By Kathy Kurtz Ferrari
Staff Writer
6/11/09
The recent sale of land and ranch homes on Randolph Avenue abutting the town’s Department of Public Works yard has signified the end of rumors for future mall development along the busy thoroughfare.
According to a source close to developers involved in the failed Milton Centre LLC, the project is “deader than a doornail.”
Plans for a retail mall presented to the town by the developers in April 2005 were met with harsh opposition after the group purchased a block of ranch homes and land abutting and across from the DPW yard. The plan called for a land-swap, relocating the DPW across the street to land also purchased by the developers in anticipation of the project.
The shopping center was to be called “The Shops at Milton Centre,” and according to marketing material put out by the developers, would offer “an elegant response to the town’s community development plan, which called for new sources of commercial tax revenue.” Planned to be a $25 million shopping center with a grocery store on 13 acres of land that was compared to a smaller version of the Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham, Milton Centre LLC met with vehement opposition from residents. At the time, Charles McCarthy, then a selectman, said some residents held “apocalyptic fears” associated with the developer’s plans.
But the recent sale of properties surrounding the proposed site signifies the final knell for any possible construction.
According to the Norfolk County Register of Deeds office, most of the land slated to be part of the development along both sides of Route 28, near the DPW yard, was sold at the end of May.
Properties located at 672, 704 and 708 Randolph Ave. were sold by William A. Quigley to Gregory Zazula for $650,000. Horseplay Stables is located at 704 Randolph Ave., and according to the stable’s owner, the property will continue to operate as a horse farm, as it has for decades.
Also along the street, four ranch homes were sold May 29 to Milton residents Michael and Catherine Walsh, of Eager Road. Walsh owns a contracting business named Killoran Contracting, and has already begun renovating the homes for resale.
The Walshes purchased 675 Randolph Ave. from Quigley for $175,000; 669 Randolph Ave. from B.E. Development LLC for $175,000; 736 Randolph Ave. from P.A.H. Realty LLC for $305,000; and 687 Randolph Ave. from B.A.I. Property LLC for $175,000.
According to Catherine Walsh, the company has already begun to renovate the kitchens and bathrooms of the small homes.
“So it’s the end of the mall, so everyone can chill out,” Walsh said, as she commented on how the homes had been sitting empty for so long.
The couple has lived in Milton for eight years, not far from the location of the ranch homes. Killoran Contracting has done other work in Milton, and according to Michael Walsh, he hopes to put the homes on the market sometime in early July.
“The work is coming along nicely,” Walsh said. “I’d like to keep them affordable, below $400,000. … It’s nice to keep busy, and I saw an opportunity with these houses. Time will tell how it plays out.”
Milton Centre LLC’s developer still owns some land in back of the DPW, but the source associated with the project noted that the sales really signify the “complete wind-down of the project.”