Bartley Machine Building - Lower Millyard

Other Councilors and I have periodically received questions from folks about the Bartley Machine Co. building in the Lower Millyard and whether or not it would make a good site for relocated Town offices and perhaps even the Library. It's a good question and I'm glad folks are thinking about alternatives for Town offices and for better Library space. Bartley Machine has been public about selling the property for development. That said, I don't think that the Town buying the Bartley Machine property is in the cards.

This is true for 2 reasons, mainly. First, the asking price. BMC is seeking $8.28 million for the property. Even if the Town bought the property, it would likely have to spend millions more building out and adapting the industrial property to other civic functions. Such a project would dwarf the rejected costs of redeveloping the current library site. The second reason is connected to the price: the potential for dense mixed-use commercial/residential development at the site.

The property is in a special 'mixed use' overlay zoning district in the Lower Millyard. This means that BMC can sell the property for uses other than its current use for light industrial manufacturing. The overlay district actually adds value to the property beyond its current use, since it opens this (and other) lots up to development for dense commercial and residential development in the village center. This is all part of a larger plan for the Lower Millyard that the Town developed a number of years ago. The zoning overlay district was put in place to enable this mixed-use development.

The Bartley Machine Company has partnered with a real-estate firm to develop this property along the lines of this vision of mixed-use, dense development. You can see their plans for the site at: http://www.reinvestinc.com/amesbury/. This is part of the larger picture of relocating the DPW away from the Lower Mllyard (this will help spark new development down there) and putting in the new Transportation Center/Senior Center in the Lower Millyard.

So, in theory, the BMC building is definitely worth consideration for relocated Town services. Practically, though, it is both too expensive and not the best use of that revenue-generating property.