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Haverhill
City, archdiocese partner to make downtown parking deck work
Published: April 26, 2007
HAVERHILL - It is a match made in downtown renaissance heaven - the Hayes Building developers need parking for future apartment tenants, and the city needs money and space for a parking garage.
Together they hope to help bring a long-discussed parking deck downtown.
The mayor's office is negotiating with the developer - the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, an arm of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston - to pay $10,000 for each spot the Hayes Building uses in the parking garage after it is built. The Hayes project needs an estimated 36 spots, but the total is under negotiation.
The developer also may pay $730 a year for 10 years for maintenance in the garage, and part of the parking facility will be built on land the Hayes Building owns at 14-44 Granite St. In return, the archdiocese group gets the minimum parking it needs to meet local zoning ordinances downtown and convert the old factory to apartments.
William Grogan, the chief operations officer for the archdiocese group, said he has been working with the city to help make both the Hayes apartments and parking deck happen. He said he cannot talk in detail about the parking arrangements because negotiations continue.
"We're very excited to be a part of the ongoing revitalization efforts and to join the momentum that has been initiated down there," Grogan said.
The partnership needs final approval from the federal government, which is paying $7.1 million toward the garage, and the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority, the official entity building the garage for the city. That is according to Ted Van Nahl, the mayor's chief of staff, who is leading the project.
"It's a complex process, and we're tying it all together," Van Nahl said.
The archdiocese group was granted initial approval for the Hayes project from the City Council this week, but it cannot move forward with building permits until the parking situation is settled, Van Nahl said.
The $20 million Hayes Building project is the first development to apply for a permit in the 40R zone - a 53-acre area downtown where building housing is faster, easier and potentially less costly than outside the zone.
The purpose of the 40R zone is to make it easier to redevelop vacant old factory buildings near public transit - the Washington Square bus station and commuter train station.
Together they hope to help bring a long-discussed parking deck downtown.
The mayor's office is negotiating with the developer - the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, an arm of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston - to pay $10,000 for each spot the Hayes Building uses in the parking garage after it is built. The Hayes project needs an estimated 36 spots, but the total is under negotiation.
The developer also may pay $730 a year for 10 years for maintenance in the garage, and part of the parking facility will be built on land the Hayes Building owns at 14-44 Granite St. In return, the archdiocese group gets the minimum parking it needs to meet local zoning ordinances downtown and convert the old factory to apartments.
William Grogan, the chief operations officer for the archdiocese group, said he has been working with the city to help make both the Hayes apartments and parking deck happen. He said he cannot talk in detail about the parking arrangements because negotiations continue.
"We're very excited to be a part of the ongoing revitalization efforts and to join the momentum that has been initiated down there," Grogan said.
The partnership needs final approval from the federal government, which is paying $7.1 million toward the garage, and the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority, the official entity building the garage for the city. That is according to Ted Van Nahl, the mayor's chief of staff, who is leading the project.
"It's a complex process, and we're tying it all together," Van Nahl said.
The archdiocese group was granted initial approval for the Hayes project from the City Council this week, but it cannot move forward with building permits until the parking situation is settled, Van Nahl said.
The $20 million Hayes Building project is the first development to apply for a permit in the 40R zone - a 53-acre area downtown where building housing is faster, easier and potentially less costly than outside the zone.
The purpose of the 40R zone is to make it easier to redevelop vacant old factory buildings near public transit - the Washington Square bus station and commuter train station.
The plans for the Hayes Building project include 57 apartments, 24 of which will be rented to lower-income tenants. The plans call for 11 one-bedroom units and 46 two-bedroom apartments.
Three units on the first floor will be filled with retail stores such as a bookstore and coffee shop, the developer said.
The Hayes Building construction could start as soon as six months from now and would be finished in early 2009.
The parking garage will have between 350 and 550 spaces and will be finished more than a year after the Hayes Building. Tenants of the building will use a city-owned parking lot on nearby Locke Street until the garage is finished, Van Nahl said.
The Planning Office for Urban Affairs is described on its Web site as "a self-sustaining social justice ministry of the archdiocese" and has built about 2,200 units of mixed-income housing in Massachusetts since it was established in 1969 by the late Cardinal Richard Cushing.
City Councilor William Ryan said the archdiocese is not out to make a profit. It is renting 42 percent of its units at below market rate to low-income people.
"This is a charity more than anything else," he said.
The state will pay cities $3,000 for each new residential unit built in a 40R district, encouraging communities to lure developers to those urban areas.
JUMP PG BOX
The Hayes Building project
Where: 14-44 Granite St.
Project: Renovate old factory into 57 apartments
Cost: $20 million
Square footage: 94,410
Retail stores: Three
Developer: Planning Office for Urban Affairs, an arm of the Archdiocese of Boston
