One of the largest proposed projects – 205 Revere Beach Parkway, a hotel and apartment complex to be built on the former Shaw’s Supermarket site — during the last nine months is slated to go before the City Council on Monday night.
Mayor Brian Arrigo has outlined many of the positives that he sees coming from the proposed development. There will be added millions of dollars in revenue for the city coffers and with this project the badly needed repairs to the Beachmont section will be able to be leveraged from state grants for additional millions of dollars. All these added dollars bode well for the taxpayers. For the complete list of benefits that this project entails, we encourage our readers to look at the Mayor’s Op-Ed on this page.
However, Revere officials should not solely consider the positive economic benefits that this project brings to Revere. We believe that even more important is the type of person who is the developer.
Through our sister publication, The Chelsea Record, for more than 25 years, we have followed the development team headed by Mark Robinson and Mark White who are proposing this project. During this quarter of a century, we have also followed how they have become an integral part in Chelsea’s community organizations like the Jordan Boys and Girls Club.
From their first project — a parking garage on lower Central Avenue to their latest project of One North — the type of projects that they have constructed are top quality both in construction and yearly upkeep. Once they put down their roots in a community, they are here to stay and the community and all residents benefit.
An example of a commitment to the community can be seen when they listened to the concerns of the elected officials and residents more than a year ago with their first project for this site and came back with the current project that decreased the number of apartments by almost 25 percent and added a sought after-hotel.
These are the type of developers that Revere needs today. These are developers who will be here for the long-term in the future.
No one can deny that for some residents this project may not be what they desire. However, no one can deny that there will be some development on this site whether these opponents like that new development or not, but no one deny that whatever can be done to make this project better for the neighborhood, this development team will try to do.
More and more often, Revere officials and residents bemoan the fact that many of the surrounding communities have hotels and development projects and ask why not Revere.
We suggest that this development team can be a catalyst to some of these future developments. We also suggest that once these developers give their word, it is bankable. In today’s business society that is a rarity.
In looking over this project and the developers, the words of that great American patriot , Patrick Henry, in a speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses ring true:
“I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.â€
Perhaps, we are from a time when your word was worth more than any amount of money and doing it right was more important. We have found Mark White and Mark Robinson are these type of individuals.
