Love's site in line for new design
Published on July 14th, 2004
STONEHAM, MA - Meeting with local developer Joe Cunningham Tuesday morning, the town's project review team eyed their first glimpse of what is to become of the Love's Furniture building.
And while the project still needs some minor changes, town officials were very impressed.
"From what I've seen so far, it's outstanding," Town Planner Michael Gallerani said. "It's like the TV show 'The Swan'. You take the ugly duckling in town and turn it into something that's aesthetically unbelievable."
According to Gallerani, the Love's Furniture building will be converted into six small retail spaces topped by 48 one and two bedroom condominiums. With the condos predicted to sell for anywhere between $300,000 and $400,000, the building would receive nearly $10 million dollars worth of investments and could generate nearly 13 times more tax revenue than it does now.
And with this major revitalization project expected to be a major focal point in the downtown area, the planner predicts that the mixed-use project could very likely draw other business investments into Stoneham.
"Currently, that building generates anywhere from $12,000-$15,000 in tax dollars for the town. By the time it sells out, it's projected that it will bring $200,000 to $250,000 to the town. This investment should also trigger other people looking to do similar projects. I think this will create part of a new environment," remarked Gallerani.
According to Selectman Tony Kennedy, who has followed the sale of the Love's Furniture building for months, he also looks forward to the major change in the heart of Stoneham.
"I saw the rendering at the project review team meeting today and it appears to be an outstanding project. It would rehabilitate the entire building and I'm hoping whatever needs to be done there falls into line," said Kennedy.
Already securing variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals for increasing the density of the building's residential use, there is some question as to whether the site contains enough on-site parking. According to Gallerani, the site needs approximately 160 spaces for the mixed commercial/residential use and only has a little more than 50 spots.
However, the site would be in more compliance with the parking requirements than Love's Furniture, which required 200 on-site parking spots.
"They're looking at a couple alternatives. They're going to need available parking. And when you say that with a condominium, obviously people are going to want to own the sites. It's a fools errand to say we're going to keep on assigning public space for projects like this because in the end you're going to have a problem," Gallerani said, adding that a parking deck is being considered as an alternative.
While Kennedy and Gallerani believe some type of solution can be worked out for the project - whether that's obtaining off-site parking variances or building a parking deck - Selectman Charlie Smith is opposed to giving the project any type of special consideration.
"I think this could be a wonderful thing if it's done nice and right. But I don't want to see any variances for parking because we're putting other businesses through the ringer all the time for that," said Smith.
While the project will need to receive planning board variances, it was unclear as to what those variances were for because Building Inspector Gene Argiro could not be reached for comment.
But regardless of the process, Gallerani opined that the project is still in its very first phase of development and will require discussions on other matters including the drainage situation on Spencer Road. While the Planner hopes that the project could foster some type of solution for the drainage problem, at the very least he expects that the mixed-use development will not exacerbate the situation.
"We've only just had the conceptual meeting with them today and these issues have just been put on the table to be addressed. But as far as projects go, he couldn't have planned this better. Conceptually, it's as good as it gets."
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