TURNERS FALLS — While a clear plan for rehabilitating the former Railroad Salvage building is still far off, early talks have begun on at least beautifying the space, and at most redeveloping it into a residential or commercial complex.
The property, in the Patch section of Turners Falls, has changed hands several times since the Railroad Salvage store left in 1994. However, it has been unoccupied ever since, and was largely destroyed by a fire in 2016.
Redevelopment would not be straightforward, though, according to Montague Town Planner Walter Ramsey. The whole southern area of the Canal District does not have access to utilities, and he said the investment on the part of the town to bring utilities to the area would probably have to be justified by a potential to generate new tax revenue.
Furthermore, the condition of the Railroad Salvage building has become a hurdle to development in the southern Canal District. Bob Obear, a developer who owns an adjacent warehouse lot — the only other property in the immediate area — and who is a member of the town Planning Board, said potential partners for the redevelopment of his lot have been leery because of the eyesore nextdoor, even before considering the hurdle of bringing utilities to the area.
“That’s going to be a roadblock for anybody,” Obear said. “Not just myself as an abutter.”
The Railroad Salvage building’s current owner, listed as Solutions Consulting LLC, hasn’t paid taxes on the property since 2011, and now owes $101,014, including late fees, Ramsey said, opening a question of if and when the town might take over ownership.
In its current condition, owning the Railroad Salvage property is not an attractive prospect, Ramsey said. The building’s structure is unsound, and the site is contaminated with asbestos and other hazardous materials.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can intervene to clean up the hazardous materials, but wouldn’t tear down the building. Town lawyers are working with the EPA to find out if it will be legally possible to access the site, Ramsey said. But there is no expectation of when a cleanup could happen, or even if it necessarily will happen.
If the site were cleaned up, the town would be more inclined to seize ownership on the basis of unpaid taxes, Ramsey said.
“If the town does end up owning it, we want it to be in a condition that we know,” Ramsey said. “There are a lot of unknowns.”
Owning the site would allow the town to take a more active role in its redevelopment. The best case scenario is that the site is conveyed to a private developer who turns it into something that would generate tax revenue, Ramsey said — housing, commercial, industrial or some mix thereof. He added that zoning regulations in the Canal District have been loosened to promote redevelopment.
A less desirable scenario would be to turn the site into a public park. Ramsey has mentioned an idea of leaving the parts of the structure that are still stable, then allowing the space to re-vegetate and become an “industrial ruin.” Doing so wouldn’t generate tax revenue, he said, but it would cost the town relatively little and would convert the site from a liability to an asset.
However, a tax revenue-generating development is virtually impossible without utilities in the area, Ramsey said, which could cost the town $10 or $15 million.
To justify the cost, he said, the town would need estimates of the potential tax revenue from various development concepts. If an apartment complex were put there, for example, there is a critical mass in the number of apartment units that would be necessary to justify the cost of the utility build out. Ramsey said that kind of financial projection would need to be provided by a hired consultant.
“Hence the need to do some site planning,” Ramsey said. “We want to have a plan in place if and when the town does take ownership.”
In rehabilitating the Canal District, most of the town’s energy has been devoted to the central “gateway.” The former Southworth mill was recently bought by Tom Cusano, a real estate developer from New Hampshire, who intends to bring the building back into some sort of commercial use, although a tenant hasn’t been identified yet, Ramsey said. And the pedestrian bridge, long seen as an obstacle to new development, is expected to be replaced by the state later this year.
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.