Beverly Airport Commission Pushes City On $250K To Fix 'Building 45'

BEVERLY, MA — The Beverly Airport Commission is making a renewed push to get the city to live up to a $250,000 agreement from eight years ago to the airport that includes the renovation of "Building 45" on airport property, and which Commission Chair Jim Trefry told the City Council Monday night it now considers "a failed project."

Treffey said the Commission will once again ask Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill to follow through on the construction process to complete the building that once housed a cafe and has been the rent-free home to public services and some police services for nearly a decade.

"It was a series of reassurances that fell flat," Trefry said on Monday night.

He said the city was looking for office space for several departments in 2015 at the same time that the airport had plans to demolish the building. Instead, the city agreed to pay for $250,000 in renovations in exchange for needed municipal office space in the building rent-free for a period of 10 years.

Trefry said the city then came back to the Commission and asked for $117,000 toward the project, which was agreed to on the condition that a renovated building would be available for airport use and revenue generation after a decade.

He told the City Council that the Commission gained the required Federal Aviation Administration approval for the project and funding based on the city commitments, which he said were never fulfilled.

"The city, in essence, walked away from at least half of that construction proposal," he said. "If the Airport Commission that was seated in 2015 would have had any idea of what was going to happen to that proposal, they never would have voted in favor of it. And they never would have given the city $117,000 toward a building project that we now considered a failed project."

He said in meetings with the Commission, city officials have pledged to recommit to finishing the project at least three times in the last five years — most recently in the spring of 2021 — but that "I am here to tell you 23 months later nothing has been done with that building."

He said the Commission has reached out to the FAA, which determined that it is "clear the city of Beverly has bamboozled the airport commission at least three times."

"We consider Building 45 a city asset," said Trefry, noting that he is preparing to step down from the Commission following the selection of a new airport manager and does not want this project hanging over the next chair's head. "We have a proposal that we agreed to with the city. We are going to work with the city to try to get $250,000 to finish that building."

Ward 5 City Councilor Kathleen Feldman, who represents the airport district, said she expressed concerns about the lack of renovation funding last year and is recommitted to helping ensure that the city follows through on its obligation.

"I said it was going to be a priority this year and now I will say that will my full support out loud I am very concerned about getting that building redone with money from the city," she said. "Because the more context that I get the more it is not right that it is going on this long."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)