Long-Awaited Gateway Center Project in Salem Moves Forward

Mayor Kim Driscoll announced this week that after several weeks of conversations between the City and High Rock Development, the private developer building the Gateway Center at the intersection of Boston Street and Bridge Street, a path forward has been finalized for the long-awaited project.

The mayor made the announcement at Wednesday night’s meeting of the Salem Council on Aging Board.

A major component of the project, the City’s 20,000 square foot Mayor Jean Levesque Community Life Center, will become a stand-alone facility situated on the northeast portion of the parcel. The Community Life Center replaces the existing facility at 5 Broad Street and will house the City’s Park and Recreation programs and community services staff, Council on Aging, and Veterans Services office.

The Board of the Council on Aging is excited about the new plan to create a stand-alone Community Life Center,” said Lynda Coffill, chair of the Council on Aging Board in the city’s news release. “We look forward to working collaboratively with the city agencies, commissions, and boards as the process goes forward.”

The remainder of the Gateway Center will be reconstituted as a mixed-use development, with some first floor retail and commercial space and market rate apartments on the upper floors. Because the Community Life Center is being built separate from the rest of the building, the mixed-use component will occupy a smaller footprint of the site than originally planned.

High Rock Development will begin the permitting for the revised project in May and anticipates all necessary state and local permits will be in-hand by October at the earliest and February 2016 by the latest.

The developer will be undertaking concurrent work with permitting, design, and bidding, to expedite the work. High Rock anticipates starting construction of the Community Life Center by March 2016, with completion taking ten to twelve months from that start date. The purchase price for the center is unchanged from the amount to which the developer and the City originally agreed. The developer has also agreed to an amendment to the purchase and sale agreement that provides for monetary damages for any future project delays.

In addition to multiple local board hearings for permits from the Planning Board, Conservation Commission, and Zoning Board of Appeals, as well as review by the Design Review Board and a state permit from the Department of Environmental Protection, the developer has committed to an informational meeting with neighbors to present more details about the changes to the project and answer questions.

Now that a timetable has been provided, city officials will move forward in convening a Building Committee to plan the interior floorplan, fixtures, and furnishings, and to provide input to the developer on exterior preferences. The City will also direct its traffic engineers to revise and update the North River Canal Corridor traffic impacts study to reflect the proposed changes to the project.