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Schneiders:
Indy company 'on verge' of buying Plymouth Rubber property
By Jay Turner
Citizen Staff
The Planning
Board decided last week to wait until September to vote on a
six-lot industrial subdivision proposed by the owners of the
Plymouth Rubber property — but by then it may not even matter.
According to
remarks made by attorney Paul Schneiders in a telephone
interview on Saturday, Schneiders’ client, Illinois-based
Napleton, is nearing a deal to sell the 40-acre
industrially-zoned site to another Midwestern company, based in
Indianapolis, Indiana.
Schneiders
did not identify the company by name or give details, but said
its ownership group is “right on the verge of signing an
agreement” and is “pretty committed to purchasing the land.” He
said the principal owners of both sides were scheduled to fly
out to Massachusetts for a meeting on Tuesday at the offices of
Napleton’s engineering consultant, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin (VHB),
Inc.
The news
comes amid recent attempts by town officials to revive talks on
a new mixed-use project, which many feel would be a better
alternative to any of the industrial uses now permitted at the
site, including commercial, warehouse and manufacturing
facilities.
But as
Schneiders pointed out, the current owners had already tried to
build such a project once — failing to get the two-thirds vote
at town meeting needed to rezone the property — and they would
be hard-pressed to try again.
“The problem
is, we did more than we could afford to do the last time
around,” said Schneiders, whose clients spent millions
developing a site plan that, in its final form, included 395
condominiums, 20,000 square feet of retail space, and various
community amenities.
Schneiders
said at this point, in order for Napleton’s owners to even
consider ‘going back to the table,’ the town would have to come
up with something “very substantial and very soon.”
“The time is
truly running out,” he said.
Reached for
reaction, Planning Board Chairman Jeremy Comeau said he was
surprised to learn that a possible sale was so close and said
the board’s focus of late had been on the subdivision plan.
“This is the
first I’m hearing of it,” he said. “I was not notified by
Napleton, nor by their counsel.”
Comeau did
acknowledge that he has been in discussions with selectmen
Chairman John Connolly regarding another mixed-use project, but
that so far, nothing firm has been agreed upon.
“Right now,
it’s in the best interests of the town, and in the best
interests of the company, to do a mixed-use project,” Comeau
said, adding that if the sale in question were to go through, he
would make the same pitch to the new owners.
As for the
two historic Revere buildings located on the property, the fate
of both is still yet to be determined.
Napleton
requested demolition permits following the failed rezoning
efforts at town meeting, although Schneiders said the filing was
a precautionary move and not an indication that his clients
planned to tear the buildings down.
In an
interview for a June 5 story, however, Schneiders said the
company from Indianapolis, if it were to purchase the site,
would likely be able to save the Revere barn but not the former
copper rolling mill. The Historical Commission has since
scheduled a hearing on August 14 at the library to determine
whether to recommend a six-month demolition delay, which is an
authority it has by way of a bylaw approved at town meeting in
2003.
July 10, 2008
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