By Adam Swift
The city of Chelsea has positioned itself as the site of a potential practice facility for a WNBA professional basketball city.
Last month, the city council signed off on sending a letter and proposal package with four potential practice facility sites to former Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca. Last year, Pagliuca made a $325-million offer to purchase and move the Connecticut Sun to Boston.
While the status of that potential sale is still up in the air, City Councilor-at-Large Leo Robinson said Chelsea wants to be ahead of the game when it comes to positioning itself as a site for a multi-million dollar practice facility for the franchise if it does make Boston its home.
Robinson worked on the proposal package alongside City Manager Fidel Maltez and others in the city. Robinson said the proposal is similar to the one Chelsea sent out to Hasbro when the toy manufacturer was looking to leave its Rhode Island headquarters.
“We also put in the packet all the movies that were made here, all the transportation access, how close we are to Logan Airport, and we wanted them to come and do a visit to Chelsea because if you are looking to build a $100 million facility, why not here in Chelsea, it’s right next to the Garden,” said Robinson.
Some of those potential facility sites are on Eastern Avenue and Marginal Street.
Even if the Sun practice facility does not become a reality, Robinson said the outreach and proposals could help prime the pump for other future growth and development in Chelsea.
“Mainly, it is about (how) we need economic growth,” said Robinson. “If we don’t try to continue to bring in economic growth, eventually, we are not going to be able to provide certain services.”
He said there may be other companies that want to take a look at Chelsea.
“That’s the spin-off of it,” Robinson said, noting that he was recently talking to a businessman in Boston who said he was looking for space, and that Robinson told him developable space in Chelsea is a lot cheaper than it is in Boston.
“It represents jobs, it represents taxes – meals taxes, hotel taxes, that’s what my approach was in putting it together,” Robinson said.