AVAILABLE: Over 6,000 feet of waterfront – average depth 25 feet. About 120 acres with world’s largest travelift. Office buildings and large storage sheds – commercially zoned – plenty of parking. (Needs some work!)

Sounds too good to be true, but that’s the former Fore River Shipyard location!

Tom Cox, Ed Lofgren, and Ray Gaffey represented MMTA at an informational meeting August 15th on plans for the Fore River Shipyard. As you may have seen recently, the Maritime Administration (MARAD) has now turned the property over to an auctioneer for disposal. This was announced at this meeting to the surprise of many there, including Congressman Delahunt, Mayor Phelan of Quincy, State Representative Joseph Sullivan, and Braintree Selectmen.

This meeting had been set up to obtain some input from potential developers by the Congressman and Mayor. Obviously they’re interested in returning this location to productivity with jobs and tax revenue.

As Tom Cox explained to the parties present, MMTA, while not a bidder, is most interested in working with the successful bidder for the property to include some recreational boating interests in any redevelopment plans. He cited the lack of available mooring locations in Massachusetts and the need for them. A complete recreational boating center could be part of the mix including slips, dry-stack storage, winter storage, boat manufacturing, retail stores and a boating education location.

Some of the potential bidders there included GSB Technologies who were interested in purchasing the property to restore some heavy industry including manufacturing floating power plants and purification systems, ship repair, and recycling (scrapping) old vessels. While there was some derogatory comments concerning the latter, they pointed out it was already being done in Astoria, Oregon under strict EPA rules.

Maritime Trust Group, a West Coast development group, was interested in a potential mixed use of the location. This firm has worked on many of these projects, including some Superfund sites. They already have their financing in order and would work with the communities on a master plan which might take 10 years to fully complete.

GE Wind Energy spoke of being a tenant in the yard with the purpose of building windmills for energy production. Benjamin Hall of this firm spoke of wind power being the fastest growing energy resource in the world. The fact that Fore River is a deep-water port is important in this plan for ready access.

Paul O’Neill, former part owner of Hingham Shipyard, presented the case for mixed use of the yard. He has had to go out of the country to find a suitable site for manufacturing. He stressed that MARAD should be very sensitive to local community interests.

Dickinson Development, a local Quincy developer, also favored a mixed use for the property. Mark Dickinson envisioned some light industry, condominiums, businesses, and a marina. He has been involved in numerous local developments.

This is one of the few local properties available for future expansion. We would like to solicit our members in their possible interest in pursuing some recreational boating uses there. If not for themselves, perhaps from one of their suppliers or manufacturers. We will be sending out a survey shortly in this regard.