Lee — Plans to redevelop the Eagle Mill complex jumped a hurdle last week when the Massachusetts Historical Commission referred its decision about the demolition of certain buildings it considers historic to the National Park Service.
Jeffrey Cohen of Mill Renaissance LLC said this was a sign his plans for the historic former Smith Mill site “might happen.”
“Getting past Mass Historic at this point, without any negative recommendations or reactions is very positive,” Cohen told the Edge. “They could have said ‘no.’ But they referred it.”
The $70 million mixed-use development is slated to include a hotel, affordable housing and retail, Cohen said of a project that has required him to hack through a regulatory thicket over the historic preservation concerns on a site hemmed in by the Housatonic River with an immovable and active railroad line, but one that requires some demolition to make the project happen.
The National Park Service announced last July that would uphold its May 19 decision that designates all the buildings within the complex historically significant, including two more recently built additions that require demolition to develop the site.
“This is about whether or not we can get permission to demolish a number of buildings that we don’t consider to be historically important, in order to preserve buildings we think are historic, and get those tax credits which we need for the project,” Cohen said.
The hotel, additional commercial spaces, and affordable housing will all throw off such tax credits necessary to make the project financially viable. He has an agreement “in principle” with Berkshire Housing for the affordable housing component. He also has a “letter of intent” with Main Street Hospitality to develop and operate a hotel, though he says right now it is “premature” to start talking to Main Street until he gets Park Service approval. Main Street owns and runs four county hotels, including The Red Lion Inn.
Cohen has the blessing of the Lee Historic Commission, which wrote a “very supportive” letter to MHC.
He also said since Paul Loether, Chief of the Park Service’s Register of Historic Places, visited the site last July to assess the situation, he’s made compromises that will preserve more space in the historic buildings. He said that would lead to a little bit more commercial space.
A “supportive” letter from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is also promising, Cohen added. The agency was concerned about the amount of what is mostly asbestos and lead remediation at the site. The EPA paid for two environmental studies, the funds administered through Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) indicating “enough contamination to warrant removal of the building we want to take down.” That would get rid of a “significant amount of contamination” in what is known as “The Factory Building,” and was built in 1939.
Cohen’s consultant, attorney Richard Vinette, says they’re “lucky” it’s just asbestos and lead. “The paper industry generally doesn’t leave a whole lot of pollutants that are not easily identifiable.” It could have been worse in the cost department, too. The EPA’s second study estimated a roughly $1.2 million in clean up costs, which Vinette says is always the case with older buildings in which, in this case, all the interior pipes were coated with asbestos. “And you know how those numbers grow all the time,” he added. “Add a year to it and you’re talking more money.”
Cohen wants to preserve the buildings built from 1808 to 1931. The “Engine Room” was built in 1808, however, and Cohen says this is a “very small structure that can’t be reused, and that “no one has raised an issue about that building.” The other structures he needs to remove are “The Butler Building” and “Filter and Well House,” both dating between 1938 to the late 1950s. Without their removal, the narrow property, with the River and railroad tightening it further, won’t allow clearance for emergency vehicles.
“Garbage,” Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D-Lenox) called the butler building last summer. He said preservation concerns over some of these buildings was hindering progress desperately needed in Lee and the surrounding area, one that is estimated to create about 200 jobs and get the site on the tax rolls.
And there’s more. Lee does not have an adequate water system to service Cohen’s development, and the 200-year-old pipes that run down Lee’s Main Street are already too outdated to serve the town.
Pignatelli told The Edge that the mill will provide leverage for a MassWorks grant, and he wants to “revisit the application and beef it up again.” But in the meantime, he added, the inadequacy of the Lee water system poses a real threat. He noted that a fire several years ago at Dresser Hull Lumber on Railroad Street required firefighters to break through ice on the Housatonic River. “The water line is inefficient and the pressure not good enough for public safety,” he added.
“At some point someone needs to bite the bullet and upgrade,” Cohen said, noting that, indeed, his project will help get a future MassWorks grant. Twice, Cohen said, the town applied to the state for such a grant to do this work. But those MassWorks grants, as we recently learned from a MassWorks grant given to Great Barrington to improve Bridge Street, are very specific to defined areas that will see economic development and growth.
It’s a bureaucratic Rubik’s Cube: Until Cohen gets historic and other tax credit approval for his site, the town can’t apply for such a grant.
“The state’s reaction,” Cohen said, “was ‘when the mill is ready then we’ll give it.’ But it still needs to be done for businesses and residents on Main Street. Our project is the catalyst for that to happen.”
“It’s a difficult project and difficult site,” Vinette said. “It’s been a long tough fight here.”
Despite it all, Cohen says he appreciates that the MHC sent the decision-making on its merry way to Washington, and hopes the Park Service will be more inclined to say yes without a no from the state.
“We’re in pretty good shape,” Cohen said. “It’s a long process. It’s not for the weak or mild mannered. A lot of pieces need to fall into place, and one can’t go until another goes.”
Lee Town Administrator Bob Nason could not be reached for this article.
