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Boston Globe
06-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Mass Audubon scores court victory in quest to turn old Chelsea factory into waterfront park
'It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity for folks to gain access to the water,' said Roseann Bongiovanni, executive director of local advocacy group GreenRoots and a lifelong Chelsea resident who is working with Mass Audubon. Advertisement Developers have tried and failed to repurpose the property in question, the old Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing site, for years. Most recently, a businessman based in Australia, Ken He, had acquired it in 2014 with the intentions of building housing there. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, disrupting his plans. A lawyer for He, John G.F. Ruggieri, called the proposed sale to Mass Audubon an improper taking at a liquidation price; his client filed an appeal the next day. (In a statement, Mass Audubon says the owner had neglected the property and had plenty of time to line up a buyer.) Chelsea city officials had begun the process of seeking a court-appointed receiver to take control of the run-down property when a massive fire hit in November, disrupting travel on the commuter rail tracks that run along the site. The receiver then took over, with the help of a $400,000 loan from the city to cover her expenses. She petitioned Nestor to approve the sale, citing the site's deteriorating conditions. Advertisement On March 25, Nestor agreed to the deal. 'What is needed in this matter is a certain and soon outcome,' Nestor wrote. 'This offer will repay the taxpayers of Chelsea, clean up the property, and provide a reasonable development for the site. Defendants have had ample opportunity to suggest a viable opportunity but have failed to do so.' For Mass Audubon, the site would fit in well with its newer mission of developing green spaces in urban areas. Mass Audubon, GreenRoots, and their supporters have already raised the money for the purchase price, though president David O'Neill said they would need to raise another $30 million to clean up the property and build a waterfront park and nature center. A portion of those funds would come from The Neighborhood Developers, a Chelsea-based affordable housing nonprofit that would buy a five-acre section of the property and build up to 225 units there. TND executive director Rafael Mares called it 'a transformative project' that's 'worth the wait.' Housing and land conservation, O'Neill said, are often portrayed as conflicting uses. 'In this instance, what we're saying is, 'Absolutely not,'' O'Neill said. 'This is an example of what can be done [with housing and conservation groups] working together.' But first the Mass Audubon team will need to get through He, who bought the property in 2014 for $11.6 million and remains its owner. Ruggieri, his lawyer, called the sale a 'completely ramrodded, behind-the-scenes deal.' His client, he said, has poured millions into the property, mainly for permitting, since acquiring it and was fielding interest from potential buyers when the receiver took control and fired his broker. The offers, Ruggieri said, were for well above what Mass Audubon has agreed to pay. Advertisement 'The owner of this property is absolutely apoplectic about this order,' Ruggieri said. 'We are very confident that the Appeals Court will not sanction [this] distressed sale. ... We're not enemies of the Audubon Society. However, they need to pay the proper price. They just can't take it clandestinely.' Jon Chesto can be reached at
Boston Globe
22-03-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
‘We are a community unbroken'
In Chelsea, as in many places, the pandemic laid bare all of the ways in which this country is broken. Advertisement But COVID-19 did not break Chelsea. It made the city stronger. 'Bad things happened, but we came out so powerful,' said Elaine Mendes, pastor and director of Those first few weeks were terrifying for everyone. Chelsea has long been blessed with community leaders who are forces of nature, but even they were initially overwhelmed. 'One of the things that the pandemic taught us is that the cavalry is not coming,' said Fidel Maltez, who headed the Department of Public Works in Chelsea in 2020 and is now city manager. 'No one was coming to bail us out, so it is on us to do that.' Starting on March 11, 2020, city and nonprofit leaders held daily conference calls to coordinate the city's response, identifying the most urgent needs — food, diapers, health care — and creating an entire emergency ecosystem, including a hotel where infected residents who lived in crowded apartments could isolate. The usual Chelsea powerhouses — Advertisement A lot of folks were embarrassed and afraid to accept the help at first. Recent immigrants were used to keeping to themselves, and staying below the radar. 'I remember being at those food lines and seeing mothers and children and that sense of shame,' said Maltez, his voice breaking at the memory. 'And I was saying, 'It's OK, there's no shame in that. We also have been through challenging times.'' Gradually, some amazing things happened. The people who were initially reluctant to go outside and accept help grew more comfortable in their own city. The bonds between them grew stronger. The organizations that were serving them — aided by an influx of pandemic relief and philanthropic funds — greatly expanded their capacity. Because residents trusted them to provide pandemic relief services, they were also open to their other offerings. At Revival church, Mendez is still giving out boxes full of food, but she also offers Capoeira and yoga classes, community information and bingo nights, and ESL classes, all of them well attended. GreenRoots added a Advertisement 'A lot of folks have decided that they want to be in community more,' said Jojo Emerson, who heads the food operation. At Chelsea Community Connections, diaper distributions have given way to wellness classes where women gather to learn about their health and advocate for themselves — and get a $30 Market Basket gift card — while their children are fed and cared for. Gathering regularly means those women have formed communities, too, friendships that allow them to rely on each other. At Chelsea Black Community, vaccination drives have given way to job training programs for young people, designed to redress some of the disadvantages that made Chelsea such a ripe target for the virus. 'We want them to be self-reliant financially, so they don't have to double- and triple-up in apartments,' said Cromwell. Along the way, Chelsea Black Community became a full-fledged nonprofit and, like the other smaller organizations that stepped up during the pandemic, a power player in the city. Its strength, like the tighter connections forged by the pain of the pandemic, has made Chelsea stronger than ever. 'We are a community unbroken,' said Mendes. That inspiring resolve is being tested again now, as 'It might not be a pandemic that is killing people, but it's a different kind of pandemic,' Cromwell said. 'We realize we have to stick together.' City manager Maltez and others worry that fear will fray the deepened sense of community forged during COVID, diminishing the trust those who lead the city spent so long building. Advertisement 'Until now, I would say, 1,000 percent, people are willing to come out more,' he said. 'But this week has been rough. People are afraid.' It's possible even the mighty people of Chelsea, who faced down the terrible virus, are no match for this new contagion. Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham can be reached at
