SALEM — The Blubber Hollow neighborhood may be trading a cluster of aged, dilapidated and disused industrial buildings for hundreds of new neighbors and three four-story apartment buildings.
The Planning Board held what is sure to be one of many public hearings last night on the Legacy Park Apartments at Harmony Grove Road, a proposal by MRM Project Management to build a mixed-use development that includes 141 one- and two-bedroom apartments along the North River canal.
The project is proposed for the former Salem Oil & Grease factory property. The 6.8-acre parcel is wedged between Grove Street, Beaver Street and Harmony Grove Road, near Salem's border with Peabody. The North River canal and railroad tracks cross through the property.
The area, known as Blubber Hollow, has been home to machine shops, tanneries, and mill and leather operations for the past two centuries. MRM Project Management hopes to demolish most of the existing factory structures and convert the company's former office at 60 Grove St. into a commercial building.
Joe Correnti, who represented MRM Project Management at last night's Planning Board meeting, touted the project as a $20 million development that would spur growth in the neighborhood and clean up and bring life to "a site which has been vacant and dilapidated for 20 years."
Several residents at last night's hearing expressed concern with the project's population density and aesthetics — three, large, rectangular and similar-looking apartment buildings with parking spaces underneath.
"So many of us in Salem live in Salem because of the architecture it offers, and this really seems to violate that," said Cambridge Street resident Jim Kearney.
School Street resident Susan Strauss asked for the developer to consider reducing the project's density.
She described the apartment buildings as "massive blocks" that look like "enormous railroad cars."
"This is among the ugliest things I've ever seen," Strauss said.
Along with Planning Board approval, the project will have to seek numerous local and state approvals, including with Salem's Conservation Commission. The only application that has been filed for the project so far is with the Planning Board, Correnti said.
Last night's public hearing on the project was continued to the Planning Board's next meeting on Feb. 16. Discussion of environmental, traffic and other issues will come as the project progresses with the Planning Board.
Salem Oil & Grease began operation at the site around 1912 and "met its demise" in the early 2000s, said Bob Griffin, a civil engineer involved with the Legacy Park project.
MRM purchased the property in 2006, and it was like the former owners had just "turned off the lights and left," he said. Numerous tanks and containers of unlabeled fluids were abandoned with the property.
MRM has done a lot of cleanup work to the site already, Griffin said, and more is needed. The factory buildings cannot be salvaged, because they are in too poor of condition and weren't built with residential use in mind, Griffin said.
With the new development, MRM hopes to construct a new bridge over the canal to Harmony Grove Road and have a public walkway through the property.
Jonathan Reardon, president of the Harmony Grove Cemetery Association, spoke up at last night's meeting and said he believes the cemetery owns a small parcel — 3 Harmony Grove Road — that is included in MRM's development plans.
"That could be a problem," Correnti said. "We will certainly look into it."
Staff writer Bethany Bray can be reached at bbray@salemnews.com and on Twitter @SalemNewsBB.
BY THE NUMBERS
Proposed Legacy Park Apartments at Harmony Grove Road
3 four-story apartment buildings
141 one- and two-bedroom apartments
215 residential parking spaces
17,000 square feet of commercial space
135,768 square feet of residential space
$400,000 estimated annual tax revenue
Source: MRM Project Management LLC
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