By THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — It’s been more than a year since a wrecking ball demolished Atlantic Coast Seafood Market to make way for the city’s latest business complex.
But construction on the 73,000-square-foot Alley Street lot behind the Lynnway is nowhere in sight.
“We are waiting for the city to fix the storm drains,” said Thomas Demakes, president of Old Neighborhood Quality Food, whose firm paid $1 million for the 2-acre parcel in 2013. “That street floods badly when it rains and prevents me from moving forward.”
As a result, Demakes’ vision of a development that would include two dozen condominiums for startups, is on hold.
“If I built a business park without the improvements the businesses would flood,” he said. “The city promised to fix it, but it might take a few years.”
Daniel O’Neill, the Water and Sewer Commission’s executive director, said the storm drain project is part of a $106 million venture ordered by U.S. District Court. The commission has been mandated to end sewer overflows in four locations including Summer Street in West Lynn, two across from North Shore Community College, and Bennett and Alley streets.
The project had its roots in 1976, when the Environmental Protection Agency alleged the commission was in violation of the Clean Water Act by allowing waste from sewer systems to flow into the Atlantic.
When there’s rain or snow, the waste sometimes exceeds capacity in the sewer lines and makes its way into the ocean, streets and basements.
‘We are in the design stage and getting ready to prepare construction documents for public bid,” said O’Neill. “But we are a year away from completing design and the work will be done over 13 years, so it will be some time before work on Alley Street is complete.”
Demakes imagines his project would be similar to the one at the former Lynn Lumber site.
Lynn Business Park RT and the Nicholas Mennino Trust bought the 84,000-square-foot lot on Commercial Street in 2014 for $1.4 million. They used a portion of the land for business storefronts including the Beantown Barbell Club and Safe & Secure Limousine across from Bent Water Brewing Co.
Peter Capano, the Ward 6 City Councilor, has been supportive of the idea and said it would be a good fit for the neighborhood.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at tgrillo@itemlive.com.