Restaurant Plan For Old Foxborough Firehouse Expected This Month

FOXBOROUGH, MA — The selectmen are expected to make a decision on which developer will get the okay to build a restaurant with residential apartments above at the former site of the Foxborough Fire Station and Keating Funeral Home at the board's meeting on May 29. Now that there are three selectmen without potential conflicts of interest in the project, there are not expected to be any other issues that delay a vote. Tuesday night's meeting gave developers one more chance to convince the board to approve their project.

The three developers that presented were :

• Crugnale Properties, LLC of Mansfield: $400,000 bid
• Douglas A. King Builders Inc. of North Easton: $405,000
• MPZ Development LLC of Milton/Traggorth Companies LLC of Boston: $400,000

If the King proposal is accepted, the developers plan to partner with Shovel Town Brewery in Easton to build a second location with some of its own unique beers exclusive to Foxborough. 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. MPZ's proposal is expected to include a restaurant, retail space, and 19 apartments.

Matt Zahler from MPZ spoke about the company's work in other communities like Boston, Haverhill, and Chelsea, creating mixed-use properties that don't rely on one restaurant, but several businesses. He said their projects have had coffee shops, high-end restaurants, wine and cheese shops, and other types of businesses communities want.

MPZ's idea compared to some of the other projects didn't have one specific business in mind, but were more retail concepts for the community to have input on.

"What we presented to you was an idea, and we'd really lie to work with the town and community to create something really special in Foxborough," Zahler said.

The three proposals all would demolish the funeral home, but MPZ's propsoal goes a step forward razing the former fire station and building on the property from scratch. Zahler spoke to some of the town's concerns, but said keeping an old building is challeneging, especially for smaller retail stores or restaurants. He said new construction gives those businesses more flexibility, giving them a better chance to be successful.

Douglass King said his firm has a lot of experience reusing historic buildings and wants to honor that history by making the new business as familiar as possible.

"Giving an old building new life is part of the fabric of the community for yesterday, today, and tomorrow," King said.

King said its important to have an established anchor that fits into the community and that Shovel Town Brewery, which King developed in Easton has shown they care about the community.

"The Shovel Town brewery has been a huge success in the North Easton Village," King said. "They've been great in taking care of all the community needs and endorsements for the YMCA, Little League, and school departments for special functions."

Jessica James from Gibson Corner Realty made an appeal to the firm's local roots in Foxborough and said the project was meant to be small.

Our interest here starts with being residents...we have hometown pride," she said.

James separated her firm's project from the others by highlighting that its much smaller. It plans to have just five one-bedroom apartments in the firehouse, along with a restaurant.

"Our focus is really on improving and preserving our town common," James said. "We think it's important to stay true to our history."

The town will choose a proposal at its next meeting after reviewing concerns from about parking and the overall size of certain projects.