[CPEO-MEF] REUSE: South Weymouth Naval Air Station (MA) project "stuck"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Weymouth's SouthField project still stuck on the runway

By JACK ENCARNACAO
The Patriot Ledger
November 14, 2009

WEYMOUTH - The agency in charge of the former South Weymouth Naval Air 
Station has spent about $42 million in the past decade to redevelop the 
land. But the only new building there is a marketing center - where 
potential tenants are pitched sites that the developer still can’t 
access. More than a decade after military use of the property ended, 
about two-thirds of the developable acreage is still owned and 
controlled by the Navy.

The lack of progress contrasts sharply with what has happened to closed 
bases elsewhere. Of the 24 bases the Navy marked for closure in 1995, 
the Weymouth base is one of only three that have not been transferred 
out of military hands. Four of the six Air Force bases that were marked 
for closure that year have been completely transferred, as have 25 of 34 
Army bases. Several bases that closed around the same time now boast 
bustling industrial and commercial development.

The reasons behind the stalemate in South Weymouth center around bad 
decisions, bad timing and, in some cases, plain bad luck. They include a 
revolving door of leadership at the base oversight agency, South Shore 
Tri-Town Development Corp., a funding structure that relies heavily on 
the bond market, the Navy’s refusal to hand part of the base over for 
free, and a lack of tax rates for the properties to be developed.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.patriotledger.com/business/x206841856/Weymouth-s-SouthField-project-still-stuck-on-the-runway

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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