Chicago-based InterPark has operated in Chelsea for over two decades, with a Park and Fly operation at 111 Eastern Ave. servicing Logan Airport passengers, and a separate parking garage at 270 Central Ave. that services airport employees.
InterPark was before the zoning board of appeals last week seeking two special permits that will alter their business, and potentially open up more than 11 acres of the Eastern Avenue property for future development.
InterPark is seeking to build a six-story parking garage on the northern portion of the 22-acre Eastern Avenue property.
That garage, according to InterPark representatives, would serve as the new garage for the Logan Airport employees, with approximately 2,400 parking spaces.
The existing garage at 270 Central Ave. is currently used for the Logan employees. That garage would be converted to the park and fly operation currently housed in the parking lots on Eastern Ave.
The Central Avenue garage currently has over 1,500 parking spaces. InterPark representatives said there would be no changes to the existing parking garage, other than some restriping to increase the size of the parking spaces, cutting the capacity down to about 1,460 vehicles.
The InterPark representatives said they have been working on plans for the changeovers to the property to allow for the development of the southern portion of the parcel for close to a decade. While there are no official plans for what will go on the southern part of Eastern Avenue, they said there has been interest in light industrial development.
“We’ve had conversations with other potential users of that space,” said Andy Runge of InterPark. “We think there is a lot of interest in that property for industrial development, so our plan would be to market that for sale and hopefully close on that transaction with selling that site simultaneously with us moving our business.”
City Manager Fidel Maltez said some of the benefits of the project to the city include the tax revenue from the garage site itself, as well as tax revenue from the potential development of the southern piece of the property.
“It is three million dollars in new tax revenue … and we are hurting for tax revenue,” said Maltez. “We are at a point where there is no development happening in Chelsea, and this is the kind of development we want. It is industrial development, it is commercial development, it is not abutting any residential users, this is really what we have been chasing for a long time.”
Maltez noted that the development is something that the city and InterPark have been discussing for a number of years.
“We are tied at the hip in this project because I see the potential of Eastern Avenue,” said Maltez. “This is a way of unlocking the southern parcel … by consolidating the surface parking into a covered garage. It is going to unlock a large parcel right next to the bridge on Eastern Avenue minutes away from the airport. You can imagine the amount of excitement and value that is going to generate.
“In my mind, that is additional potential tax dollars that we need in the city,” the city manager continued. “We have met with all department heads, with our police chief, with our DPW staff, and we all agree that this is a good project.”
Roseann Bongiovanni, the executive director of GreenRoots, said she understands the importance of the project and noted that InterPark has been a good community partner for 20 years. However, she said she did believe that there are improvements that can be made to the plans for the parking garage.
“My concerns stem from the 40 percent increase in daily vehicle trips that will be coming into this facility,” she said. “We really would like to see … a white roof on the top of the facility; I think that is an easy fix. But the thing that I am really interested in seeing them further develop and further design is a walkway access around the facility.”
Bongiovanni said she knows it is a challenge, but added that if it is not done properly, the walkway would not be utilized.
“I think that we have an opportunity here to develop perimeter access to the Chelsea Creek waterfront that can be designed in a way that folks in the community can really use it,” she said.
The special permit requests will go before the planning board for a recommendation on August 25 before coming back to the ZBA for a potential vote on Sept. 8.