Developer Jeffrey Cohen says the town should deal with the property no matter who eventually develops it since it will require the town’s capacities in both finding funding and shouldering liability for the legacy of dry cleaning chemicals that are still migrating across town in groundwater.
At least a half dozen offers to buy the property have come in over the nine years it has been on the market, but the offers were too low to clear debts to the town and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
The chemical perchloroethylene, a known carcinogen and hormone disrupter, is “isolated to a small area in the building,” Benchmark Development's Michael Charles said, adding that the contamination was not found in the groundwater.
