MSH - to buy or not to buy

Medfield is on the cusp of one of the most momentous decisions in its history, whether to buy the former Medfield State Hospital site.  Given that in my role a selectman I have gone to literally many scores of meetings about the MSH for over ten years, I thought that people might like to know what I learned and what I concluded.  In sum, short money, total control, getting what we want, and avoiding really high costs means buy it.

First the choice is all about the town rather than the state or others controlling the development that is going to happen there, as development will happen regardless.  A development we did not pick may cost us many times more than what we will pay to buy and own.

Second, the $3.1m. price is not high, especially if compared to the likely costs for generations if we do not control the ultimate development.  The terms are attractive, as the state will finance the purchase, with the interest baked, in over ten years, so  we pay $310,000 per year

Town control get us the uses and development the town needs and wants.  There is so much open space and recreational lands that will remain forever, so those uses continue in spades.  The town’s  actual development will be of the already built up areas and is yet to be determined, but for me it should be a mixed use development, mainly residential, with small amounts of retail and commercial space.  The housing should be attached and densely sited units for one or two person households, empty nesters, or older residents.  Importantly, this is the sort of housing that the town now generally lacks, but also it is housing that can make money for the town.

The time is right to make the deal now, as no one can predict whether the next Governor come January 2015 will continue to sell to the town - in the past the state refused us the purchase option.  

The town’s ownership costs going forward should be manageable.  The lands the town is buying are already environmentally cleansed.  The asbestos and lead paint in the buildings will be removed when buildings are demolished, and the town’s developers will likely demolition the buildings.  Per DCAMM, who does similar demolitions all the time, the developers can do the demolitions at about $6 per sq. ft., all in, whereas prevailing wages mean the town would have to pay $11-14 per sq. ft.  There are about 600,000 sq. ft. of buildings at the site.  Long term, worst case ownership scenarios are way cheaper than developments we do not chose.

Osler L. Peterson