By Adam Swift
The Zoning Board of Appeals held a special meeting last week to open the public hearing on the proposed Boston Provisions 80,000-square-foot facility on the former Signature Bread site on Justin Drive last week.
The project will still need to go before the planning board later this month for recommendations on several permits before coming back to the ZBA for a potential vote in August.
The project requires special permits to establish a seafood processing and distribution facility in the Industrial District and extend the use into the adjoining lot in the Naval Hospital Commercial (NHC) District for parking.
The owners and team from Boston Provisions laid out the case for the food processing facility, which they said will bring jobs and tax revenue to the city and will create minimal traffic and odor issues.
However, a number of residents raised concerns about the project, especially about the odor from the fish processing, noise, and traffic.
“We are here to talk about our proposed project at 100 Justin Drive, a project we believe will bring jobs, opportunity, and long-term investment to this community,” said Boston Provisions CEO Mike Moniz.
Moniz said the goal of the ZBA presentation was to give a clear, thorough understanding of the company and how it operates, and what the project will mean in terms of job creation, environmental safeguards, traffic flow, and community engagement.
“We also hope that tonight serves as an opportunity to clarify some of the questions and concerns that have come up around the project,” he said. “There’s been a fair amount of information circling, and we want to ensure that everyone has had the chance to understand the accurate picture of what we are proposing and why.”
For starters, Moniz said that what is being proposed is not a seafood processing facility.
“Boston Provisions is a food-centric, chef-centric wholesaler and distributor,” said Moniz. “We serve professional kitchens, restaurants, hotels, universities, and specialty retailers by providing them with premium seafood, meats, and gourmet essentials. If you think of a grocery store, Boston Provisions is like the back of the house version; we have a seafood department, we have a meat department, we have a specialty dry goods department.”
Instead of serving shoppers, Moniz said the customers are chefs, and instead of having shopping cars, the company loads up refrigerated trucks heading to the region’s best kitchens.
“We aren’t a manufacturer or a processor in the traditional sense, we are a service provider sourcing and preparing exceptional ingredients for people who rely on quality, consistency, and transparency every day,” said Moniz.
Boston Provisions serves as the operational backbone of long-time noted Boston food companies Wulf’s Seafood and Savenor’s Butchery.
“The project isn’t just about a new building, it’s about people,” said Moniz. “Boston Provisions is 100 percent employee owned and operated. We pay a median wage of over $62,500 and cap executive compensation at no more than four times the lowest salaried employee.”
Currently, the company has 125 employees, with Moniz stating that many of them live in Chelsea.
“We plan to relocate all 125 jobs to Justin Drive on day one, and we anticipate creating another 125 jobs in the first three years,” Moniz said.
The existing facility at Justin Drive is approximately 264,000 square feet, and Boston Provisions will be leasing about 80,000 square feet of that space on the second floor of the west side closest to the marina.
With the owner of the building, Moniz said Boston Provisions plans to invest $15 million in the interior of the building to create a modern, clean, and efficient food distribution facility.
“In addition, we are committing significant resources to improving the exterior, including full regrading of the parking lot to ensure better drainage usability, along with extensive landscaping and beautification efforts,” said Moniz. “Our goal is not just to occupy the space, but to elevate, turning what’s currently a tired industrial site to a well maintained, professionally run facility that Chelsea and its neighboring residents can be proud of.”
Moniz said the facility is not about heavy manufacturing, noting that about 25 percent of the space will be used for light fabrication.
“It’s about efficient temperature control, handling, and distribution of premium food products,” he said.
The plan is to have two shifts at the facility, one from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and a second from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., with the majority of employees and activity during the first shift.
Boston Provisions officials said the odor from the facility would largely be mitigated. In addition, they noted that only Wulf’s Fish only has 30 percent of its vehicles that are diesel.
In addition, they said the drivers will be aware that when leaving the facility, they will never be able to turn right onto Commandants Way.
An air quality consultant hired by Boston Provisions stated that he found very clean facilities when he visited both the Wulf’s facility on the waterfront in Boston and the butchery facility in Cambridge that will both be consolidated in Chelsea.
