By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
7/16/09
Coffman Realty of Brockton is sticking with its original plan to build a pharmacy on Route 138, on the property where Temple Shalom is located.
And now, Jeff Coffman says his company has an agreement in principle with CVS Pharmacy to build that store there if the town agrees to rezone the site for a mixed-use development.
Coffman said his company has built more than 60 CVS pharmacies and added that he could make a CVS fit in architecturally with the area.
After conducting market analysis and analyzing nearly a dozen different development models at the behest of the Planning Board, the company reasserted last week that developing commercial property at the Temple site would make the most business sense.
It is a plan Coffman for months has called the best option for the Temple, which either must redevelop its land or sell off its entire parcel and move its congregation. Either way, the Temple has agreed to partner with Coffman.
The developer would also build a smaller Temple and a commercial building with retail and office space, a plan neighbors have criticized as intrusive and inappropriate for the residentially zoned neighborhood.
“It wasn’t our objective to say ‘this proposal works and this one doesn’t,’” Coffman said. “We did what we were asked to do, which was to look at these options given to us by the [Planning] Board.”
Beth Fleitman, a neighbor serving on a committee advising the Planning Board, voiced opposition to commercial development at the Temple site, saying, “If you put that in there, it becomes a zoo.”
But Nick Macke, another neighbor on the committee, said some area residents are “open-minded” about commercial development in the neighborhood.
A second option, for the Temple to coexist with two condominium buildings with 12 units each, was seen as another development that could potentially work, Coffman said. Because of a weak housing market, however, most other projects with a strictly residential component would not create sufficient revenue or garner the interest from builders, he said.
Market-price rental apartments might work, he added, but they would have to be high-density, with as many as 100 units.
“I don’t think this type of density at this location really makes sense. It’s not what the Temple is looking for and I don’t think it’s what the neighborhood is looking for,” Coffman said.
Coffman has agreed to pay $5,000 for the Planning Board to hire professional consultants to review its findings.
The board next meets Thursday, July 16, at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.