WESTFIELD – City Advancement Officer Jeff Daley discussed the Westfield Historic Commission’s function in the development of the Elm Street project Monday night.
That role, and that of the Massachusetts Historical Commission, revolve around the fact that the project site falls within the recently approved city’s historical district and because the Flahive Building, which will be demolished, is on the historical register.
“You will have a role to play in the taking of one of the properties,” Daley said.
The Westfield Redevelopment Authority (WRA) is close to presenting a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to the Massachusetts Historical Commission as the primary signatory and the Westfield Historical Commission as the secondary signatory.
“I’m hoping to wrap up the MOA this week,” Daley, who is also the WRA executive director, said. “The Flahive Building is a registered historical building, but it’s not worth saving.”
The WRA has access to a $1.7 million Federal Transportation Authority grant which not only covers the cost of the Flahive Building acquisition, but also the cost of relocating the residents of the 16 apartments and the commercial tenants, demolition and any environmental site mitigation required.
“We took out about 1,600 tons of contaminated soil this summer from the parking area and anticipate that we will be taking more out after the building has been demolished,” Daley said.
The Pioneer Valley Transportation Authority (PVTA) will construct a new 2,000-square-foot bus stop/intermodal center on that location as part of the project. The glass and wooden structure will provide a safe and secure shelter to commuters waiting for their bus. Daley said that facility will not routinely cater to long-haul bus companies, with the exception being local charters for groups going to Red Sox and other sporting team venues.
The PVTA has agreed to allow the Westfield Historical Commission to review the facility design at the 30 and 90 percent design stages and make recommendations because the facility’s footprint will be in that of the Flahive Building.
“”We won’t have a lot of say,” Commission Chairwoman Kitt Milligan said, “But we can make recommendations because it is in the historic district.”
Commission member Beth Butcher questioned why the board’s review was being limited to the PVTA segment of the project and not included in the commercial building or parking garage design.
Daley said that the commercial building on the corner of Elm and Arnold streets will be privately funded and is on land where there were no historically registered buildings. While the parking garage will be publicly funded through the state it also being developed on non-historical land.
Daley said the commercial building will be a minimum of four stories and have 90,000 square feet, although it could have as many as six floors and additional square footage.
The parking garage is needed to provide sufficient parking as required under city zoning to support the 90,000 square foot commercial building. Daley said he anticipates that the garage will provide 375 parking bays. The facility will have a ground floor and two decks for parking, but could have an additional deck to provide up to a total of 500 spaces.
Daley said that he plans to initiate acquisition negotiations with the Romani family for the bowling alley and the former Newberry’s store site in the near future. The bowling alley will be demolished to make way for the parking garage, which Daley said, the city will pursue independently of the commercial project because of the dire need to increase parking in the city’s CORE area.