Given the operation, the consultant, Dale Raczynski, said the only time there would be likely to be odors was when the barrier between the trucks and the facility were broken when the temperature was above 38 degrees.
“It kind of spills out the bottom, if you will, and the hot air comes in the top, so there is a slight instantaneous exchange there,” he said. “So what I then looked at is … what would happen to this odor, how would it get into the community, and the way odor moves it is pretty obvious, it is with wind direction. Fortunately, this is a very well-sited facility from this respect, because the part of the facility that we’ll be using doing the fish processing and the loading docks is almost due north of the closest residential building to the south of the facility on Admiral Hill, which is about 400 feet away.”
Wind patterns show that the wind blows away from the residential area at that site about 95 percent of the time, Raczynski said.
“From my experience with odor; odor measurement, odor dispersion, my judgement is that that small amount of occasional brief odor might come out, spill out the base of the loading dock,” he said. “By the time it gets, even within that 5 percent, by the time it gets to the residences, it will be further away and diminished, there should be very little odor. There might be a brief, occasional whiff of odor, but there’s not going to be any cloud of odor over the neighborhood; it’s just not possible in this circumstance.”
In addition to the minimal odor, the company’s traffic consultant stated that there would be a minimal impact on traffic in the area as a result of the project.
During the public hearing, Commandants Way resident Svetlin Bordarov said he was not against a new business moving into the former Signature Bread facility, he did have concerns about noise and the proximity of parking to the residential development.
“The extreme proximity of the facility to the residential building causes moderate to severe risk of physical, mental, emotional, social, occupational, and environmental wellbeing of residents,” Bordarov. “With the fleet of all these trucks moving and idling so many hours a day … I’m afraid the noise is going to cause a few issues.”
Suzanne Perry of Commandants Way said she has lived in the area for 25 years, and during most of that time, either the Pillsbury or Signature Bread facility was on Justin Drive.
“It was part of the entryway into our neighborhood, and it wasn’t the best, however, I do have to admit that the smell of bread wins in a competition with the smell of fish,” Perry said. “Instead of looking at a similar company, or maybe an improvement, we’re looking at Boston Provisions, which I know is a superb company. It’s a fine company and I’m sure all their rules and regulations are up to date, but that’s not my concern.
“The question is, does this business belong in a residential neighborhood, and that is my question,” Perry continued. “Frankly, the smell of raw fish permeates the place where they are now.”
Perry also questioned how the other three-quarters of space at the Justin Drive facility will be used, and said she was concerned other fish processing facilities would consider moving to the site to expand their businesses.
“I think Chelsea is moving in the wrong direction with this endeavor,” Perry said. “Everett is putting up housing hand over fist on Second Street … there are so many things, so much building and so much improvement going on. Chelsea itself is looking to improve, looking to be better, I just don’t see that the fish processing area … is a boon or a help to Chelsea.”
Other residents spoke to their concerns about noise, traffic, odors, and safety during the public hearing.
Jerry Jennings, the director of the Admirals Hill Owners’ Association (AHOA) said his association is concerned about the impact of the proposed facility on common roadways on Admirals Hill.
“I’d like to remind the board that the AHOA pays for all the maintenance of these common roadways, which includes snow clearing, and more expensively, road resurfacing,” said Jennings. “The AHOA itself is funded by the residents of Admirals Hill. The proposed fish plant intends to use Commandants Way from the intersection of Justin Drive to Williams Street, and that is one of the common roadways under the aegis of the AHOA.”
Jennings said the traffic will result in much greater wear and tear on the road with the need for increased maintenance that will be borne by the residents.
“Secondly, the AHOA is also concerned for the safety of the pedestrians … in this densely populated residential neighborhood, due to the heavy trucking resulting from this plant,” he said.
Nicholas Gregoretti of Breakwater Drive said the city should not focus on the short-term gain of some new jobs over potential long-term issues.
“If allowed to proceed, BP will spill foul odors, pollutants, and negative consequences that will disrupt, dismantle, and devastate Chelsea’s quality of life, public spaces, and long-term economic growth,” he said.