No Answers Yet for Seniors
Information presented to seniors Tuesday (Aug. 5, 2008) did not clear up the question of when the new senior center will be completed.
As related by Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs on her monthly visit, developer Glen Fishman has missed three stated deadlines and now says he needs nine more months to complete the project at 400 East Front Street, which also includes three floors of condos. Robinson-Briggs noted the city’s agreement with the developer allows for two years from the time a building permit is issued and in a cell phone call from the meeting to Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson, determined that deadline to be October 2009.
The project received all Planning Board approvals in April 2007 and a groundbreaking was held in July. At the time, Fishman told Plaintalker construction would start a week later. Last month, a reliable source told Plaintalker the building permit was issued in May 2007.
Initially, Williamson could not answer the mayor’s question Tuesday and called back to say the permit was issued in October 2007.
Fishman’s “nine months” would place completion in the spring of 2009.
One would think a date as important as the deadline for completion of the long-awaited senior center would be something officials might have upfront in their consciousness and not have to ask about. Given the conflicting information from last month to this month, maybe an Open Public Records Act request is in order to get a copy of the permit. For reporters, original documents are the bottom line.
The faltering economy and the developer’s already long roster of other projects in other communities may be factors in the delay. One senior preached patience Tuesday, but another reminded the mayor that seniors are highly sensitive to the passage of time and would like to see the center open while they are still here.
The mayor said if the developer defaults, the project will revert to the city and other interested developers can then step in to complete it. But given that the $15 million senior center/condo project is the only one that has shown any progress out of about 20 development schemes on the table, perhaps it needs special help to make it happen.
Seniors are still in the leased space at 305 East Front Street where they have been for almost two decades. About 60 members attended the mayor’s visit Tuesday.
--Bernice Paglia
As related by Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs on her monthly visit, developer Glen Fishman has missed three stated deadlines and now says he needs nine more months to complete the project at 400 East Front Street, which also includes three floors of condos. Robinson-Briggs noted the city’s agreement with the developer allows for two years from the time a building permit is issued and in a cell phone call from the meeting to Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson, determined that deadline to be October 2009.
The project received all Planning Board approvals in April 2007 and a groundbreaking was held in July. At the time, Fishman told Plaintalker construction would start a week later. Last month, a reliable source told Plaintalker the building permit was issued in May 2007.
Initially, Williamson could not answer the mayor’s question Tuesday and called back to say the permit was issued in October 2007.
Fishman’s “nine months” would place completion in the spring of 2009.
One would think a date as important as the deadline for completion of the long-awaited senior center would be something officials might have upfront in their consciousness and not have to ask about. Given the conflicting information from last month to this month, maybe an Open Public Records Act request is in order to get a copy of the permit. For reporters, original documents are the bottom line.
The faltering economy and the developer’s already long roster of other projects in other communities may be factors in the delay. One senior preached patience Tuesday, but another reminded the mayor that seniors are highly sensitive to the passage of time and would like to see the center open while they are still here.
The mayor said if the developer defaults, the project will revert to the city and other interested developers can then step in to complete it. But given that the $15 million senior center/condo project is the only one that has shown any progress out of about 20 development schemes on the table, perhaps it needs special help to make it happen.
Seniors are still in the leased space at 305 East Front Street where they have been for almost two decades. About 60 members attended the mayor’s visit Tuesday.
--Bernice Paglia
posted by Bernice at 10:38 PM
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