HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-10-16 Business Park Advisory Committee MinutesReading Business Park Task Force Meeting
October 16, 1997
The meeting convened at 7:30 p.m. in the Arnold Berger Conference Room, 16 Lowell Street,
Reading, Massachusetts. Present were John Coote, George Hines, Don Strueble, Bob
Nordstrand, Dan Ensminger, Jonathan Edwards, Richard McDonald, Peter Hechenbleikner, and
consultants Doug Landry and Steve Thomas from VHB and Jim Laurella from CDM.
On motion by Nordstrand seconded by McDonald the task force voted to approve the minutes
from the meeting of September 16, 1997, by a vote of 5-0-0.
The Town Manager reviewed the letter from Peter C. Weber, Commissioner, relative to the
abandonment of the easement. It appears that this will be done very quickly.
The Due Diligence Document was reviewed. There will be one last comment period and then
the document will be finalized. The notes from the MEPA meeting were reviewed.
The Task Force reviewed the notes from the MOBD (Massachusetts Office of Business
Development) meeting. There was discussion about the need for an economic development
incentive. The Due Diligence Document will make reference to the possibility of such
incentives, but not commit to them. The sense was that proposed developers would propose
the use of such mechanisms. The consultants met with the Massachusetts Highway
Department and they would like the developer to consider ramp widening on the intersections.
The preliminary cost estimate of this work is $250,000. There will be no land takings.
VHB, CDM, and H&A are working on better cost information. Dynamic Compaction is $5 per
square foot, and for 50,000 square feet of footprint on the site, that will be $2.5 million. Gas
collection is expected to be approximately $1 million, and subgrade preparation is approximately
$500,000. Therefore, the extraordinary cost of the site could be $4 million. Sale of the site at
$10 square foot would yield $4 million to $6 million based on a 400,000 to 600,000 square foot
development. If the property is worth $12 square foot, it would be $4.8 million to $7.2 million.
The task force agreed that we should be flexible in terms of permitted uses - leave retail as a
permitted use in the RFP. For rivers protection issues in the RFP, we should emphasize the
positive. All parties will get any comments that need to be made to the Town Manager one
week from tomorrow. Jonathan Edwards will prepare a one page community profile sheet. The
notice of project change will be going to MEPA on October 31, 1997. It was noted that even
though the meeting was positive, we could still get scoped on the project.
The next meeting is scheduled for November 3, 1997. We will have the RFP to review at that
time. On motion by Nordstrand seconded by McDonald the task force voted to adjourn at 8:55
p.m. by a vote of 5-0-0.
Respectfully submitted,
Secretary