The Salem News reports that there are 5 major development projects in the works in the North Shore aimed at boosting the local economy:
The Salem News reported that construction is being completed on Palmer Cove Condominiums, new, three-story building with 15 condos with prices ranging from $142,500 to $191,000, at the end of Congress Street.
According to the Salem News article, built by Salem Harbor Community Development Corp., a nonprofit agency that manages about 150 apartments, this development is significant because it is the first condominium complex in this neighborhood in decades (or maybe ever). The area, known as The Point, a low-income neighborhood across the South River basin, had so far being bypassed by the condo and restaurant boom that rejuvenated the Salem downtown.
The project tackles head-on one of the neighborhood's biggest issues – lack of homeownership. While Salem is split evenly between renters and home owners, The Point is almost all renters – 82%, according to the 2000 census. This Palmer Cove Condominiums project follows several smaller condo conversions in The Point, officials say, and continues an encouraging trend.
Read the entire Salem News article.
According to the Salem Gazette, a newly revised plan by Somerville developer Resource Capital Group (RCG) aspires to draw locals back into downtown Salem and bring back the lively marketplace atmosphere that used to thrive in Salem. The 4-story, mixed-use building they propose is the result of months of meetings with the mayor and the Marketplace Redevelopment Committee, a group of interested citizens and community stakeholders who provided input for the block that includes Front, New Derby, Washington and Lafayette streets.
RCG owns much of downtown Salem and manages numerous properties including the City Hall Annex on Washington Street, the West Coast Video building on Lafayette Street and the downtown Derby Lofts. The new marketplace building is slated to go the long-vacated and recently-demolished Salem Evening News building on Washington Street.
Read the entire Salem Gazette article
The Salem News reported that on November 8th, the old Salem Evening News building was demolished in favor of downtown condominiums, apartments and shops. It had been empty the last few years and was beginning to become an eye-sore in an otherwise thriving downtown Salem. Somerville-based developer RCG, which bought the site in the summer for $2.4 million, plans to build 31 residences and finish construction in 2009.
Read the entire Salem News article
According to the Salem News, the State has accepted proposals to move 3 historic homes on Federal Street in Salem, which puts the town one step closer to building the proposed $106 million J. Michael Ruane Judicial Center.
Read the entire Salem News article
The Salem News reports that voters in Salem today will vote on a ballot question for the Community Preservation Act, which, if passed, would add a 1% surcharge to local property taxes to be spent for affordable housing, recreation, historical preservation and open space.
Read the entire Salem News article
According to the Salem News, here is a breakdown of affordable housing percentages in many of the North Shore Communities:
Beverly 11.5%
Boxford 0.7%
Danvers 10.4%
Hamilton 3.3%
Ipswich 8.2%
Manchester 4.7%
Marblehead 3.8%
Middleton 4.2%
Peabody 10.4%
Salem 13.2%
Swampscott 3.6%
Topsfield 5.4%
Wenham 8.9%
Read the entire Salem News article
The Salem News reports that Salem will receive a $474,000 state grant to turn a blighted lot behind Wendy’s restaurant on Lafayette Street into an urban park.
The new park, which will be on Peabody Street, a former brownfield’s site on the edge of downtown, will include playground equipment, plans for a gazebo that could be used for a meeting place and game tables for cards and dominoes, and may also include a mural that would record the history of the neighborhood, which has long been a home for new immigrants.
Read the entire Salem News article
According to the Salem News, the Salem Board of Appeals approved the North River Apartments, a large apartment complex proposed along the North River.
The Board cleared a major hurdle for the project last week when it voted unanimously to grant variances for Riverview Place, a residential and commercial project planned on the site of the Salem Suede and Bonfanti leather factories. The variances will allow the developer to build more apartments than zoning allows and to put the buildings closer to nearby residences than current regulations permit.
Read the Salem News article
This morning, NSAR sponsored its first Legislative Breakfast in 2007, attending by State Representative Theodore Speliotis (D-13th Essex), State Representative Joyce Spiliotis (D-12th Essex), Representative John Keenan (D-7th Essex), and Beth Murray, Aide to Senator Frederick Berry.
MAR General Counsel and Government Affairs Director, Steve Ryan, presented the five legislative topics on the agenda and gave the legislators the Realtor® position on each issue.
These issues included:
1. Transfer Taxes. Realtors® oppose real estate transfer taxes as bad tax policy for several reasons including: a community wide responsibility should be paid for by the entire community; a transfer tax is inequitable and discriminatory as it singles out a small segment of the population [specifically home buyers & sellers] to pay for a community wide need; a transfer tax is exclusionary because it would increase the cost of home ownership; a transfer tax would be an unstable source of revenue due to the instability of the real estate market; a transfer tax would subvert the Proposition 2 ½ override process; the state legislature has already given cities and towns many equitable tools to create affordable and workforce housing through passage of Community Preservation Act, Chapter 40B, and Chapter 40R and 40S.
2. An Act Protecting Children from Poisoning. Proposed legislation SB. 1230 would (a) require lead inspections on all sales of property, instead of at the buyer’s option; (b) require owners and sellers of property to abate lead in soil and tap water; and (c) require letters of compliance for rental units to be renewed every two years, regardless of whether children reside in the unit, or whenever there is a change in occupancy, if that is earlier.
3. An Act Providing Information to Real Estate Buyers. Proposed legislation H. 323, S. 201 is a little unclear but seems to suggest that a homeowner would be expected to review the databases of nearly a dozen different governmental agencies and then create some type of report or hire and pay someone to do it for them. It is not clear how many millions of dollars this could cost Massachusetts homeowners every year or that buyers and sellers could review this data and provide an accurate assessment of what implications, if any, information on one of these databases would have on a home.
4. An Act Relative to the Disclosure of Wetlands on Property. Proposed legislation H. 767 seeks to require that a real estate broker disclose to prospective buyers that a property to be sold may be in its entirety, or in part a wetland as defined in Chapter 131 of the General Laws of or any other regulation or local by-law of the municipality where the property is located. It is the Realtor® position that however well intentioned this proposal may be, it would create an impossible standard for real estate licensees to meet and generate confusion for consumers.
5. An Act Relative to Smart Growth Housing Trust Fund (S. 132) and An Act Relative to Financing the Smart Growth Housing Trust (H. 160). Realtors® support both these bills, as it would create a steady stream of revenue to support the continued success of 40R Smart Growth districts.