Sold in Belmont: Million Dollar Townhouse on Trapelo (Yes, Trapelo) in Middle of the Action

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Photo: I paid a million dollars for a house on Trapelo Road and all I got was a stinking common wall!

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316 Trapelo Rd., New construction condo townhouse (2015). Sold: $1,040,000.

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9 Summit Rd., Condo (2007). Sold: $1,230,000.

A weekly recap of residential properties sold in the past seven-plus days in the “Town of Homes”:

• 316 Trapelo Rd., New construction condo townhouse (2015). Sold: $1,040,000. Listed at $1,100,000. Living area: 2,900 sq.-ft. 9 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 3 full, 2 half baths. On the market: 85 days. 

• 9 Summit Rd., Condo (2007). Sold: $1,230,000. Listed at $1,289,000. Living area: 2,715 sq.-ft. 7 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. On the market: 230 days.

How in demand is Belmont real estate? While not on the level of Boston’s Seaport District or East Cambridge, it’s hot enough to where you can sell a new townhouse condo on Trapelo Road, one of its busiest and bustling streets, for a cool million. 

And what do you get for seven figures, besides sharing a common wall – a million dollars can’t get you your own single family house … on Trapelo Road? – with the people who will purchase the adjacent townhouse? You’ll be good friends with the Belmont Fire Department as you’re a stone’s throw from the headquarters and directly across the street from the newest bank branch in town; TD Bank. On your right-hand side is the VFW (for now) and on the left a nice two-family appraised at $565,000. You’ll also be a minute’s walk away from Memorial Chapel and the always open LC Variety, the convenience store favored by people who hold up retail operations. With the traffic, fire engine sirens, traffic going into the bank and other events, hopefully the new owners are an adrenalin junkie.

One advantage will be soon-to-be-renovated tennis courts, and the likelihood PQ Playground (just out of your backyard) will undergo a sprucing up in the next few years. (As someone who lived next to open space – the Chenery playing fields – I can say there is far more upside than down living next to one.)

The original property was a quarter-acre vacant lot which was sold in October 2013 for $545,000 to Oteri Construction Inc. in Watertown, a good all-purpose contractor which will do jobs both big (like the Trapelo site) and small (repair a door lock) which is becoming a rare business in this age of specialisation.

The company then put aside $675,000 to construct a pair of townhouses – they probably couldn’t comfortably squeeze in two singles with setbacks and space between structures – on a good sized lot. Construction began last year this time. 

One place Oteri didn’t put much money into was the exterior, a design which is dank and uninspiring (Really? Grey for the shady side facing the street?) But what Oteri is known for is some outstanding interior work like his award-winning kitchen design and construction. The example here is from another project. The kitchen fireplace is a wonderful touch – referring back to the true nature of fireplaces in the history of homes. And what a smart way to incorporate skylights, grouped together in a single room. 

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(But I have to make down the plan due to the knee-jerk need for granite counters. It screams “Hello, 1982!” There are so many wonderful alternatives to ugly, cold granite; from Soapstone for around the stove top, to composites of stone aggregate and polymers, to my favorite, zinc, which is beautiful as it changes color over time.)

Back to the money: with purchasing the land, the material and construction costs (got to pay these guys with the hammers), think $1.3 million. You’ve just made all but $300,000 back and expect $900,000 for the second townhouse and you’re looking at $600,000 profit. And you get the sirens for free!

Hotel Takes Step Closer To Town OK as ZBA Requests Technical Data

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Photo: The development team for the proposed hotel in Belmont: (from left, standing) Jennifer Conley, president of Conley Associates; Robert Levy, attorney with Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott; Waltham developer Michael Columba; and Andy Rojas, architect.

For the two dozen residents who attended the Monday, March 7 meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeal anticipating a decision to approve a small hotel at the base of Belmont Hill, at least, they had to opportunity to view an impressive new art installation at the Belmont Gallery of Art where the board meetings take place.

