Following a disastrous civil judgment against the Somerville Redevelopment Authority in May 2023 that saw the former owner of the 90 Washington Street parcel awarded an additional $28 million for the eminent domain taking of the land -- and an October 2024 appellate court decision that upheld the original jury award -- the City has announced we will be working with the SRA to selling the property. The sale by the SRA is necessary to try to recoup as much as possible of the nearly $39 million the City has loaned the body for the land purchase, court judgment, and interest.

The saga began with the SRA's 2019 taking of the abandoned property at 90 Washington by eminent domain using a demonstration project plan approach. The previous owner, Corcoran, Mullins, Jennison, Inc., had cleared out and razed the former strip mall as part of an attempt to build a mixed-use development on the site, but an internal legal battle within CMJ saw that project lose momentum. The SRA paid a pro tonto, or initial payment, of around $8.8 million based on appraisals at the time.

With the Cobble Hill Center next door serving as the technical plaintiff, the previous owners first challenged the legality of the SRA's eminent domain taking, with the Supreme Judicial Court agreeing to take the case nearly right away and finding in favor of the SRA. Their decision affirmed the legal validity of the SRA's demonstration project plan to incorporate public safety uses into the development one of two ways:

1. "...a portion of the Project parcel may be subdivided to allow the construction of a 'stand-alone' multi-story public safety complex..."

2. "...the public safety uses can be incorporated in a larger mixed-use building on the site"

Corcoran Jennison (no Mullins after the legal battle) then organized residents of the Cobble Hill Apartments complex they own next door to 90 Washington to voice opposition to the City's plans, presumably in hopes of preventing the City from fulfilling its obligations under the demonstration project plan and opening the door to a return of the property. Following a series of public meetings, the Mayor announced in May 2022 that the City was in "pencils down" mode on a public safety building at 90 Washington, effectively pausing the work.

In May 2023, the jury found in Corcoran Jennison's favor in their civil trial against the SRA over the pro tonto compensation for the taking of the property, awarding the staggering additional $28 million in damages. Given the unpredictability of juries, I was deeply disappointed that the suit went to trial at all rather than reaching a settlement with Corcoran Jennison for a more reasonable amount.

The SRA chose to appeal that verdict and award on the grounds that the plaintiff's attorney had made inflammatory remarks during closing statements, and that there wasn't sufficient curative action taken by the judge. While the Court of Appeals did find that the closing remarks were inappropriate, the appellate judges found that our counsel failed to sufficiently object or call for a mistrial at the time and the jury award was upheld. This meant the SRA -- and therefore ultimately the City -- would be on the hook for the full additional roughly $30 million owed.

Consequently, the City recently has appropriated $12 million from Free Cash and $4 million from the Overlay Surplus and will borrow around $14.1 million -- a total of roughly $30.1 million -- to effectively loan the SRA funds to satisfy the court judgment. This funding came with a Memorandum of Agreement with the SRA that requires the sale of 90 Washington, with proceeds going toward repayment of these funds.

I'm one of two City Council representatives on the 90 Washington Street Civic Advisory Committee, along with a number of neighbors of the property. Since January 2023, the CAC has gone about the process of identifying what the neighborhood wants to see in a future development of the site. This task hasn't been easy, given the lack of clarity around how much of the parcel would be devoted to public safety purposes, but the CAC took the work seriously, leading to the issuance of a Request for Qualifications and conversations with three potential developers.

The CAC hadn't met since the summer due to the legal appeal, verdict, and decision by the Administration on how to proceed. But at the January 29 meeting of the CAC, City staff were on hand to update the committee and answer members' questions.

It was a productive back and forth, with committee members wondering to what degree their work would inform the future development of the site, zoning considerations, integration of public safety components into a future development, and what to expect in terms of a timeline. There were concerns of the property continuing to sit derelict for the foreseeable future due to inaction on the City's or SRA's end, but I made the point the SRA is very motivated to sell the land to repay its obligations to the City and the City badly wants to be reimbursed to use that cash and borrowing capacity for other purposes.

The question of zoning is one I'm already being asked about quite a bit by members of the community. The site currently is zoned Civic, so any future development beyond a public safety building always was going to require an amendment of the zoning ordinance. The City now is looking into what zoning would work best while putting together a Request for Proposals (RFP) to identify a developer looking to take on the project.

I understand the desire to see a High Rise district in place right by the East Somerville Station. We will see if there is a developer interested in building a high rise development there, though there are construction financial realities that make it unattractive to build eight to 12-story buildings because of the cost of steel-framed construction. So it might be likeliest that the large parcel ends up designated Mid-Rise with a mixed-use development permitted and built, with commercial on the ground floor and residential above that.

At this point I'm focused on watching to see a good mixed-use development at 90 Washington and minimizing the City's financial loss on this ill-fated attempt to build a public safety building. We will need to figure out how to replace our current public safety building at 220 Washington Street that is at the end of its useful life, as well as find a good new home for Engine 3. We should be starting those site selection processes right away.