SWAMPSCOTT, MA — A proposal supported by the majority of the Swampscott Select Board to explore turning the current Hadley School into a boutique hotel and restaurant when the new K-4 school opens next year received approval from town meeting members on Tuesday after a lengthy debate on the merits of a hotel vs. other desired options for the Humphrey Street property.
Select Board member Peter Spellios was the primary speaker in favor of the proposal as a way to rejuvenate the downtown, help local businesses and provide some potential tax revenue to the town.
Those opposed to the hotel request-for-proposal authorization and corresponding zoning changes argued that affordable housing and community space — two other uses proposed as options by the Hadley Re-Use Committee — were more pressing and worthwhile needs for the town at this time.
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“It’s really about supporting and anchoring that downtown and those businesses,” Spellios said. “I want to let the people know who are thinking about affordable housing that we just did not see that as this location.”
Spellios referenced recent Select Board discussions that placed the hotel option as the preference with Select Board member Katie Phelan arguing her preference for community space. He noted that no member of the Board supported affordable senior housing as the first preference for that location — instead supporting it for alternative locations such as the recently purchased Pine Street property.
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Still, Housing Authority Trust Chair Kimberly Martin-Epstein, a former Select Board candidate, issued an impassioned push for the affordable housing option, arguing that the hotel use will ultimately be viewed as the least feasible option of the three.
Spellios said Tuesday’s vote only authorizes the Select Board to explore the hotel as a preferred option and does not guarantee that’s what the property will become.
“This is an opportunity there,” he said of feedback from a consultant on the viability of a hotel. “There is potential. Really, the biggest weakness from our standpoint is that we really don’t know what’s going to happen if we go to market on this.
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“I can’t sit here today and tell you that we’re going to be successful because the market is fickle. The market today can be much different from the market a week from now and six months from now.”
He said the primary push to get the town meeting authorization this spring was to begin the process to determine the viability before students leave the school next June and it sits unused.
“We don’t want a vacant building,” he said. “We believe this to be the best opportunity. Give us the chance in the market to figure that out.”
Swampscott Select Board members on Tuesday also supported extending the lease option of the town-owned Hawthorne property as a potential restaurant or to another tenant for two more years until a more permanent use can be determined, and to change a zoning bylaw that opens up more opportunities for accessory-dwelling unit apartments in the town.
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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