For a second time in as many months, the ZBA voted to continue its hearing, postponing a final vote on the request by Waltham developer Michael Columba to secure five special permits to allow construction of a 19-unit “European-style boutique hotel” at the corner of Brighton Avenue and Pleasant Street at the location of the now vacant Mini-Mart convenience store.

But with public support the proposed development has received and the technical nature of the data the board is requesting, it’s beginning to appear that the first new hotel in several decades, if not a century, could be up and running in early 2017.

“I do feel good that this is a win, win with the town,” said Columba after the meeting.

“I understand the concerns of neighbors, and I take [those] personally. It is something I want to resolve,” he told the Belmontonian after the meeting. 

At the conclusion of the meeting, the board asked Columba for additional technical information on issues such as sound measurements from the HVAC system, venting, and lighting, attempting to assure themselves that assumptions being made by the development team were accurate.

Former Selectman and the project’s architect Andy Rojas reiterated the projects highlights from his presentation last month: renovating the two-building, two-story structure at 334 Pleasant St. – the old Mini Mart convenience store and offices – to open a boutique hotel consisting of 18 guest rooms, a cafe for guests, a fitness room, a business center and management offices on the 14,400 sq.-ft. site.

The building’s exterior will not be altered – with the exception on new siding – significantly in an attempt to “express Belmont’s agrarian history.”

Rojas said the hotel would have less impact on local traffic than what can operate on the site “as right” (without needing any zoning change) including a retail store, and will generate tax revenue from lodging and meals “without having an impact on the schools.”

Colomba, who purchased the property last year, said he rented rooms “to a lot of people visiting Belmont” at his first hotel, the Crescent Suite Hotel in Waltham, whether it was for a funeral, graduation parties or visiting patients in hospitals and beliefs there is a demand for European-style lodging.

He said his experience showed the hotel will be three-quarters occupied with the majority of guests registering during the day and coming back to their rooms between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. at the latest.

Jennifer Conley, president of Conley Associates, a Boston-based transportation planning, and engineering firm, said a small hotel will generate around 160 total trips in the day with a maximum of 12 trips per hour during rush hours, much lower than the 35 trips per hour a convenience store would attract.

As he did in February, ZBA Chair Eric Smith again questioned the team just how a hotel fits within the town’s bylaws. Since there is no mention of hotels in the table of uses in the zoning documents, “so the closest … is apartments which are a prohibited use in [this zoning district],” said Smith.

Robert Levy, an attorney with Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott representing Columba, said his reading of the zoning bylaw and its parking requirements – which does briefly refers to hotel use – suggests the hotel would be more akin to a daycare center or a catering business, retail and service uses that are allowable at the site with a special permit. 

For the most part, board members wanted to nail down several techical assumptions made by the developer, including just how noisy climate control systems will be running at the same time.

“Have everything written down,” requested Mariann Scali, a long-time resident.

If all goes to plan and the Board awards the special permits to Columba, work at the site will begin within weeks and will be completed in six to eight months. 

Sold in Belmont: ‘Old Fashion’ Flip Pays Off on Trowbridge

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Photo: Flippin’ old fashion single family on Trowbridge.

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18 Trowbridge St., “Old fashion” (1929). Sold: $811,000.

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438 Trapelo Rd., Unit 1, Ground-floor condo (1917). Sold: $400,000.

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38 Slade St., Unit 1, Condominium (1925). Sold: $450,000.

A weekly recap of residential properties sold in the past seven-plus days in the “Town of Homes”:

• 18 Trowbridge St., “Old fashion” (1929). Sold: $811,000. Listed at $699,000. Living area: 1,700 sq.-ft. 7 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. On the market: 56 days.

• 438 Trapelo Rd., Unit 1, Ground floor condo (1917). Sold: $400,000. Listed at $419,000. Living area: 941 sq.-ft. 5 rooms, 2 bedrooms, 1 baths. On the market: 90 days.

• 38 Slade St., Unit 1, Condominium (1925). Sold: $450,000. Listed at $425,000. Living area: 1,097 sq.-ft. 6 rooms, 2 bedrooms, 1 baths. On the market: 61 days.

