The Massachusetts Audubon Society has been eyeing a decrepit industrial property on the Chelsea waterfront for nearly three years, with the hopes of turning it into a public park along with mixed-income housing.
Now, thanks to a new ruling from a Suffolk Superior Court judge, Mass Audubon may finally get the green light.
Judge Matthew Nestor approved a court-appointed receiver’s request to sell the nearly 18-acre site to Mass Audubon for $8.36 million, over the objections of its current owner, citing the fact that the structures left on the site, at the confluence of the Chelsea and Mill creeks, have become a public safety hazard.
“It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity for folks to gain access to the water,’’ said Roseann Bongiovanni, executive director of local advocacy group GreenRoots and a lifelong Chelsea resident who is working with Mass Audubon.
Developers have tried and failed to repurpose the property in question, the old Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing site, for years. Most recently, a businessman based in Australia, Ken He, had acquired it in 2014 with the intentions of building housing there. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, disrupting his plans. A lawyer for He, John G.F. Ruggieri, called the proposed sale to Mass Audubon an improper taking at a liquidation price; his client filed an appeal the next day. (In a statement, Mass Audubon says the owner had neglected the property and had plenty of time to line up a buyer.)
Chelsea city officials had begun the process of seeking a court-appointed receiver to take control of the run-down property when a massive fire hit in November, disrupting travel on the commuter rail tracks that run along the site. The receiver then took over, with the help of a $400,000 loan from the city to cover her expenses. She petitioned Nestor to approve the sale, citing the site’s deteriorating conditions.
On March 25, Nestor agreed to the deal.
“What is needed in this matter is a certain and soon outcome,’’ Nestor wrote. “This offer will repay the taxpayers of Chelsea, clean up the property, and provide a reasonable development for the site. Defendants have had ample opportunity to suggest a viable opportunity but have failed to do so.’’
For Mass Audubon, the site would fit in well with its newer mission of developing green spaces in urban areas. Mass Audubon, GreenRoots, and their supporters have already raised the money for the purchase price, though president David O’Neill said they would need to raise another $30 million to clean up the property and build a waterfront park and nature center.
A portion of those funds would come from The Neighborhood Developers, a Chelsea-based affordable housing nonprofit that would buy a five-acre section of the property and build up to 225 units there. TND executive director Rafael Mares called it “a transformative project’’ that’s “worth the wait.’’
Housing and land conservation, O’Neill said, are often portrayed as conflicting uses.
“In this instance, what we’re saying is, ‘Absolutely not,‘’’ O’Neill said. “This is an example of what can be done [with housing and conservation groups] working together.’’
But first the Mass Audubon team will need to get through He, who bought the property in 2014 for $11.6 million and remains its owner.
Ruggieri, his lawyer, called the sale a “completely ramrodded, behind-the-scenes deal.’’ His client, he said, has poured millions into the property, mainly for permitting, since acquiring it and was fielding interest from potential buyers when the receiver took control and fired his broker. The offers, Ruggieri said, were for well above what Mass Audubon has agreed to pay.
“The owner of this property is absolutely apoplectic about this order,’’ Ruggieri said. “We are very confident that the Appeals Court will not sanction [this] distressed sale. … We’re not enemies of the Audubon Society. However, they need to pay the proper price. They just can’t take it clandestinely.’’
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.
