Proposal for mixed-use building heads to full City Council in Marlborough

MARLBOROUGH — A proposal to construct a 99-unit, mixed-use building at the former downtown site of the Rowe Funeral Home has narrowly won the support of the City Council's Urban Affairs Committee, and now heads to the full council for final approval.

The 57 Main St. project was originally put before the council in October, which referred the site plan to the council’s Urban Affairs Subcommittee. Last Thursday, after a review process, the panel voted 3-2 in favor of the site plan.

The approval is the latest chapter in what has been a lengthy saga over the property since Rowe Funeral Home merged with Short Funeral Home in 2019 and moved to Short's location at 95 West Main St. Later that year, the City Council approved a proposal that called for construction of a 55-unit building at the former Rowe site, but the project fell through due to financing issues.

Earlier:Mixed-use building with 99 apartments proposed for Marlborough funeral home site

“This proposal does not have as much retail space as the previous one, and while they have more units being proposed, the units are smaller than the previous proposal,” Marlborough City Councilor Laura Wagner, a member of the Urban Affairs Committee, told the Daily News.

Wagner joined Councilors David Doucette and Donald Landers in voting in favor of the site plan. Councilors Kathleen Robey and Sean Navin voted against, citing parking concerns.

The proposal offers just 25 parking spaces for residents living in the 99-unit building; however, as part of city regulations, the developer, Boston-based JW Capital Partners, LLC, has agreed to pay $500,000 to the city, with the money being eligible for the city to create parking opportunities elsewhere to avoid congestion in public lots. The donation in lieu of parking allowed the project to meet city approval.

Nevertheless, committee members were skeptical that parking for the building would not pose an issue. Navin expressed concern that the project's limited parking would overwhelm nearby public parking spaces and garages and would not be in the best interest of the city, which could lead to potential legal action.

"We are here not just to attract businesses, but to make sure the services we provide to our residents is what they want and deserve," Navin said during last Thursday's meeting. "I can't make the decision based on the fact that I'm afraid that a lawsuit is coming."

Other downtown projects stalled out

The project does not require a special permit from the city to be constructed, as it's within the so-called Marlborough Village District. Wagner said the district was created in 2014 to spur development downtown while permitting housing with lesser parking options.

“The way I see it, we can either just accept there is no parking available in downtown Marlborough and so we can never have any housing projects in the area," she said. "Or we can figure out what we can do to have projects with more limited parking options."

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Wagner also noted that one reason the previously approved project at the site ran into trouble was due to the cost associated with building an underground garage to accommodate all necessary parking.

“Nobody is going to finance a building project that is going to take a loss," she said. "Coming out of the pandemic, the cost of construction has increased greatly, and that leads to planned projects no longer being feasible if there is more construction involved."

The city has two other recently approved downtown housing projects — the E on Main Street property, a 67-apartment proposal at 161 Main St. that was approved in 2019; and a 36-unit proposal for South Bolton Street that was approved in 2018, but has yet to move forward due to financing issues.

Attractive to those without cars

Proponents of the Rowe site proposal have noted that its limited parking would attract residents who don’t own cars. Boston Scientific Corp., which employs about 1,000 people at its Marlborough campus, wrote a letter to the City Council in support of the proposal, noting that many of its employees do not own cars and rely on company-sponsored transportation to get to work each day.

“Having new, downtown apartments in Marlborough would be very attractive to many of our employees and would assist with our recruiting efforts as we expand our local workforce,” Boston Scientific Vice President of Global Real Estate Paul Donhauser stated in the letter. “Ex-pat employees and those currently in and near Boston — often without cars — would benefit from new, urban-style apartments providing walkable access to downtown Marlborough’s restaurants and nightlife.”

The project would contain 72 one-bedroom apartments and 27 two-bedroom units. It would also contain 5,047 square feet of retail space.

The City Council next meets on April 10.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Downtown Marlborough apartment proposal heads for City Council vote