A Watertown firm brought back some sparkle to a beautiful but worn down “old fashion”-style house on Trowbridge Street. With a little rehab, maintenance and paint, the single-family was good as new.

But Foxhound Properties on Whitney Street – literally a baseball throw from Belmont – isn’t a contractor or renovation specialist hired by the homeowner. Foxhound “sniffs out” properties which owners who are looking, for a myriad of reasons, to sell fast and so will cut a deal. 

“If you are looking to sell your house quickly or if you have found yourself in a real estate dilemma and you are only looking for answers, we can help!” says the company’s Web site.

Once in its hands, the clock starts and the team has contractors it has at the ready to whip the property into shape and flip it asap. 

Take 18 Trowbridge – which stands side-by-side to one house that in 2011 burned to the ground (20) and the other severely damaged (16) by fire in 2008. The owner put the property, rated as a C- by town assessors, on the market in July 2015 for $669,000 then lowered it to $659,000 two weeks later. But no one was taking the bait. 

In October, Foxhound made a deal with the owner and bought the house for $525,000, below the town’s assessed value ($556,000) in a market where sales prices most always exceed that level.

And the clock starts. Foxhound likely assembles its usual crew to do basic maintenance such as paint the interior and exterior (I like the blue they used outside, reminds me of rural Maryland) and redo the hardwood floors. Other contractors came in and updated the baths and kitchen (which always means adding that horrid granite counter tops), ripped out the old heating system and added central air and make the deck pretty again.

Time is money, and the property was back on the market in January at $699,000. Offers come in because 18 looks nothing like it did before. The sale took place on March 4 for $811,000. 

So let’s say Foxhound’s construction expenses were $75,000 (I doubt that amount) and additional costs of $25,000, these guys made an “old fashion” profit of $185,000. That’s relatively good for a firm that is seeking to make money flipping homes. 

The result is that a uniquely styled house is given a new life, some family comes into Belmont to add yet more kids to the school system, and the former homeowner isn’t holding onto a property they wanted to be sold. Win, win, win? 

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Sold in Belmont: Waverley Affordability in a Pair of Condos

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Photo: Cozy and affordable on Maple in Waverley.

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202 Beech St., Second-floor condo (1928). Sold: $396,000.

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47 Maple St., Condo (1910). Sold $311,000.

A weekly recap of residential properties sold in the past seven-plus days in the “Town of Homes”:

• 202 Beech St., Second-floor condo (1928). Sold: $396,000. Listed at $429,000. Living area: 1,646 sq.-ft. 8 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths. On the market: 151 days.

• 47 Maple St., Condo (1910). Sold $311,000. Listed at $329,900. Living area: 1,027 sq.-ft. 4 rooms, 1 bedroom, 1 bath. On the market: 145 days.

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If you don’t mind cozy – less than 1,100 square feet so keep your elbows up – then the condo on Maple should have been considered. With only a single bedroom, a bath and two other rooms, it would be inexpensive for Belmont – about a third of the median price of Belmont homes that is nearing $900,000 across town – but you do get something for your money: century-old molding, restored hard wood floors, nice size living room and some unique cubby corners. I wonder who bought this rather nice condo? A young couple thinking of staying for a few years while starting a family?  An investor who can rent this for $2,000 a month? 

Town Forming United Front on Cushing Village’s Future

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Photo: The proposed Cushing Village.

The meeting held Monday night, Feb. 22 in the Chenery Middle School’s teacher’s lounge took longer than expected. But what is an extra half hour when the subject under discussion is a troubled commercial project more than 900 days behind schedule?

In attendance at the executive session were the Board of Selectmen (which called the meeting), Chair Liz Allison and Barbara Fiacco of the Planning Board, Town Counsel George Hall, Treasurer Floyd Carman and Town Administrator David Kale with only one agenda item on the schedule: Cushing Village, the proposed 164,000 sq.-ft. residential/retail/parking complex at the corner of Common Street and Trapelo Road in the heart of Cushing Square.

While nothing was officially revealed at the closed doors conference, enough was evident from the people assembled, the time spent in conference as well as off-the-record comments from town officials; Belmont is preparing to move on the troubled Cushing Village project, with or without the currently designated developer, Smith Legacy Partner Series. 

