Recent News

Home Depot USA Inc. filed an application with the New Bedford Redevelopment Authority March 24 to build a 396,000-square-foot shopping complex at the former Fairhaven Mills site.

The plan requires the demolition of the biggest of the old Fairhaven Mills factory buildings still in good condition, the structure that contains the New Bedford Antiques warehouse and other businesses.

Former City Solicitor George J. Leontire, one of the partners in Whelan Associates, cautioned yesterday that Home Depot has simply filed an application and is not committed to doing the development yet.

“It's a very complicated and difficult deal to put together and it's nowhere near approval yet,” he said.

For more Current info on the proposal, click www.nbpi.org

Quincy firm to develop Fairhaven Mills

Providence Business News | Posted May. 3, 2007

NEW BEDFORD – After an extended bidding process, the city yesterday announced it has selected Dickinson Development of Quincy, Mass., to develop the Fairhaven Mills project.

New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang said the city has accepted Dickinson’s $500,000 bid for a 6-acre city-owned parcel that includes one former mill building, as well as the developer’s vision for the property.

Dickinson envisions a project driven by retail, with the potential for more mixed use, in the full 14-acre site that fronts Interstate 195 and the Acushnet River. As currently configured, the project will not require any funding from the state or the city.

Construction is expected to begin in early 2008. “I am pleased that the city has reached an agreement with a development team that will infuse new life into the site,” Lang said in a statement. The bid “offers a fair purchase price for our property, and most importantly … we have done so in an open process with much public involvement.”

Dickinson Development had been in a two-partty race for the site, according to the mayor’s office, and beat out rival Mitchell Sawyer Partnership. Both bids for the site were submitted in November.

During negotiations, Dickinson upped its ante for the site from $200,000 to $500,000, and agreed to develop the property in a “mixed-use” way, adding a $100,000 boathouse, a waterfront park and a pedestrian walkway.

Retail projects eyed for mill land

Group controls 75 percent of Coggeshall Street site

By Jack Spillane
The Standard-Times | March 16, 2005.

Whalen Associates has gained control of 75 percent of the private properties at the former Fairhaven Mills site and is trying to put together a deal to bring two, or even three, big-box retail developments to the highly visible site off Interstate 195 in the city.

A source close to John J. Meldon, a private businessman who owns the largest building at the Coggeshall Street location, said yesterday that the businessman has given Whalen Associates a short time period to put together a deal.

After that, the commercial real estate company must provide Mr. Meldon with an agreed-upon fee, whether the deal goes forward or not.

Whalen Associates is headed by former Boston developer William N. Whelan, a New Bedford resident, and former City Solicitor George J. Leontire.

The city has long sought to bring together several independently owned parcels at the site for a big-box complex – with one of those buildings widely speculated to be a Home Depot.

The belief is that the aging and partially crumbled factories at the site are an eyesore at an important gateway to the city and should be attractively developed. If the plan goes through, the city plans to build a river-walk along a strip of land where the property borders the Acushnet River. The river walk would connect to the planned Riverside Park in a nearby economically depressed area of the North End.

In the past several weeks, soil-testing companies have gauged the quality of the soil at the former factory and waterfront site. “The only thing I'll confirm is that we're looking at it on behalf of a major client,” he said. “No final decisions have been made yet.”

In the wake of Whalen Associates gaining options on Fairhaven Mills complex properties, the city of New Bedford last week called for “requests for proposals” on two parcels of land (7 acres) of tax-foreclosed property that it owns at the site.

Because of its desire that the location be configured as one large development, the city has long said it would sell its own parcels only if a private party had gained control of the majority of other properties at the Fairhaven Mills site.

City Solicitor Matthew J. Thomas has described the location as one of the key large sites in the city and said it is important that it be developed in a way that most benefits New Bedford.

The city decided to issue the request for proposals because the process costs little and there had been much speculation that a private party had gained control of three-quarters of the site, Mr. Thomas said.

Speculation about the properties was great at the time in the wake of a still unexplained fire at one of the old mill buildings off Sawyer Street.

Mr. Howland, who rents space in Mr. Meldon's building for his environmental fence company, said yesterday that he and his landlord believe Whalen Associates will not be able to put together a deal.

He questioned whether the site is clean enough to be developed in a cost-effective way.

anecdotes

clameater Mar 14, 2008 New Bedford Antiques to re-open in May of 2008, the building has been saved.

George W. Saulnier  It looks like we just might have saved this mill. The MA Inspector General is investigating the whole process and Channel 10 just did a news story about it. A link to all articles in regards to this is here. Some of this info might be helpful to others fighting the battle to save mills. Thanks for your help.

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