SWAMPSCOTT, MA — The Swampscott building at 12-24 Pine Street identified as future affordable veterans housing will be demolished within the next 75 days as part of a town agreement to purchase the property for $1.7 million.
The Select Board voted to approve the purchase on Wednesday night after a lengthy process that included several executive sessions and postponed votes involving the state of the building.
“The determination was made that it is safer and more appropriate to not maintain a vacant building that’s in a state of disrepair,” Select Board member Peter Spellios said. “And instead ensure that it’s properly demolished and that any asbestos and other issues regarding the building are taken care of. Then ultimately the town will secure the site to make sure the site is secure. And to maintain that site ongoing to make sure that it does not become blighted.
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“Because even though we are getting rid of the building, which could in itself become a liability, the site itself could become a liability if we don’t secure it, monitor it, keep it clean until which time the affordable housing for veterans can get under the way.”
The Select Board voted to authorize Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald to finalize the sale with the money kept in escrow until the demolition is complete.
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Plans are in place to notify residents of the Pine Street neighborhood about the pending demolition, which Fitzgerald said could take place within the next few weeks.
It was estimated that construction on a new building that will serve as veterans affordable housing will not likely begin for another 18 months.
“We are looking at fencing companies now,” Fitzgerald said of securing the site and keeping it safe. “I agree that we need to meet with the neighbors. This action tonight will give us the signal that this is going to move forward.”
When first announced last year, the purchase of the property for the expressed purpose of becoming veterans housing, as well as a renovation of the VFW hall, was hailed as a historic step to follow through on a long-dormant town obligation to veterans of the North Shore.
The Select Board voted last May to commit the town’s American Rescue Plan Act funding to purchase the property that will ultimately be 30 to 40 units of veterans housing.
“After a lot of work by the town administrator, the Board, and a lot of people,” Select Board member Doug Thompson said, “to find a way to actually make this all come together. It’s not necessarily all a done deal. There are still many, many, many pieces to go.
“But this is kind of a major milestone to have kind of threaded the needle on how we can keep the lid on the price of this, work on the demolition, and move it forward.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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