October 31, 2014
Yet another development could be on the horizon in Savin Hill.
The Spire building at 65 Bay Street, adjacent to Savin Hill MBTA station, is on the market for $13.9 million.
The parcel was listed online this week as an “ideal redevelopment site,” according to the listing on commercial real estate website Loopnet.com.
Already, there is a “lot of interest” in the property, according to John Cremen, senior vice president of Boston-based Denenberg Realty Advisors, retained to sell the property. Cremen was reached by the Reporter on Thursday. “We’ve had a lot of people are chasing this.”
The building’s composition is not ideal for Spire, the current owners, Cremen said. The two-story building contains a mix of production, office, and warehouse space, as well as three loading docks and a 90-plus car parking lot.
Earlier this month, plans fell through to provide 15 parking spaces in the Spire lot for a nearby mixed-use residential and retail development over the so-called “Savin Hill hole,” stalling the 14-unit development. The project’s developers are currently re-working parking configurations to be offered on-site.
Isaac “Skip” Dyer, executive vice president of the graphic design and printing company, had no comment for this story.
Spire purchased the 65 Bay Street property from Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation in 2013 for $7.1 million. The graphic design and printing company has occupied the building since its opening in 2002– 12 years after Dorchester Bay bought the then-abandoned five-acre site in Savin Hill, the former home of Boston Insulated Wire and Cable, then secured $14.5 million in funding to clean up the property.
As a tenant of Dorchester Bay, Spire had an at-times rocky history with the economic development corporation. In 2007, Spire sued Dorchester Bay, which owned the property through 65 Bay St. LLC until it was purchased last year, alleging defects in the design, construction, and engineering of the building. In April 2008, Dorchester Bay sued Winter St. Architects and the other companies involved in the construction of the Spire headquarters.