This new united front will likely be unveiled tonight, Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. as the Planning Board will receive another “update” on the project from the development team, a requirement the board imposed on Smith Legacy after it failed to meet “three agreed to ‘milestones’ with the town” set the first week in December to begin the initial construction phase of the $63 million project with the purchase of the municipal parking lot adjacent to Trapelo Road. 

To keep its option to buy the municipal lot for $850,000, Smith Legacy has paid more than $600,000 in penalites to Belmont, with the knowledgment that half of that amount would be used towards the purchase of the parcel when financing is secured. 

The project, beset with endless delays and missed deadlines, has been in a development purgatory as the team – comprised of Smith Legacy and its partners Urban Space and the recently added NJ-based Micheals Development Company – has been unable to secure the myriad of financing sources required to construct the three-building complex with includes 115 residential units, 225 parking spaces and approximately 38,000 square feet of first floor retail space.

The apparent breaking point for the town came earlier this month when Starr announced respected industry leader Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers was no longer involved with the project to provide important mezzanine financing to the project. 

Yet, as one observer who is in banking said, the best case senario for Belmont is to push the developer towards giving up control of the parcel to either its lead lender, Wells Fargo, or sell the development rights to an established developer rather than simply declare the developer incapable of completing the project in a reasonable time.

“You don’t want to go through the [Planning Board] process again. You want a smooth transition,” she said. 

Sold In Belmont: Nothing This Week So Let’s Look at a Mansion for Sale (Already a Bargain!)

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Photo: Talk about a full shot! 

Now, THIS is a mansion. With just more than 7,500 sq.-ft. of high-end interior construction (it’s a little more than 30 years old), the house at 224 Marsh St. – No, this is not Mitt and Ann Romney’s old house; that’s up the road at 171 Marsh – is a spectacular example of spending your hard-earned money the correct way. 

There’s nothing garish or brassy with the interior, just a solid – maybe even staid – but impeccable design. Forget the “open floor” trend or the need for a “great room” because architects are too indifferent (i.e., lazy) to differentiate the purpose for particular spaces within a house.

That’s not a problem here as walls and doors separate each room (what a concept!). There is a defined family room, off the foyer for casual encounters which leads to a more formal living room (25 x 24 feet) – with a bar – that is separate from the kitchen and breakfast area. The dining room is off the foyer and the kitchen as is by tradition. Every space in its place, functioning separate or/and in concert with the adjacent rooms. The molding in the rooms are elegantly understated – the fireplace mantelpiece is simple and gorgeous – as are other details, but what is this obsession with granite counter tops!

Upstairs are big bedrooms with the majority of the house’s five full and three half baths. There’s a neat feature in one bedroom; a spiral staircase to an attic office space. There’s a built out basement with a little sauna. If there are downsides to this house it’s that the building is heated entirely by electricity –Belmont Light must love this place – and a very tiny backyard (it does back up to conservation land, so the band of coyote/wolf mix breeds is your neighbors).

Being sold by the long time owner (I wonder if the creator of Reddit is related to them?), a real estate developer who spent nearly a decade trying to redevelop his commercial buildings on the East Boston waterfront into luxury residences. The current asking price: $2,879,000, and that’s a bargain if you know that it first went on the market in July 2014 with a $3,449,000 list price. By waiting, you’re more than a half a million dollars ahead of the game! 

My question to readers is how much lower will the list price go before it’s sold? My under/over is $2,629,000; it needs to lose another quarter million before its finds the right buyer. Belmont isn’t the Seaport, you know. 

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Sold In Belmont: Long(meadow) and Hard Fall For a Cape on the Hill

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Photo: It would take more than 600 days and a drop in price by $400,000 to sell this Cape on the Hill.

A recap of residential properties sold in the past seven-plus days in the “Town of Homes”:

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95 Longmeadow Rd., Extended Cape (1960). Sold: $1,286,000.

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438 Trapelo Rd., Unit 2, Two family (1917). Sold: $520,000.

