Swampscott's Hawthorne Property Purchase Sails Through Town Meeting

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Town meeting members voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to authorize the purchase of the historic Hawthorne restaurant property and two parcels of land on Archer Street in a dramatic move to increase and preserve the town's own space.

Town meeting members voted 214 to 3 to approve the purchase of 9.5 acres of open space across two lots on Archer Street and to authorize and fund an agreement to purchase the historic 1.47-acre Hawthorne by the Sea property for $7 million.

The article preserves the two Archer Street lots — which are largely undevelopable — as permanent open space, while giving town meeting members control over further use of the Hawthorne property following October 2023, when a one-year lease to continue running the restaurant for one year will expire.

The future use of the Hawthorne land will be subject to public meetings and a town meeting vote in May 2023, but Select Board member Peter Spellios said the intention is to keep it largely or entirely public space.

"This is a property that is going to generate memories, not revenue," Spellios said during Tuesday night's special town meeting.

Finance Committee Chair Timothy Dorsey said the Committee endorsed the purchase of all three properties even though one of the Archer lots is not yet under a purchase-and-sale with the town — which would have been contingent on the special town meeting vote.

"Everything is not perfectly buttoned up for us in advance," Dorsey allowed, "and risks need to be managed. But we recommend this as a favorable action as we find this is financially viable for the town and a unique opportunity."

Dorsey said it is estimated that the purchases will increase the media annual tax bill for Swampscott residents between $75 and $100 per year or $12.70 per $100,000 in assessed value.

The Archer parcels include a 5-acre parcel that will cost the town about $400,000 and a 4.5-acre parcel that will cost an estimated $465,000. Tuesday night's vote allows the town to take the second property through eminent domain if a purchase agreement cannot be agreed upon — although town officials said an amicable agreement is still expected.

This area, which has been the subject of 40B proposals in recent months and years, will be designated as a permanent open space.

While there was vote was not close, there were about 90 minutes of debate with proponents of the purchase — especially the Hawthorne property — arguing that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the town to regain control of perhaps the most desirable property in the community, while those opposed questioned the revenue implications of paying $7 million for the Hawthorne property when it will likely no longer produce income for the town after October 2023.

The special town meeting also unanimously voted to rezone the property of the former Glover House Restaurant, which closed more than 20 years ago, into a multi-family overlay district that can be developed into 96 units of dwelling — which will include affordable housing — in Swampscott, with another 44 units in Marblehead.

Seventeen of the 96 Swampscott units will be designated as "affordable housing" — helping the town get closer to the 10 percent inventory threshold necessary to avoid being susceptible to 40B housing proposals that are allowed to avoid many local zoning bylaws.

(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.)