Most Comments. Most Views. Don Harr from Atlantic Retail Properties said his experience shows that such a development will bring a new vibrancy to the area. It goes back to the dollars it needs because of the mess that was left here. You guys were left with a mess, a toxic mess from people that completely disregarded the community, packed up their bags, put a chain link fence, and left," Melchionda said of the contaminated site on former GE land.
He later added, "I would be the first one to love to champion that process of taking what was once a vibrant, very, very well respected manufacturing part of this city and bring it back. We would all look like we were heroes. I can't do that because it is not possible. In all the years we've been here we've said, if we are missing something and someone has a company, if someone has an idea, and you can build a manufacturer here, I'd love to build the building.
Instead, Melchionda is proposing to develop a Walmart Supercenter. The retail giant is looking to build a , square-foot new store and move from Berkshire Crossings to the parcel bordering Tyler Street and Woodlawn Avenue. At a Ward 1 and 2 meeting on Monday night, Melchionda told around 50 residents that there is value for retailer in the some 40, cars that drive by the location. The land has little value for anything else, he said.
The William Stanley Business Park was never meant for retail and language even excluded such a use in the consent decree with GE that signed over the land. Many who attended the meeting got into heated back and forths with the developers arguing against Walmart because of its impact to small businesses and on the future of the park. Mazzeo opposes the project and says she believes that manufacturing is possible.
She asked residents to wait until the Berkshire Innovation Center is completed with the hope that development will spur from there. The proposal overall just "sounds too good to be true" she said of Waterstone's plan and remains skeptical. Waterstone's plans include some construction jobs to build the building and then another 80 to additional retail jobs by including a grocery component to the store's operations.
