Craft Beer Pub An Early Favorite For New Foxborough Development

FOXBOROUGH, MA — The town's economic development committee named a plan for a craft beer pub with 19 apartment units above as its early favorite among three development proposals for the former Former Foxboro firehouse/Keating Funeral home property.

Unlike the auction process that municipalities are required to follow with public buildings such as schools and police stations, Foxborough is not required to accept the highest bid, and can evaluate each developer on its own merits.

The proposal, which was submitted by Douglass A. King Builders Inc., of North Easton, was ranked as the committee's favorite of the three proposals it reviewed on Wednesday, the Sun Chronicle reported. If the King proposal is approved, the developers plan to partner with Shovel Town Brewery in Easton to build a second location with some of its own unique beers and food items exclusive to Foxborough. The developer's bid to buy the property came in at $405,000.

A proposal by Gibson Corner Realty Trust, of Foxboro, ranked second, while the committee pegged MPZ Development LLC of Milton/Traggorth Companies LLC of Boston as third. Gibson is proposing partnering with Kitchen Partners LLC, the same company that opened the Union Straw restaurant at the former American Legion Hall on Mechanic Street. The company's bid came in at $250,000. MPZ's proposal is more of a concept, not specifying a specific partner at this time. MPZ's bid came in at $400,000.

All three proposals include a restaurant and residential units, making them in line with with town officials' redevelopment vision, the Sun Chronicle reported. The developers all plan to demolish the former funeral home. King and Gibson Corner would both renovate the old firehouse, while MPZ plans to rebuild on the property entirely.

The committee voted to forward all three proposals to the board of selectmen, which is expected to make a decision at Tuesday's meeting.

"I think there are some very interesting concepts being proposed and all of the proposers have good experience in projects with similar alignments," Town Manager William Keegan told Patch.