The downturn in the life science lab market opened an opportunity for the City of Watertown to purchase a site in West Watertown where a lab building had been permitted but never constructed.
Tuesday night, the City Council voted to allow City Manager George Proakis to sign an agreement with the owners of the 2-acre site at 148 Waltham St. for $9.2 million, and approved an initial payment of $500,000.
When the Sterritt Lumber site was sold neighbors strongly opposed proposed new uses for the property, which included an apartment building and later a lab, which was approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals and permitted, but construction never started.
City Council President Mark Sideris said that led to an opportunity for the City.
“As we all are aware the life science boom has become a bust at this point, and so having done some due diligence the Manager was able to contact the owners of the site,” Sideris said.
After multiple meetings, Proakis said the City and the owners came to an agreement for the City to purchase the land.
City Manager George Proakis said he was frequently approached by residents who suggested that the City purchase the site, and use it for a municipal purpose. When the land was permitted for a lab building, the price of the land rose from the single-digit millions of dollars to $30 million to $40 million, Proakis said.
“That was certainly out of the world where we could do that,” Proakis said. “Then the market for labs changed and shifted. … Our fiscal year 2024 appraisal on it was about $9.3 million and that was as the lab market was starting to slide. I heard there were conversations about them possibly selling it and suddenly started talking about numbers that were under $10 million instead of over $30 million. It became a very different type of conversation — a very appealing type of conversation for the City.”
The City negotiated a purchase and sale agreement to buy the land for $9.2 million, Proakis said. He asked the City Council to approve spending $500,000 as an upfront payment to lock in the deal. The City Council will be asked to approve funding for the rest of the cost at the next City Council meeting.
Proakis said the land will be purchased without borrowing more money. It will come from the City’s Free Cash. The City has more than $43 million in Free Cash, and Proakis said about $22.6 million has been committed to the General Stabilization and Rainy Day fund, and $14.7 million will go to the Watertown Middle School project. About $9 million would be left, he said.
“As I have noted when we talked about $9 million, it should be used to pay for opportunities that come up to fund some of the unfunded programs in our capital plan and now we have the possibility to purchase 148 Waltham St.,” Proakis said.
Councilor Emily Izzo, who represents the West End, thanked Sideris, Proakis and the City administration for their work to make the land purchase a reality. She noted that residents of the area have been vocal about the future of the Sterritt Lumber site since 2020, which was before she became a City Councilor.
“The Sterritt lumber site was one of the first issues I worked on when I became a City Councilor and I got to work with a lot of the residents,” she said. “In 2022 there were multiple meetings and the consensus was the neighborhood was not satisfied with the lab and this purchase by the City is an opportunity to again work with residents of the West End and hopefully make it a space that will compliment the neighborhood and serve the community.”
What will go on the site is not clear, Proakis said.
“Going forward there are a couple of possibilities which include looking at it as a site for an affordable housing development, looking at it as a site that could be used by the DPW, looking at it as a site that we could potentially slice up into a number of uses, looking at possibilities that we haven’t even identified yet,” he said.
Vanasse & Associates
A map showing the property at 148 Waltham St. and the streets in the area surrounding the property.
One option for multiple uses on the site could be having the senior center and affordable housing for seniors on the site, Proakis said. The one item on the list of unfunded projects that would not work is a new location for the East End Fire Station, Proakis said, because it is not located in that end of town.
Also, Proakis said he does not see it as a spot for new open space, because Bemis Park is located right across the street.
In the short term, he said, the City will likely put up some fencing and screening around it to make it a little bit more palatable for the community. It could also become a place for snow storage or for overflow from the DPW. Currently, the DPW uses an area next to Walker Pond for that, but the City is working on constructing a new park on that site.
The land will be purchased through a taking of land, Proakis said, but added that it is a “friendly negotiated agreement.”