Community Corner
Swampscott Select Board Refines Vision For Former Hawthorne Property
Select Board members began determining preferences on how to score a forthcoming request for proposal on the oceanfront parcel.
SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott Select Board members this week began refining the vision for how to score a request for proposal to develop the oceanfront former Hawthorne property five years after the town paid $7 million to purchase it.
The Swampscott Center for the Performing Arts will lease the building and surrounding property for the next two years — after which the town has stated its intention to open the property up to redevelopment in line with preferences that have been expressed through dozens of community meetings, forums and surveys over the last half-decade.
While several aspects of the redevelopment were tabled for future discussion, the majority of the board sided on some facets of the development — including potential residential use, purchase or lease, parking and its synergy with the surrounding commercial properties, specifically the pending hotel at the former Hadley School site across the street.
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"The one thing that's really important that we need to keep in mind is that the healthier and busier that hotel is, the more beneficial it is to this community," Select Board member MaryEllen Fletcher said. "That's something that really has to be on the top of our minds."
Board members appeared to side with a long-term lease for the property — similar to the lease agreement on the Hadley property — as opposed to a sale back to a private developer.
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They also lined up with a preference against a residential use — though Fletcher and Board member Wayne Spritz were most adamant against it, while Board members Ted Dooley and Danielle Fletcher said they would be open to it if the overall proposal was in the best interest of the town.
"I am absolutely against residential," Spritz said. "Philosophically, it was not the intent when we purchased the property at all. Over the last 15 years of seeing that entire Humphrey Street developed, watching residential go up as opposed to something for public use ... No."
One area where there was some disagreement appeared to be parking, with Fletcher saying that parking should be reserved for the businesses or other occupants of the property, and Leonard saying public parking is the "No. 1 biggest problem in this town" that could be alleviated as part of the development.
Select Board members tabled the discussion on whether to demolish or retain the former restaurant building itself — with demolition a key recommendation of the Hawthorne Re-Use Committee.
Perhaps the biggest question that was left to further discussion was how much of an open space preference — or community use preference — should be part of a winning bid.
During multiple forums, community members have pointed back to the original push for a town meeting vote to purchase the property, citing that it would be the "jewel of the town" and primarily provide an open view of the ocean for residents and visitors.
But Board members and other community members have pushed back on that idea over the years of development discussion — arguing that the investment in the property needs to have the return of some tax and revenue benefit given the limited other growth opportunities in the town and tax pressures on residential property owners.
"This is such a unique site that I think once we get our act together and get (the RFP out) a few months down the line, we're going to get nice respondents here," Dooley said. "I cannot imagine this legacy, historic site is not going to attract a lot of attention from well-resourced (developers). ...
"It's going to turn out fantastically."
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