By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
7/2/09
A development including a pharmacy or convenience store as its central tenant would likely do the best business at Temple Shalom’s property on Route 138. Residential property might work, as well, provided it’s affordable.
At least, that’s what two real estate brokers who spoke before the Planning Board last week are saying.
Taber Keally, a broker with Brockton’s M. Donahue & Associates, was invited to advise the board on what types of commercial developments might best suit the Temple and its neighbors. Temple officials have indicated they must downsize into a smaller building because the current one is too large to financially maintain. Many neighbors opposed the Temple’s original development plan, which would have involved the construction of a smaller Temple and a chain pharmacy, such as CVS or Walgreens.
But Keally said he thinks the spot is uniquely situated in an area of town to “serve a local base” of the community, making a neighborhood shop the most appealing of the potential commercial options. Other developments seeking to draw business from outside the neighborhood would be less likely to succeed, he said.
“It’s really about proximity to the highway. This property is not near a main highway, so it’s difficult to draw people off [Route] 28 or 93,” Keally explained. “It really has a limited quantity of potential tenants. You’d have to look at a destination-type spot like, for example, a convenience store.”
The development Keally described was very similar to what the Temple had initially proposed, which would have involved selling much of the property for commercial development. Keally said a smaller Temple might coexist with a pharmacy/convenience shop as its main revenue source and have another building, perhaps with office or retail space, serving as the “anchor tenant.”
After much opposition from neighbors during a series of public hearings, Annual Town Meeting in May voted to refer a very similar scenario back to the Planning Board for further study. The proposal was put forth by Temple Shalom, in collaboration with the Brockton firm Coffman Realty.
Since Town Meeting, the Planning Board has set a new course for development discussions, forming an advisory committee of neighborhood and Temple representatives, and setting an aggressive timeline to formulate a new proposal. The tentative plan calls for a development proposal agreeable to both parties to be ready for consideration at a December Town Meeting. It would require a two-thirds majority vote to rezone the property.
If a commercial proposal cannot be agreed upon, the property could instead see new residential construction.
Beth Rooney, manager of Milton’s Coldwell Banker Brokerage office, said the town’s market – while holding steady as other communities feel the market impact of the economy – has in recent days seen sales in the lower price ranges.
Rooney said homes near where the Temple is located have sold in the $350,000 price range and any new development would have to be priced “extremely aggressively” to match those sales.
“It can’t be too far above that price range, because that’s the price range that’s selling there,” she said.
History may play a factor, as well. Rooney said Milton has traditionally been a town that develops for single-family use and avoids, to a large extent, the large-scale condominiums and multifamily properties seen in places like Quincy.
However, indications from Temple Shalom officials are that a strictly residential scenario would not meet their financial requirements to remain in town, nor would it make for an appealing coexistence. Robert Rosofsky, representing the Temple on the advisory committee to the Planning Board, said such a development was carefully considered in financial models.
According to the Temple’s findings, he said, “it just wasn’t an option for us.”
“To be viable, it would have to be a high-density, [Chapter] 40B development, and we were concerned about living next to a high-density development and having that in the neighborhood. We’re neighbors, too,” he said. Chapter 40B is the state’s affordable-housing law.
Rosofsky said the Temple also felt that adding dozens of new living units would put undue stress on town services: more children in schools that are already having to deal with growing enrollments and a leaner budget, and the need for more police and fire coverage in that region of town.
Planning Board member Alex Whiteside said he wants to hear from more than just two real estate brokers before moving the plan forward. He said it would be helpful also to hear from potential developers who would be interested in the site.
“I don’t think we’re anywhere close to being able to identify possible options. We could hear from 10 different people who want to do 10 different things. First, we’ve got to know what a developer could do or would do,” said Whiteside.
The matter will be continued when the Planning Board next meets with the advisory committee on July 9.