SWANSEA — It hasn’t exactly been Putin versus Biden, but for the town of Swansea it might have been the closest thing to it.
After a two-and-a-half year standoff that stalled the redevelopment of the former Swansea Mall site, it finally looks as though a final agreement is at hand to pave the way for a “lifestyle center” — one that incorporates 144 market-rate apartments with restaurants, retail shops and other business ventures.
“We’ve agreed in principle to sign a whole new ECR agreement that’s acceptable to both parties,” he said adding that “we have an understanding, but we just can’t go forward yet.”
Anagnost says he expects a definitive response from Walmart no later than the middle of February.
The owner of the former Swansea Mall is optimistic that Walmart will finalize an agreement allowing him to move forward with a mixed-use redevelopment plan.
The tentative agreement was contained in a joint letter Anagnost and Walmart submitted last November to the Swansea Redevelopment Authority.
Both parties stated they would be amenable to a new and less restrictive set of “easements with covenants and restrictions,” otherwise known as ECRs.
The current set of ECRs held by Walmart includes a long list of restrictions, including a prohibition of any business that sells alcohol, health spas, a house of worship or church and businesses that engage in “recreation or amusement.”
He describes the joint letter of cooperation as a non-disclosure agreement that is not unlike a memorandum of understanding.
This CubeSmart self-storage facility is so far the only business operating at the site of the former Swansea Mall.
The sole business for the time being that is physically part of the 660,000-square-foot, former mall edifice is a CubeSmart self-storage facility. It opened in 2020 in a section of the mall building that years ago was an Apex department store.
The only other tenant within the main mall building at 262 Swansea Mall Drive is a non-denominational church called His Providence Church.
Anagnost said the church, which was a tenant before he and his investment partners became involved in the 65-acre site in 2019, is keeping the same front entrance but is relocating to a more central space.
The Swansea Mall, which opened in 1975, at one time had as many as 90 tenants, including Macy’s and Sears. It closed in March 2019.
Walmart has been able to impose the current property use restrictions as part of a 2014 purchase deal it made, when it paid $10.7 million to former mall owner Carlyle Development Group for 21 acres directly behind the Swansea Mall.
The address of the Walmart store that was built on the site is listed as 54 Cousineau Drive.
Parking lot and road repairs could start in the spring
Large potholes can be found in the parking lot of the former Swansea Mall .
Despite the significant delay in getting his project off the ground, Anagnost said the last Zoom meeting he had with Walmart’s legal team in November was amicable and productive.
“They were very cordial and cooperative and addressed our concerns,” he said.
Anagnost says after a final, revised set of ECRs is legally recorded he’ll be in a position to solidify his plans to build the 144 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, which he said could break ground by next fall and would be ready to rent sometime in 2023.
As for eliminating the deep and jagged potholes that in recent years have been part of the parking lot and vehicular entrance landscape, Anagnost said remedial work could begin by May and would likely take three months to finish.
He estimates the task of grading and patching the parking lots and entryways will cost between $6 million and $7 million. Walmart, he said, will be responsible for repairing the “ring road” that encircles the property.
Anagnost says it’s too early to predict the final, total investment in the overall project other than that it could range anywhere from $25 million to $65 million.
Swansea selectman confident and relieved about future prospects
Swansea selectman and attorney Chris Carreiro said the town’s redevelopment authority played their cards right in November by giving the parties involved two weeks to work out their differences, after it voted to enact, by means of eminent domain, an “order of taking.”
That order would specifically enable the town to amend and remove certain ECR restrictions — which it deemed to be ultimately detrimental to the interest of the town by preventing the mall owners from fully developing their site for productive use.
Carreiro, who described the last resort of eminent domain as “a nuclear bomb,” said the redevelopment authority’s “strategic vote” accomplished the goal of convincing the opposing parties to work out their differences.
“It’s pretty amazing to me to see it happen after having been a diversion for this long,” he said.
Ownership breakdown
Anagnost and his partners didn’t enter the picture until May 2019 when Carlyle Development Group sold the former Swansea Mall parcels for just over $4.5 million.
The larger of the parcel portions sold for $3.19 million and were purchased by four limited liability companies.
The majority investor in that deal was GF Funding Swansea LLC, which is affiliated with Brady Sullivan Properties, a Manchester, New Hampshire-based company that has collaborated with Anagnost on other New England development projects.
Additional investors included the Anagnost-affiliated SMI Holdings LLC, Boston-based Swansea Holdings LLC and to a lesser extent Swampscott-based Ocean Investment Holdings LLC.
The smaller parcel sold for $1.35 million and was bought primarily by GF Funding Swansea LLC with a 5-percent investment on the part of Ocean Investment Holdings LLC.
Individual outside entrances for all retail and office tenants
A business plan submitted by Anagnost to the town in 2019 stated that in addition to two 72 apartment-unit buildings, his LifeStyle Center could include a medical facility; as many as three restaurants; seven retail spots; a fitness center; a bank branch; a tenant with an educational component; and entertainment.
Brady Sullivan Properties has dubbed the future development project as Shoppes of Swansea.
All tenants, according to the 2019 redevelopment proposal, will have their own outside customer entrances as opposed to a traditional retail mall, not unlike the stores at Wrentham Village Premium Outlets.
Effect on property taxes
The last time 262 Swansea Mall Drive generated more than $1 million in annual property taxes was in fiscal year 2004.
In fiscal 2019, the last year the Swansea Mall was open, the town collected $350,683. In FY20 the tax amount dropped to just more than $108,000, and in fiscal 2021 taxes paid amounted to $121,888.
The tax bill for the current fiscal 2022 period is just less than $217,000.
Could Town Hall and Annex someday become tenants?
Last October the Swansea board of selectmen postponed taking a vote, on the basis of potential legal challenges, as to whether town offices should relocate into what would be a redeveloped Swansea Mall site.
The estimated $5.4 million consolidation proposal would have included relocating municipal offices from Town Hall on Main Street, the town’s Annex building on Stevens Street, as well as the Council on Aging on Ocean Grove Avenue.
Repairs have been made to a new roof of Swansea Town Hall.
Carreiro says in view of the latest development between Walmart and the owners of the former mall, it might make sense to revisit the issue at a later date.
He points out that employees in the antiquated Annex are awaiting word as to when they will have to move out of the building — which has had roof problems and concerns about possible mold in the basement — into a trailer that now sits in a parking lot.
A trailer in the parking lot of the Swansea municipal Annex building will be used by employees who at some point will move out of the Annex.
And despite the fact that Town Hall has a new roof, workers have recently been making additional rooftop repairs.
Carreiro says if the town can find a way to become a tenant on Swansea Mall Drive it will cost less than half that it would for a new building with at least 20,000 square feet of space.
He also said the town could eventually spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the trailer and portable pod, or storage, units at the Annex site.
“We’re at a critical juncture, and I’m optimistic that we can revisit this,” Carreiro said.
Charles Winokoor may be reached at cwinokoor@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism and subscribe to The Herald News today.
