November 01, 2009

Royal Linen Building

Four years ago tomorrow, November 2, 2005, the City of Worcester deeded the former Royal Linen Property (48 Mason Street) to Mason Winfield LLC.
  • 11/2/5 book 37717 page 51 48 Mason Street 66,853
  • 11/2/5 book 37717 page 59 47 Mason Street 43,147
  • Total 110,000

Two months later Mason Winfield transferred 48 Mason Street to one of the minority owner stake-holders (Worcester Common Ground, a non profit entity) for $10,

  • 1/1/06 book 38185 page 55 48 Mason Street $10

Since that time Worcester Common Ground has received a grant in the amount of 170,000 from the EPA BCRLF to remediate 48 Mason Street. Since Common Ground is a non-profit they (Common Ground) will not have to pay the 170,000 back. It is grant.

Some four years later not a thing has been build on 48 Mason Street. Since this property was dispensed via an RFP (Request for Proposal), there must be a corresponding LDA (Land Disposition Agreement), which spells out the timeline of development that the buyer agreed to honor.

Lets hope the terms of the LDA are enforced.

13 comments:

Jhan said...

I'll tell u the the time line..................bids were opened about june 5th 2005..........and awarded soon there after...............work was to start in early Sept, 2005.

ANd last time I looked they hadnt cleared the 4 ft ragweed....... over 12" is deemed a nuisnace........talk about a polluted mess....

Paulie should send Louie over to 9 Bellevue St ....knock on Worc Common Grd"s office door and offer to de-foliate that site for $200 (CASH ONLY)....just tell Louie no Agent Orange defolient.......got to do it all by hand.

And WCG's Mission talks about caring about these kinds of quality of life issues for the inner city.........surely they jest

I have to wonder if WCG will end up going it alone on that site ,as I cannot see private money being used to build housing like that or if they do, it will be 10 years before the market is right(if ever) again for pivate money in that type of inner city NOLO venture.

Anonymous said...

"SCOOP" Randell is all over the story! 'Atta boy, Bill ... thanks for your fiduciary role in looking out for Worcester's tax payers...

Harry T
Worcester,MA

Paulie's Point of View said...

market townhouses would look good there...last thing our neighborhod needs is more no-lo ioncome housing..especially NOT what is being built at Piedmont and Main...how come WCG never proposes no-lo income housing on Flagg Street and Burnocoat???

Bill Randell said...

There will never be any private money to back this project.

Paulie, sorry it will be more high concentrated low income housing.

Jahn said...

ANyone ever look forward to teh day these CDC's run out of sites to build on........or may be they never will..and then theyll start buying up 3 deckers to re-hab.....or multiple abutting 3 decker sites to be razed for more High density NOLO's

I cant see NOLO's crossing Park Ave.......maube 1 or 2 blocks into the west side of Park ave thats it

Burncoat (north) end of city already has Great Brook Valley, Lincoln Village, Mountain Village, and other Smaller NOLO's. I Think there's another one in that area on the drawing board that might be NOLO single families or duplexes....that will allow dev'er to build a single/duplex on a 4-5-6,000 ft lot................similar to what was done out in W Boylston off Rte 110 about 20 yrs ago.........a.k.a.. 40B........hey i saw a piece in paper (Boston?) the other day....something about changing /repealing 40B at least temporaily??

I have been meaning to take a pict and send it to WM, Jr. of what is allegeldy a 40B single family Dutch Colonial?Gambrel up in the Rte 38/I-93 area .........probably a 10-15 year old 32x26...2.5 story house on a beautiful littel 4 house cul de sac.....that I am guessing is worth 400K even in this market

Jahn said...

Does anyone think these 7 Dwarf potential city councilors that the city employee unions are plastering all over the T&G realy is a waste of money spent by the unions or who ever is paying for them.

I see this tactic as possibly drawing more of the opposing vote from those of us who work in dreaded private sector and are fed up with the abuse of public money that we continually read about.

Speaking of which........another week goes by and still nothing about WPD Payrollgate? wth IS GOING ON.........arent the city stockholders at least entitled to a progress report on this alleged defalcation/fraud/embezzlemnt?

Paulie's Point of View said...

I disagree with you Wild Will...it should become an issue of the business group..we need to wean ourselves from being strictly a NRSA business group and I look to you to lead us:>) As I have told you privately, I am willing to stand up and do more

Bill Randell said...

Paul:

The development of this parcel has nothing to do with you or me. There is no bank out there that will finance a market-based project there.

The only thing that can possibly go there is another low-mod income project subsidized with tax monies. If you want to do something.

Check in with Neighborhood Services and see if they know of any applications pending with DHCD, or any other agency, looking for monies on this project.

Bill

Jahn said...

aLSO ASK THEM how much in Home Funds has been applied for with the application?(assuming an applc was filed?)

The limit per the 2005 bid was 25,000 per unit, but Neighborhood Services sometimes take sit upon themselves to give certain favored players more in Home Funds than is allowed per the bid guidelines....when in fact they do change the amt of Homes Funds the entire thing s/b re-bid.

Homes Funds for those of you who are not privy to the NOLO industry in Worc. are basically an add'l give away to teh builder that in the end allows the builder to get more for the sale of the residence than they would have gotten w/o the home funds giveaway.

Bill Randell said...

Paul

Call Scott Hayman and ask him for th LDA (Land Disposition Agreement). That would be a good first step.

Bill

Jahn said...

Hey I just came from city hall.........lighten my bank account....GGGGGGRRRRRR........saw 2 Worc cops and what appeared to be 2 "city Hall" cops (that's 4 total for you St J's & Wintah Hill boys) shootin' the breeze on the "mall" immediatley behind city Hall. I thought we didnt have any cops to patrol that area/Downtown?

As I drove to and from City Haul I couldnt help but notice brand spankin' new Granite curbing being put in place all along sections ofWorc center Blvd about opposite the area of the new Inter city bus station. SO I am wondering to myself are things being re-configured for the new City Sq proposal to punch Front St through to Union Station area?

David, I know you're privy to City Sq project??......soooo.........Dew Yew kNow Anything? Anyone ever price that granite curbing.........ouch.....!!!!! the mat'l alone will put ya in the poor house

Also that closed up store front under the Brancroft looks very unappealing to passer's by & visitor to the center of our city.

Congrats to the treasurer..........no line there today (yet?).........4 windows all open during luch hour..........good planning there Mr Treasurer....more than I can say for my trip to teh new RMV office at Charlton rest area last August to re-up my bike registration for another year.

Bill Randell said...

Jahn:


There are no more "city hall" cops and trust me they are missed immensely downtown. I actually hope that they are back downtown soon.


Bill

David Z. said...

Jahn,

Yes, all of that work is a prelude to CitySquare.