Tonight, May 21st, the city administration will be asking the city council to allocate $1,500,000 in order to buy 196-200 Concord Street, a property owned by and currently housing the Framingham Municipal Credit Union, doing business as Metrowest Credit Union. They are seeking that amount for just the purchase price, and claim ‘negotiations not to exceed’, which essentilly is the city showing it’s hand to the credit union, to what they are willing to pay up to.
The city seeks to tear down the back 5000 sq feet of building to build a parking garage. They had intended to build one behind 188 Concord St and on property they already owned, but after purchasing that building they had determined that there were some setback issues precluding that from happening. So because they couldn’t do what they wanted to, due to the setbacks, this necessitated this new proposed purchase.
The original garage idea, was to use land already owned by the city, but shucks about the setback…
Below see the new proposed plan for the garage.
The city knew about their intent to purchase the Metro West Credit Union as far back as last fall.
Not including the cost to build the proposed garage, the renovations alone will cost the city $286,000 to clear the way for the construction of the garage. In the chart below, the city intends the work to be completed in house.
The city states it needs this garage to offer parking for it’s Joint Dispatch Center, but do they really need 200 spots, and can the city be trusted to have a garage, they’ve already screwed the pooch on their last one. If you haven’t been lately, go check out the potholed and grafitti covered Pearl Street Garage…. The city employees choose to not park in the facility as the ceiling collapses are regular and damaging… But they will sell you a commuter pass, and you can hope for the best for $65 per month.
Check out the current state of perpetual collapse at this 1988 garage:
Why isn’t the city considering tearing down the old Pearl Street Garage and rebuilding on the same footprint? Would the employees of the city buildings protest that the 800 foot walk is too far? Too dangerous? In 2019, a feasibility study, considered renovating the garage versus building a new office building on the site. Instead they chose to twiddle their thumbs.
Why not just use the pearl site to create the required parking?
The City did take requests for proposals for this new garage build last summer, and the working estimate for the construction alone is $12,500,000-$19,000,000! That doesn’t include the 1.7-million requested tonight.
These costs alone should be enough to necessitate a second look at Pearl Street for the parking requirements.