• 95 Longmeadow Rd., Extended Cape (1960). Sold: $1,286,000. Listed at $1,699,900. Living area: 4,546 sq.-ft. 7 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths. On the market: 634 days.

• 438 Trapelo Rd., Unit 2, Two family (1917). Sold: $520,000. Listed at $519,000. Living area: 1,341 sq.-ft. 10 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. On the market: 38 days.

You may not know this but Mother Nature has a sibling: Auntie Marketplace, and you shouldn’t fool with either one.

Whether it was hubris, a miscalculation or wishful thinking, the long-time (30 years plus) owners of the very-well preserved built-out Cape on Longmeadow sought to cash in on their house by cashing out. Considering the location – one of the cozy backstreets on “the Hill” – the seller and sales associate shot for the moon in May 2014 and put out an asking price of approximately $1.7 million.

But there appear to have been two major impediments to the price tag placed on the rather roomy (4,500 square feet) abode. First was Auntie Marketplace; even in the heady environs of Belmont housing, attempting to sell a house for m0re than 30 percent greater than the assessed value ($1.2 million) takes a lot of chutzpah.

In addition, while the house is rated above average (a B+ by town assessors) and it has many nice features, the interior architecture is unlike your typical Cape. You enter the front door and suddenly you’ve been transported into a ranch with low-slung ceilings and wide front windows. The living room is quite large – the house only has seven rooms – so you’ll need that oil truck (yes, oil heat) making a delievery every few weeks. While the basement is finished, it’s like a bowling alley at 100 feet by 16 feet. 

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And there is a period interior design element that is an eye opener and not the good kind: wood paneling. And lots of it in the kitchen, basement and den. I understand in the 1960 paneling was all the rage as manufacturing innovations made it affordable, it was a homeowner’s dream as it did away with having to paint or wallpaper walls and was a wiz to clean. But today, paneling just screams “outdated!” It’s like you’re on the set of “Boogie Nights.”

The need for a good interior renovation – new carpeting, wallpaper, paint – will keep the new owners busy and their wallets open for at least the first year. Sort of hard to ask for a premium price when the buyer is going to shell out to bring the place into the 2000s. 

So it was no surprise that the fall from the original list price was steadily downward towards its assessed value:

  • May 19, 2014: $1,699,900
  • June 23, 2014: $1,649,900
  • June 30, 2014: $1,599,900
  • By July 12, the owners decided to pull it off the market until the coming spring.
  • Feb. 26, 2015: $1,439,000
  • June 25, 2015: $1,399,000
  • July 3, 2015: $1,349,000
  • By August, the sellers again decided to once again take it off the market.
  • It came back on Dec. 11, 2015, at $1,299,000.

Finally, the 600-plus day long sales march was over on Feb. 12 and it sold for $1,286,000.

And what is the 2016 assessed value of the property? $1,250,000. In the long run, Auntie Marketplace is almost always right.

 

Sold in Belmont: Untouched Ranch Evokes 50s Memories

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Photo: Up on “The Hll.” 

A recap of residential properties sold in the past seven-plus days in the “Town of Homes”:

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• 135 Radcliffe Rd., Classic brick ranch (1954). Sold: $620,000. Listed at $629,000. Living area: 1,441 sq.-ft. 10 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. On the market: 75 days.

When I saw the photos of the interior of the brick ranch on Radcliffe Road, I had a flashback of visiting my uncle’s house in Chelmsford back in the late 60s: the low ceilings, the rough wood paneling, the color scheme. 

The town records show that the house never needed a permit to do additional work, and the house was conveyed to a trust in 1992. So it has been in the hands of the people who built the house in 1954 and their heirs.

The house has an almost museum atmosphere with the interior wonderfully maintained with many of the original fixtures and features untouched in more than 60 years: the stone fireplace, kitchen cabinets (although the appliances have been updated), the original 1950s-styled bathroom and a custom bar (!) right out of a 1960s television show.

And all this for a bargain: $620,000.

