The $1.5 billion redevelopment of the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station is back close to where it was more than a year ago – with the Navy and the base’s municipal development corporation haggling over the cost of the 836 acres of land the Navy still owns at the site.
Gov. Deval Patrick told Banker & Tradesman today that the Navy has finished reappraising its remaining share of the base. That reappraisal had been holding up the land transfer, which was supposed to close last spring.
But sources now say the new appraisal presents the same type of financial hurdles that halted last year’s transfer.
Three sources with knowledge of the situation have said the Navy’s new $23 million appraisal figure is approximately half of what the Navy was seeking last year. Even so, the new $23 million price tag is tens of millions more than the base’s redevelopers want, or can afford, to pay. That puts the base transfer back close to where it was last year, with the state’s Congressional delegation having to lean on federal officials to bring the price tag down.
"The new appraisal is done, which is the thing we had been waiting for," Patrick said today. "The Secretary [of the Navy Ray Mabus] has reaffirmed his commitment to make a transfer. It’s obviously got to be market-based. He understands the importance of the project to us. Now the developer and the Navy have to come to terms on the transfer, and they’re working on that."
South Shore Tri-Town Development Corp., which is overseeing the base redevelopment for the towns of Abington, Rockland and Weymouth, was unable to close on the Navy’s land last year because it couldn’t raise the $43 million the Navy was seeking. Tri-Town must take possession of the land before transferring it to the base’s master redeveloper, LNR Property Corp.
Congressman Bill Delahunt inserted language into a recent Department of Defense authorization bill enabling the Navy to hand its holdings at the air base to Tri-Town and other decommissioned bases in a low- or no-cost transfer.
"Congressman Delahunt is anxious to sit down with the Navy and engage in negotiations," said Mark Forest, the congressman’s chief of staff. "We don’t feel tied to the appraisal at all. Fair market value is an interesting number, but it should not bear on negotiations."
Forest noted that public infrastructure costs at the base will soon top $60 million, with more than $100 million in future improvements looming.
"The communities should be given credit for investments being made now, and in the future," he argued. "We believe the new legislation will pave the way for getting a deal done. Marching orders have been given to the Pentagon to turn these bases over and get things moving."
