Natick Report

More than you really want to know about Natick, Mass.

If you’re not already avoiding Natick’s South Main Street, definitely do it Sept. 5-7

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The Town of Natick has given a heads up that paving is set to occur from Sept. 5-7 on South Main Street (also known as, in recent years, as “the land of double utility poles”) and that detours will be in place to assist those on the roads. This paving operation will go from 7am-3:30pm, and will be for the street’s final surface.

The town isn’t pussyfooting around this construction: “The work leading up to and during the paving will be noisy and disruptive.”

All northbound through traffic will be detoured at Coolidge Street to the south and all southbound through traffic will be detoured at Cottage Street (see map below). Those who live on South Main Street and its side streets will be permitted to use South Main during the paving.

south main st detour

The contractor will be starting at the Sherborn Town Line and moving northerly. The schedule is subject to changes due to rain.

South Main Street has been under reconstruction for several years.

rte 27 south poles

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Natick seeks to make it easier for unaccepted roads to become accepted

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When a Natick resident introduced a citizen petition at Spring Annual Town Meeting to ask the town to pay $22.7K for a survey of a couple of “crumbling” and unsafe unaccepted streets, she got plenty of sympathy but no money to fix Hillcrest or Pinewood Avenue. However, the petition did again raise the issue of the town needing a less piecemeal plan to address the matter of Natick’s 20-odd miles of unaccepted roadways, and now the town has taken what could be a big step to help property owners.

Pinewood avenue unaccepted

 

Town Engineer Bill McDowell shared with the Select Board on Aug. 9 (about 2 hours, 8 minutes into the Pegasus recording) an update on the Department of Public Works’ plans regarding unaccepted roadways. This was the sequel to a March 22 presentation before the Select Board during which the DPW laid out its criteria for rating unaccepted streets for consideration by the Board for acceptance.

The overall issue has been a frustration for town officials and property owners for years (we found a Metrowest Daily News article from 2012 in which a Natick Select Board member commented on the enormity of the problem, then quantified in the tens of millions of dollars worth of work).

Per the state’s Department of Transporation, “Unaccepted roads consist of roads open to public travel but not formally accepted by a city or town, as well as some private ways.” In other words, Natick’s unaccepted roads aren’t maintained like the rest, as the town is not allowed by law to spend public funds on them.

During his Aug. 9 presentation, McDowell described a proposed process that allows any property owner to petition the Select Board to initiate the street acceptance process. As part of that, the property owner would be given a petition template from the DPW Engineering Division to go back to their neighborhood with for signatures from at least 75% of property owners on the street. Once signatures are secured and verified, the DPW could initiate its street acceptance evaluation report—a quantitative analysis—to be presented to the Select Board within 3 weeks.

 

street acceptance request

The Board would then have 3 options, McDowell said. It could lay out the way and start the process for street acceptance, return the petition to the petitioner with recommendations, or decline to lay out the way. If a property owner disagreed with the DPW’s assessment or Board’s decision, there would be an opportunity to argue make case by providing evidence.

“This process gives us a way to initiate this so that residents don’t feel a need to come petition Town Meeting to get individual streets accepted,” McDowell said, adding that it should help the town get more streets in the best shape possible.

The Board approved the policy and process.

More: The road to paving these Natick streets has been bumpy

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Stonegate and Nauset break ground for Natick mixed-use development

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Stonegate Group and Nauset Construction broke ground last week on a mixed-use project at the site of the former St. Patrick’s School that will deliver 46 apartments with 14,000 square feet of ground-floor restaurant and retail space with four additional two-family townhomes. Located at 45 E. Central St., within walking distance of the Natick Center Cultural District, the project is being developed by the Natick-based Stonegate Group. The Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved the project last year after being stalled by the pandemic.

Stonegate, St. Patrick's, Natick

 

Designed by Finegold Alexander Architects, the 89,500-square-foot friendly 40B project will provide a mix of 46 apartment units ranging from one to three bedrooms and four duplex homes containing three to four-bedroom units, with 14 apartments designated as affordable. The four-story main structure will feature destination restaurants and retail space on the ground floor with apartments above, and the townhomes will be constructed at the rear portion of the property (Lincoln & Wilson Streets). There will be a mix of surface and underground residential parking, with the Framingham/Worcester Commuter Rail to South Station located in under an 8-minute walk.

The ground breaking offered a time of levity and celebration after years of frustrating setbacks. “We’ve been waiting for this day pretty much eight years to this month since we acquired the property,” Stonegate president Dean Calivas said, before starting what would become a running joke. “We’re looking forward to getting it done in 16 months,” he quipped to laughter from the crowd who knew better—the project in reality has a tentative completion time of winter 2025.

