Jan. 01–Representatives of Mortillaro Lobster Co. Inc. and the developers of the planned Beauport Gloucester hotel in the city’s Fort neighborhood have agreed to a settlement that essentially closes out legal challenges by the Mortillaros to the estimated $20 million to $25 million project targeted for the former Birdseye frozen foods industrial site.
The settlement, released Tuesday in a press release, agreed to by Gloucester attorney Michael Faherty, representing the Mortillaros, and Michael Murray, representing Beauport and its principals, New Balance owner Jim Davis and Cruiseport Gloucester’s Sheree Zizik, does not note any financial remedy but instead is an agreement by Beauport officials to carry out changes in the project’s setbacks and design of the proposed 101-room hotel.
The special permit lawsuit, filed both with the state Department of Environmental Protection and in Essex Superior Court by Faherty on behalf of the Mortillaros, has been one of two legal challenges that has contributed to snagging the Fort hotel project, which received clearance from the city through approval of a hotel overlay zone backed by the City Council in 2012 and special permit approvals.
The second challenge, file by the Fort neighborhood-based Port Community Alliance community group, challenged both the city Conservation Commission’s granting of conditions for the project and the state Department of Environmental Protection’s special approval.
The status of that challenge was not clear Tuesday, and Murray said he could not comment on any specifics to that separate legal action.
The joint statement issued to the Times by him and Faherty indicated that “the settlement will allow Beauport Gloucester to proceed with the construction of (its) hotel according to the revised design.”
Neither Faherty nor Murray would address any specific design changes for the project, with Faherty noting that the revised designs, being prepared by Lee Dellicker, a second architect for the project, will now have to be finalized and submitted for new approvals from the city’s Planning Board and City Council. He added that the settlement agreement includes “safeguards for both sides,” including a remedy for Beauport Gloucester if the new designs did not gain city and other approvals.
Murray, however, said that any revised designs “will not expand the footprint of the project or anything like that.”
His and Faherty’s joint statement also noted that “all parties (to the Mortillaro appeal) are satisfied that the design and setback changes adequately address the concerns raised in the appeals, while continuing to ensure the construction of a well-designed and environmentally sensitive hotel at the site.”
While clearing a significant hurdle to the hotel project going forward, the settlement of the legal challenge is just one piece of the development puzzle that needs to be addressed.
Among the others that stalled the project this year is the city’s need to fund and then carry out what has now been pegged as an estimated $8 million infrastructure that would upgrade utility service to the former Birdseye site and the historic Fort neighborhood as a whole.
That project, backed by a $2 million contribution from Beauport Gloucester, was to be paired with a state MassWorks grant of $3 million promised to the city to support the 150 jobs the hotel vowed to create. But the grant fell through when the city did not meet deadline demands of the eligibility for it — including that the project be “shovel-ready” by last June. City officials have also not firmed up a means of covering an estimated $3 million funding gap between the state grant and Beauport contribution and the full cost of the project.
In their initial filing, Vincent and Gino Mortillaro, who own and operate the lobster company across Commercial Street from the site of the planned Beauport Gloucester hotel, filed suit in Lawrence Superior Court in an effort to halt the project, alleging that the city’s Conservation Commission, in approving the project, failed to protect their interests and the physical integrity of the area.
The developer, Beauport Gloucester LLC, had also been named as a defendant in the suit, which had essentially appealed the commission’s ruling.
Times Editor Ray Lamont can be reached at 978-675-2705, or via email at rlamont@gloucestertimes.com.
