Main Street that has long plagued the surrounding neighborhood has undergone several repairs and changes.
According to Dale Halchak, the commercial building's owner, recent repairs to the home's windows, siding, and front porch stem from his recent decision to abandon plans to completely rebuild on the Main Street site.
"I've decided to renovate the building. It's just costing too much money to go forward with this project. It's just more effective to just renovate the building at this point. It would have cost us in the vicinity of $1 million to rebuild, and the rent could never support that because there were requirements for elevators and handicapped parking," said Halchak of his recent change of heart.
According to the local developer, while a new building could have generated some profit had the project gone forward shortly after it was approved, the costs of hiring various engineers and independent traffic study firms, creating several different site plans, and the money lost from not receiving income from tenants has given him very little course of action but to renovate the existing building.
"We had approvals for the building, but when you have to redesign the building because of his [Building Inspector Gene Argiro's] interpretation and then have to go before the zoning board six months later, it makes it not worth it. It's just not economical. We've lost two years here in the process and that's expensive and these expenses have driven it to where we can't wait another six months to go to the board of appeals," claimed Halchak.
For over two years, the former commercial site sat abandoned after a local arsonist set the building on fire. Although Halchak received site plan approval from the Town's Board of Selectmen to rebuild a 4000 square foot office building at the site, Argiro and Halchak have constantly argued over the basement and attic levels of the project.
According to Argiro, the two floors represented an additional 4000 square feet of office space that were not approved by the Town. However, Halchak has disputed that claim, stating that the two floors would be utilized for storage.
According to Argiro, his office issued a permit on June 30 allowing Halchak to complete $3500 worth of repairs to fire damaged sections of the home, including the structure's front porch, windows, and siding. Although the permit's three-week deadline has since expired, Argiro will most likely not move to block future repairs that are included in the permit.
"There's a permit issued to replace the broken windows and replace the siding that was damaged from the fire. The time that was allotted for that work has gone by, but he's had some problems getting electricity back at the site, so you have to give him the benefit of the doubt," reported Argiro.
Claiming that he hasn't received any indication from Halchak that he plans to rebuild on the existing site, the building inspector said he has to receive confirmation from Halchak about how he intends to utilize and rebuild the home before any additional work can go forward.
"What he needs to do is come up with a plan in terms of what he wants to do with it and what the use is going to be. It's kind of hard to speculate if he needs a site plan or to go before the zoning board until he tells me what the use is. If he just plans to fix it up and rent it out the way it was before, he can just do that [without site plan approval or a variance]," commented Argiro.
Although Argiro can't predict what the process will be for repairing the commercial building until he speaks with Halchak, the building inspector did confirm that the garage will require both a site plan and approval from the zoning board because the cost of repairing the structure will exceed 60 percent of the cost of completely rebuilding.
While Nixon Lane neighbors seemed encouraged by the recent work, many seemed skeptical that the new repairs would bring closure to their two-year ordeal with the eyesore of a building - especially given a failed attempt by the town's selectmen to force Halchak to tear down the building this past May, and a reneged gentleman's agreement reached between town officials and Halchak two weeks later.
"It's hard to feel there's any type of closure when there's a huge hole through the building, there's no porch, there's missing windows and the building needs a paint job. We'd like to see more before we feel closure," said Nixon Lane resident Gary Lombard, who referred partly to a large hole that has been punched through the back of the Main Street site within the past couple of days.
"Up to now, Mr. Halchak hasn't been very good. He hasn't been very reliable. He says one thing and does another. His strategy has always seemed to be stall and delay and go through the process. He must be a much more patient man than I am," Lombard added.
With Lombard blaming Halchak for the process, other neighbors blasted Argiro and the town for not doing more to address the neighborhood's concerns.
"I wouldn't trust the town if I was this guy [Halchak] either. As far as I'm concerned he's no bargain, but the building inspector shouldn't have the power to punish the neighbors like this. I think this Argiro guy is pushing his weight around and my gut feeling is the building inspector is pulling a power play. He's overstepping his boundaries," said 16 Nixon Lane resident Octavio Passanisi.
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