Stonegate, St. Patrick's, Natick

 

Subsequent speakers ran with the fun in a kind of bidding war in which the numbers kept going down until finally town administrator Jamie Errickson beat them all with the outlandish claim of project completion within six months.

We’re glad everybody can laugh now. There were times when some parties standing side-by-side at the groundbreaking could barely be in the same room together. Between long meetings over permitting the project to the grinding months-long halt experienced during the COVID pandemic, this project has been a very long time coming. Patience was a word that came up a lot. Or as former Select Board member Michael Hickey said, to get to this point has taken “energy, patience, commitment, perseverance, and a thick skin doesn’t hurt.”

Stonegate groundbreaking, Natick

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As St. Patrick’s school goes down, Natick Farm barn rises

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The former St. Patrick’s School, located directly across the street from St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Natick Center, has officially achieved complete teardown status. We took video of the building’s last stand before front end loaders finished it off.

Natick Fire Department was onsite to aid with dust control. Debris removal and other site work is expected to continue through late spring.

What goes up, must come down

Plans for the site, which have been vetted before the Zoning Board of Appeals, call for a mixed-use development including market rate (i.e., expensive) and affordable (i.e., less expensive) residential units, plus space on the first floor of the main building at 45 E. Central St. for up to four retail tenants. That main 4-story building will feature 46 1-3-bedroom units and underground parking. Another eight units with 3 or 4 bedrooms will be divvied among four townhouse buildings on Lincoln and Wilson Streets. A quarter of the units will be affordable based on a state formula. Overall, the residential and retail space will amount to 14,320 sq. ft.

St. Patrick's School, Natick

 

St. Patrick's School, Southgate

What goes down, sometimes rises

Natick Community Organic Farm’s new barn is currently a work in progress. According to the farm’s website the foundation has fully cured, and all the electrical conduits (the pipes that hold the electrical wiring) are in.

The timber frame arrived from New Energy Works in Farmington, NY on May 1, and the frame assembly process took three days. Next steps include roofing and siding.

Natick Community Organic Farm barn

 

Natick Community Organic Farm, barn

 

Natick Community Organic Farm, barn

 

Natick Community Organic Farm

 

Natick Community Organic Farm

 

Natick Community Organic Farm, barn

Natick business buzz: The Flats coming back to life; New package store makes bid; David’s Bridal warns of layoffs

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The latest Natick, Mass., business news:

The Flats coming back to life

Work on The Flats housing complex, at 7 Washington St. next to Agostino’s, had been all out for a while, but in recent months has stalled. The plan is to build studios and 1- and 2-bedroom apartments.

We reached out to The Flats via its website and asked what was up, as Natick Report readers have been asking us. We didn’t get a lot of details, but were told:

“The project hit several delays and was sold for $9.5M.  Construction will restart in the coming weeks.”

Sounds promising…

The previous building was torn down in early 2022. Past tenants included Bruno’s barber shop (now on Pond Street), Kentucky Spirits, and others.

The project is on its way to becoming a new structure with retail on the ground floor and 4 levels of apartments above, with off-street parking. The Planning Board in March of 2020 gave its blessing to the project, including a site plan and special permit, at the Natick Mercantile Building. A 7-19 Washington Working Group had studied the project for Natick.

The Flats

New package store makes bid

The Natick Select Board is slated to host a public hearing on April 19 at 6:30pm at Town Hall regarding an application for an all-alcohol package store license in the plaza at 2 Mill St. that currently includes Liberty Pizza, a convenience store, and salon.

The application is for Liberty Liquors (Jaymin Patel, manager).  A memo from Natick Police Deputy Chief Brian Lauzon says the applicant is a suitable recipient for a license, but questions the location in light of another package store nearby (Roche Bros. plaza).

David’s Bridal warns of possible mass layoffs

David’s Bridal, which has a location at Natick’s Sherwood Plaza, is exploring a sale of the company and possibly more than 9,000 layoffs. The company, which sells wedding gowns and accessors, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2019.

The Natick location is listed on the Pennsylvania company’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (the “WARN Act”) notice, embedded below. The company would take a phased approach to layoffs, with those at stores coming between mid-June and mid-August.

“The timetable for closing is based on the best information available, although it is subject to change as the Company continues to evaluate its options. The layoffs are expected to be permanent, although new opportunities may become available depending on the outcome of the Company’s sale efforts,” the company wrote.

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