Plans for new medical campus to be reviewed

Date: 6/30/2016

EAST LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow and Longmeadow Planning Boards unanimously agreed to work together to review plans for a potential campus-style medical development on a 20-acre parcel that crosses town lines.

Michael Crowley, principal with Middle Franklin Development Group, told Reminder Publications after the meeting four buildings would be included in the project, including a two-story, 50,000-square-foot medical office building. Baystate Health would be the “anchor tenant” for the property.

Another building being contemplated for the project is a two-story, 25,000-square-foot conventional office building, he noted. Two additional buildings would be associated with Berkshire Health, including a 131-bed skilled nursing facility to replace the existing 119-bed facility at 305 Maple St. in East Longmeadow and an assisted living facility.

“There’s an existing facility now at [305 Maple St.], they’ll be demolishing a portion of it,” he explained. “That’s the concept right now. They’ll be replacing the [demolished portion] and then right now they’re thinking of renovating a portion of the existing facility into an assisted living facility.”

The current nursing facility was constructed in the 1960s, he noted.

Crowley said his developments, which include the medical office building and the conventional office building, are located in Longmeadow while the Berkshire Health associated properties are in East Longmeadow.

He noted he is in negotiations with additional tenants and was not at liberty to further discuss the matter at this time.

During the meeting, Crowley said the plans for the project are “totally conceptual at this time.” Although the idea of the four buildings located in a campus-style setting would likely remain, the configuration of where the buildings would be located could change in the future.

He added, “The reason why we’re here tonight is to see if we can open up a dialog between the two communities, in particular the two Planning Boards, to see if we can come up with a better way to get these projects permitted so we’re not doing them in two silos ... What happens in one community is going to affect the other.”

Crowley said he believes traffic congestion is the main issue for the project. He described intersections in the area as “overburdened.”

He displayed preliminary concept designs for the project, which showed the medical office building located on Dwight Road in Longmeadow off of Converse Street.

The Maple Street portion of the property would start near the intersections of Williams Street and Benton Drive.

Longmeadow Town Manager Stephen Crane said there would be a joint meeting with planning staff from both communities this week, which would include developing a scope for a traffic study and what intersections should be examined.

“That recommendation will be presented back to the developer for further discussion,” he noted.

Longmeadow Planning Board member Donald Holland said one of the problems with studying the concept designs at this stage is a lack of knowledge such as how many exits would be at the site near Dwight Road,

“We all know that there are peak times that cars that are coming out of the parking lot for the nursing home, including the ambulances, can sometimes sit there for three, four, five minutes,” he noted. “We need to get an idea as to what the amount of traffic flow is.”

Crowley concurred with Holland’s assessment, noting that he doesn’t even know “if this is feasible.”

“That’s part of what the traffic study will tell us,” he explained.

He added the project meets most of the zoning bylaw requirements of both communities at this time.

Crane said a special permit is need for the development in East Longmeadow and on the Longmeadow side of the town line the property zoned properly for the development.  

“Mitigation’s going to be shared [between the two towns],” he noted. “Traffic studies, environmental impact things … those are kind of the shared types of things.”

Crowley said he believes that time is of the essence for the project, which he hopes to have constructed by October 2018.

The next joint meeting of the two boards is set for July 13 at Longmeadow High School, followed by an Aug. 9 meeting to take place in East Longmeadow.

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