Monday, February 11, 2008

Old School Admin Building on Endicott St.

The Salem News reported that
North Shore Community Health
wants to relocate from Foster St.
to the old school administration building
at 70 Endicott Street.


The Industrial and Community Development Committee
met last Thursday to consider proposals for this site.
Only 2 were submitted, a new 2-story health care facility
and one for 4 new single family homes.

The developer for the home sites did not attend and
the Community Development department stated
that their project proposal lacked the required information.

The Health Center is a different story.
They want the property for $1 as a non-profit.
And, since they are non-profit, it would not generate taxes.
They also have a problem with too little parking on-site.
The rules require 60 spaces while there is only room for 30.

My personal feeling is that this is a
GREAT COMMUNITY SERVICE
and the City should do what it can to
help this project become a reality.

To that end... I have located a few possible
Parking Solutions for this small site.
One possible solution is to SHARE parking.

The church parking lot at 79 Endicott
is EMPTY on weekdays at just the time that
people need to park to visit the health center!



The parking lots for the various condos on
Warren St. are also mostly EMPTY and could
be used by visitors to the health center!

Also, the PMLP has a few spaces for
parking along Warren St. Extension.
These spaces could be expanded onto both sides
of the street allowing for staff parking all day.

On final option might be to construct
a parking area within the boundary
of the Berry St. Garage again for staff use.


Someone suggested we build a Children's Museum
like the one in Boston which charges
high prices for admission. So perhaps a little comparison is in order...


Tuesday, February 5, 2008

The Northshore Mall

A question concerning
the Northshore Mall...
Isn't the mall the biggest
tax payer in the City?


I don't know the answer but I did
look up the mall property
on the Peabody GIS website


As you can see, the "mall" is
actually several parcels.
Here is some additional information.

Main Mall Property 69.57 acres $ 213.0 Million
NW Corner (Macy's) 12.75 acres $ 18.4 M
West (Macy's Home) 7.59 acres $ 8.8 M
SE (was JCP) 7.62 acres $ 12.2 M
NE (Sears Auto) 3.6 acres $ 7.0 M