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Radcliffe is a peculiar road in that it changes from being Scott Road at the point where your backyard has a “view” of Route 2. It’s like a demarcation line; you have the cars out your back door, you don’t. I wonder if the name change wasn’t a not-so-subtle way for the town to effectively “redline” the neighborhood? 

All said, the neighborhood has the reputation of being a nice section of Belmont Hill with mid-range single families that counters the perception the value of every residential on “The Hill”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               must be in the seven figures.

BREAKING: Selectmen To Review Cushing Village Developer’s Financing, Viability

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Photo: Chris Starr before the Planning Board.

A day after the developer of the troubled Cushing Village project came before a skeptical and non-committal Belmont Planning Board requesting yet another multi-month extension to close on an important town-owned parking lot, the chair of the Belmont Board of Selectmen said a sudden change in the developer’s financial team will now “certainly necessitate a new review by the Board of Selectmen of how viable his financing and financial arrangement is.”

Speaking before the Warrant Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 3, Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady said developer Chris Starr’s acknowledgment that industry leader Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers is no longer involved with the project to provide a significant portion of financing “is troubling that it happened so late in process,” Baghdady told the Belmontonian after the meeting.

The board will next meet on Monday, Feb. 22 when they will convene with Liz Allison, chair of the Planning Board, to discuss the on-going issues concerning Cushing Village. 

Despite Starr initial attempt to purchase the municipal parking lot six months ago, “the selectmen have take the position that we will not tender the deed (to the lot) selling him the parking lot unless the closing takes place at the same time contemporaneously with his loan financing is approved,” said Baghdady, referring to construction financing from its lead lender, Wells Fargo. 

Only when Starr has the approximately $50 million construction loan in his hands, “that is when we will feel secure … and then we will record a land development agreement,” said Baghdady, who was Planning Board Chair when it approved the special permit allowing Starr to begin construction and purchase the parking lot adjacent to Trapelo Road.

In addition to a possible new round of financial reviews from the selectmen, the project faces a looming selectmen-imposed expiration date of March 27 for the option on the purchase and sale of the parking lot. 

“Remember, they were given two years to complete the P&S and that deadline is less than two months from now,” said Baghdady of Smith Legacy, which was selected 32 months ago to create a 164,000 sq.-ft. three building multi-use development in the heart of Cushing Square.

Baghdady’s comments came after Starr, the head of Smith Legacy Partners, requested a four-month extension from the Planning Board to purchase a municipal parking lot that he in the past said is the project’s lynchpin. 

Telling the Planning Board he believes he now has a clearer path to obtaining construction financing, Starr said his firm should be signing an agreement within 60 days, four months at the latest. 

Starr’s request was set aside on Tuesday, Feb. 2 by Allison who noted that her board could not grant the extension – which would move the deadline to the first week of June – until the Selectmen approved extending the purchase and sale agreement in which the developer would purchase the lot for $850,000.

For the past year, the developer has been paying the town a monthly penalty of $30,000 fine to allow him to keep his option on the P&S. Baghdady said Smith Legacy has turned more than $600,000 in penalties. Once a P&S is signed, the town will return half of the penalty to Smith Legacy.

The concern emulating from the two town boards was when they learned that a major source of mid-level financing left the development.

When asked by the Planning Board member Raffi Manjikian the status of Cornerstone, Starr said the project’s “mezzanine” lender had left the team since it was “not playing nicely in the sandbox” with lead lender Well Fargo. Cornerstone – an industry leader in secondary commercial financing – was prepared to provide $14 million in financing to the project.  

In real estate finance, developers use mezzanine loans to secure secondary financing for their projects where the primary mortgage or construction loan equity requirements are larger than 10 percent.

In its place, Starr said the Marlton, NJ-based Micheals Development Company will bring eight percent equity financing to the project. Starr said the company will “drop in a considerable investment into Cushing Village” as well as bringing strong banking relationships that will allow the project to move “towards a closing.” 

Starr also admitted that Micheals will offer its “executional [sic] capabilities on the financial front, construction management, and lease” operations that the current team and he don’t have.

We want someone who has been there, done that and has done it around the country very successfully,” said Starr.

