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Date: 8/24/2022
BELCHERTOWN – The redevelopment of the Belchertown State School, dubbed the Carriage Grove project by MassDevelopment, seeks to bring new mixed-use developments to the former site of the state school.
According to the MassDevelopment website, the project covers 24 acres and up to 581,000 square feet of mixed-use development.
Hammad Graham, a member with Brisa Development LLC, the company designing the redevelopment of the Belchertown State School, told Reminder Publishing the project will consist of five phases that are anticipated to take seven years.
For the first phase, Graham said the plan is to create a 106-unit multi-family complex and to reuse the two existing administration buildings.
“These structures date back to when the school was founded so the goal with those two buildings is to readapt them into community facility spaces, small micro-offices as well as a small museum dedicated to the Belchertown State School and also state schools in general because Massachusetts has a fairly long history with state schools.”
Following Phase 1, Phase 2 includes the development of senior housing along with a small recreational facility.
In Phase 3, Graham said the project will shift to some development outside of housing.
“From there the goal is to sprinkle in commercial uses that are complimentary for the site but also can be used by the larger community. We are looking at a hybrid kind of grocery store concept where it clearly is not big box, but there is enough there for folks on site to grab their essentials, prepared food, something along the lines of a large bodega,” he said.
Along with the grocery store, Graham said the plan is to also build a hotel on the site in one of the existing structures.
“The idea is that we keep building and adding to the site and making sure that it is complimentary,” he said.
For Phase 4, Graham said the plan is to introduce some homeownership opportunities through condominium style housing before wrapping up in Phase 5 with an outdoor amphitheater.
“Effectively taking everything we’ve done on site, still trying to connect to the larger side of the community, there’s enough available space to have some open performance space that folks can come out and enjoy,” he said.
Between all of the phases of the project, Graham said people can expect around 235 new housing units between the multi-family rentals, senior rentals and homeownership opportunities.
Since Brisa was awarded the project in August of 2021, Graham said much of the work so far has been around due diligence including physically going through the site, obtaining surveys, environmental testing and title review. Graham added that a site of this size requires more work.
“It’s increased on a site like this because of the size and the infrastructure that was already put in by the town and public sources, so you have to make sure what you are developing is not going to overstep an easement or come in contact with another land use,” he said.
With the initial survey work wrapped up, Graham said Brisa is currently working on the design of the site along with securing the funding for the project. While a price has not been finalized yet, Graham said it could cost between $30 million and $42 million for Phase 1, pending the bid process and instability of construction prices.
“There are federal tax credits, there’s state tax credits, the primary funding agency is the ACD [Assist Community Development Inc.] and Mass. Housing, so it’ll be tackled in bonds, private equity, just a host of different capital sources that come with projects like this,” he said.
Graham said Brisa is working closely with the town and recently met with representatives from Belchertown Economic Development Industrial Corporation (BEDIC) and Mass. Development about the project.
“The town through their development arm, BEDIC, folks have reviewed our concept, our site plan, the initial renderings of the buildings, mapping and it was able to give BEDIC as well as Mass. Development the opportunity to make suggestions that will eventually flow into the project,” he said.
Graham said it is “super important” to acknowledge the troubled history of the Belchertown State School and create something positive out of it.
“You can’t escape the history of certain locations, so you try to recognize there is a history there and you can’t necessarily run away from it, but you can repurpose the space into something that is more usable, a little less controversial, something that’s going to give to the community,” he said. “We welcome the challenge of converting that site over into something of really high use.”