Wilmington Wish List: A Trader Joe's Would Be Nice

WILMINGTON, MA -- Selectmen are considering forming a committee to develop a strategy for drawing new business to Wilmington. The committee, based on social media comments, will have no shortage of suggestions if and when it's created. When Patch reported on the initiative earlier this week, there were plenty of suggestions from our readers in Wilmington.

"Really, no more pizza places or dollar stores," Lind Forester wrote in response to our story. "How about a Trader Joe’s or a Whole Foods or a Homegoods? Something decent."

During a meeting earlier this month, Board of Selectmen Chair Mike Champoux said the town needs to form an economic development committee to not only fill the empty spaces commercial spaces stacking up on Main Street, but attract new business to Wilmington.

"Let's fill Sonic. Let's fill Chili's," Champoux said. He noted other communities have similar boards that proactively try to woo businesses, but Wilmington hasn't developed a comprehensive vision. He noted the town's location offers four exits along Interstate 93 and close proximity to Boston. The overall tone was clear: Wilmington needs to be doing a better job of wooing business.

Indeed, the Chili's (pictured above) and the Sonic Drive-In have become symbols for the lack of commercial development in Wilmington. One of our readers proposed a Kelly's Roast Beef for the Chili's location, while others wondered if the Sonic would be reopening (the company's Website still lists it as "temporarily" closed, but a massive "For Lease" sign out front would suggest otherwise.

Other suggestions from our readers:

• Debby Selig: "A bakery and fish market -- something different than what we have."
• Terry Bielecki: " I say...let's go with the Godiva factory."
• Liz Lawrence: "We need a Fresh Market. Badly. The closest ones are in Hingham and NH. Way better than Whole Foods"
• Tony Monello (we're pretty sure he's joking): "We need more Dunkin' Donuts."

The benefits of business are obvious: businesses pay higher property taxes, which can allow towns to lower residential taxes. Woburn, for example, has been aggressive in attracting commercial development. Earlier this week the city announced its residential property tax rate of $9.89 per $1,000 of assessed value for Fiscal 2018. In Wilmington, the residential property tax, which is not offset by robust commercial property taxpayers, will be $14.41 per $1,000 of assessed value in Fiscal 2018.

But not everyone is convinced the town will use added commercial tax revenue to lower residential taxes. And some residents say there is already too much traffic in town.

" Tewksbury and Wilmington are not the small little town I grew up in," Joe Blair wrote. "They just keep building with no plans -- go down 38 and it's a mess. Way to much building going on."

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Photo by Dave Copeland.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).