Micheals is well-known in real estate circles as one of the nation’s top developers and owners of affordable housing. It has developed more than 50,000 units since 1973 and is the top private-sector affordable housing owner in the country, with more than 340 properties in 33 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

It is likely Micheals was brought onto the team from previous work it had with Cambridge-based Urban Spaces, which partnered with Starr nearly a year ago to jump-start the long-stalled project.

In 2014, Urban Spaces and Michaels were involved in a 50/50 partnership to build a five-story, 160,000 sq.-ft. apartment complex at 159 First St. in Kendall Square. It included 115-unit apartments with commercial space on the first floor along with underground parking, “the same program we’d be executing at Cushing Village,” said Starr. 

But any arrangement remains stalled as Starr finds himself facing ever increasing demands from all sides, highlighted by the requirement from his lenders that he secures at minimum three leases to occupy the project’s 38,000 sq.-ft retail space. 

So far, the project has two firm leases with one national company and a “bar.” Critical for Starr is that the team’s “close to finalizing” the lease for an anchor tenant. But Starr is not longer saying the anchor will be a food market as he has expressed in the past.

Starr remains confident in his project and the town’s continued support for his effort. 

“They see what we are committed to bringing to the community, and that is a great commercial center,” he said. 

Vote On Proposed Hotel Delayed Until March Due to Paperwork Snafu

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Photo: Developer Michael Colomba and his architect Andy Rojas before the ZBA.

To the disappointment of two dozen residents who ventured out Monday night, Feb. 1, to cheer or jeer a proposed new hotel at the corner of Pleasant Street and Brighton Avenue, the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals decided to delay by a month acting on the request of a Waltham developer seeking several zoning waivers because he and his team didn’t get their “homework” to the board in a timely manner.

Several ZBA members were a bit ticked off to receive a thick packet of documents including a traffic study just days before the meeting on a subject that is garnering a great deal of interest.

“I object opening this case and to have a public hearing on it,” said ZBA member Nicholas Iannuzzi, noting he did not have time to analyze the case or the traffic study on how many daily “trips” a hotel would generate.

ZBA Chair Eric Smith agreed that he and others received the document packet “quite late” after Jan. 22 and suggested developer Michael Colomba and his team make an introductory informational meeting for the board and residents.

The formal public meeting on the proposed hotel development will be part of the board’s March 7 agenda.

Former Belmont Selectman Andy Rojas, the project’s architect, presented an overview of the project, renovating the two-building, two-story structure at 334 Pleasant St. – the former Mini Mart convenience store and offices – and opening a boutique hotel consisting of 18 guest rooms, a cafe for guests, a fitness room, a business center and management offices on the 14,400 sq.-ft. site.

The building’s exterior will not be altered significantly in an attempt to “express Belmont’s agrarian history.”

Rojas said the hotel would have less impact on local traffic than what can operate on the site “as right” (without needing any zoning change) including a retail store, and will generate tax revenue from lodging and meals “without having an impact on the schools.”

“This is a much quieter use and will be a quiet neighbor” to the surrounding community, said Rojas.

Colomba, who purchased the property last year, said he rented rooms “to a lot of people visiting Belmont” at his first hotel, the Crescent Suite Hotel in Waltham, whether it was for a funeral, graduation parties or visiting patients in hospitals and believes there is a demand for “low key” European-style lodging: just a bedroom setting for people to rest and sleep during a stay.

 

ZBA members asked Colomba to bring his traffic expert to the next meeting. Smith also asked the team to have “an explanation how in your view how a hotel fits within the bylaw regardless of the merits of the proposal.”

“I’m asking them to convince the board why this rather than another use,” Smith said after the meeting.

For his part, Colomba told the Belmontonian after the meeting he understands why the ZBA will want to scrutinize the project “and we plan to follow as necessary their requests.”

If on March 7 the ZBA doesn’t agree with his belief that a hotel is the best use for the site, Colomba said his fall back plan is to lease the space to one of two firms that want to open a convenience store. 

“But I really think that this is a very good venue and the town should consider it. I think it’s a win/win for everyone,” said Colomba.