Businesses love Bellingham
Town credits proactive strategy
Back in the 1980s, Bellingham was a sleepy town struggling financially from the lack of a commercial and industrial tax base. It had to pass a Proposition 2 1/2 override to expand its sewer system. Two decades, three shopping centers and two power plants later, the town now boasts a residential property tax rate lower than two-thirds of all cities and towns statewide.
It gets rave reviews from such corporate recruits as Dunkin’ Donuts, which recently built a $20 million Northeast distribution center there. Chestnut Hill-based W.S. Development Associates LLC is looking to develop its fourth shopping center in Bellingham. And no more Prop 2 1/2 overrides, despite a new high school, town hall and senior center, says Selectman Jerry Mayhew.
How did Bellingham achieve such an economic transformation? Officials credit a combination of a proactive economic development strategy and geography. But as the development they quested after keeps coming, they admit, some residents now question whether the transformation has gone too far - particularly when it comes to traffic.
Strategy meets geography
Besides being convenient to Boston, Providence and Worcester, Bellingham has an interchange on Route 495, making it ideal for retail and distribution facilities. The natural gas pipeline passing through it is a draw to power plants. So, Mayhew admits, the development that has come to town over the past 15 years or so would likely have done so eventually regardless of the town’s tactics.
But he and 11-year Planning Board Member Roland LaPrade take credit for helping to direct that development momentum in the right direction. Both were part of an economic development task force established in the 1980s to evaluate the development future of the town. Back then, Mayhew says, there were about 70 small, entrepreneurial businesses in town - mechanics’ shops and other local services as well as one grocery store in the center.
There were no non-local companies. Mayhew says officials decided that the town would seek out and work with developers and companies to bring in larger ventures that would benefit the town. In what Mayhew says was a "no brainer," the town rezoned large tracks of land along 495 for commercial use, as well as property along Depot Street, which is where Dunkin’ Donuts recently built. It also made sure, Mayhew says, to be amicable and "tough but fair" with developers and businesses.
"I think the whole thing is wrapped up in one word - proactive," says Mayhew, who has served on the board for a dozen years and lived in town since 1965.
The result, Mayhew and LaPrade say, is a good mix of corporate citizens that has lifted the financial burden off residential taxpayers. Among the first was Wal-Mart, which, in 1993, established what remains one of its top performing stores in New England. That was part of W.S. Development’s first shopping center in Bellingham - the 238,000-square-foot Stallbrook Marketplace.
Bob Frazier, W.S.’s vice president of development, says his company came into to a joint venture with National Development there when the office market had fallen off. His company built a second, 240,000-square-foot shopping center – the Crossroads Shopping Center, featuring Home Depot – in 1996. And it added the Charles River Center, 200,000 square feet including a 14-screen Regal Cinema, a few years later. W.S. is now seeking permits for another "lifestyle" center with a proposed 500,000 square feet of the same 495 interchange.
Frazier says the new center will be different than those it already has in Bellingham because it will feature smaller, boutique stores rather than big-box retailers. Bellingham provides access to the demographics his company wants, he notes, between Worcester and Natick. The town, Frazier says, "appreciates the benefits" of the development it is seeing along 495.
Besides the retail development, Bellingham has also welcomed two natural gas-fired power plants, the first in 1990 and the second in 2000, according to Town Administrator Denis Fraine. They provide the town with annual tax payments of $2 million and $2.5 million respectively, he says. Opponents successfully block the creation of a third plant in town, Mayhew says, despite the fact that he and other officials favored it as a good revenue source that required few town services.
Instead, that Depot Street neighborhood is where Dunkin’ Donuts built a 265,000-square-foot complex in late 2005, moving its operations, including 425 jobs, from a smaller site in Franklin. Bryan Hartnett, the company’s executive vice president, was quoted as saying that Bellingham was "the ideal town to be a partner" in its operation, which is a central warehouse for supplies for more than 2,000 Dunkin’ Donuts stores in the Northeast. Attempts to reach Hartnett for this story were unsuccessful.
Fraine says the town and Dunkin’ Donuts worked well together to address the traffic impact of the 550 truck trips a day that the center generates.
Several other companies have also cited distribution centers in Bellingham, according to Fraine, including the Pub 99 Restaurant, Ethan Allen and Blue Links Distribution Center, which handles lumber and supplies.
The town has also had considerable residential growth, though its population hasn’t increased drastically. Fifteen years ago, Fraine says, Bellingham had a population of 15,000. It’s now 16,000. School population, he says, has actually declined.
Traffic trade off
Bellingham’s development has meant good services and lower property taxes as well as local shopping for residents. Mayhew says businesses pay more in taxes than residents, relieving some of the burden on homeowners. But, he says, the rate for business - slated to be $13.32 per $1,000 assessed valuation for 2007 – compares favorably to that of neighboring towns. But there are trade-offs to the upside of growth, officials say – the biggest being increased traffic headaches.
Views of just how bad traffic has gotten in town vary. Fraine says it gets bad during the holiday season due to the retail concentration but still "works" overall. Mayhew and LaPrade also say traffic is manageable, given the town’s standing as a crossroads. Town Planner Stacey Wetstein says the town can’t handle all the traffic that’s been created and is exploring things like a mini public transportation system to take some pressure off. She says "nobody’s really sure" how to fix Bellingham’s traffic problems.
The town has worked with developers to address traffic management as projects took shape. Walgreens provided funds to realign Routes 126 and 140 and add signalization. Frazier says W.S. Development has contributed some $5 million to $6 million to fund road improvements thus far and will work with the state and the town to makes added improvements with the proposed lifestyle shopping center.
LaPrade says the town was struggling with traffic long before commercial development took off. People have always commuted through Bellingham to jobs in Framingham, Worcester and Boston, he says. And Mayhew says the traffic the town grapples with isn’t just Bellingham’s problem. Rush-hour traffic north and south through town is no greater than it was when General Electric and Dennison were in operation and running both shifts, he says. But now, Mayhew says, there is more traffic east and west with commuters accessing the train station in Franklin.
Mayhew adds that traffic is part of progress and retailers want to locate where there is traffic.
However, both he and LaPrade say W.S. Development’s latest shopping center may face a tougher public opposition than those in the past due to traffic concerns. W.S., they note, is working with Mass Highway to improve the interchange at Route 126 and 495. Both say that the proposed third power plant would have generated far less traffic than the new Dunkin’ Donuts distribution center.
Future goals
Now that it has a considerable commercial tax base featuring larger outside companies, Bellingham is refocusing on its local entrepreneurs. Wetstein in working on two proposed zoning overlays – one for South Bellingham and one for downtown - that will encourage local businesses in those sections to revitalize the area. The overlays, which will go before voters in the spring, would create village districts allowing a mixture of retail, office and residential and encouraging more pedestrian-friendly settings.
Officials also want to draw high-tech companies to town to provide more high-paying jobs. LaPrade says that’s one goal the town hasn’t been able to achieve as yet. EMC Corp., which owns 170 acres on Maple Street, is in the process of subdividing that property for development, Wetstein says. Mayhew says the town hopes that will bring in some high-tech businesses and higher paying jobs. He says W.S. Development’s plans to build some office space off 495 could also bring in such businesses.
Overall, town officials are pleased with what Bellingham has become. "I think the town is developing the way a good town should," says LaPrade. "The traffic’s always going to get worse. ... It’s not the small-town feel anymore. But that happens to anybody that’s along 495. It’s just the nature of the beast." That said, he adds, "Right now I’d like it to slow down a little bit."
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