The future development of the former W.W. Cross factory site will be on hold for up to several months as the town, former owners and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services determine mitigation responsibility.
The site, currently owned by the town, is a designated brownfield site because of its former use. The building itself substantially burned down during a 2020 fire and has since been removed.
The town hopes to redevelop the site using a development partner. Town officials have said their goal is to create a mixed-use retail or commercial development on the site. The town has held multiple community round-table events about various aspects of downtown development, including the future of the W.W. Cross site, and conducted market analysis specifically for the site.
In preparation for its eventual redevelopment, the town has also been working with the NHDES to determine potential hazards from the site’s past use as an industrial factory, including testing of the soil and groundwater.
Results of that testing show that groundwater in the vicinity of the former plating and wastewater treatment areas of the building exceeds standards for compounds related to those plating operations, including cadmium and cyanide.
Jafford, a subsidiary of Stanley Black & Decker and a former owner of the property, has been given 120 days from the receipt of a letter from the NHDES sent on April 8 to submit information from a supplemental soil investigation and a preliminary remedial approach to address soil contamination attributed to the W.W. Cross operations.
Jaffrey Town Manager Jon Frederick said until those materials have been submitted, the project will continue to be in a “holding pattern.” The results of those tests may show that Stanley Black & Decker has liability to clean up a larger portion of the site than has previously been determined.
Currently, Stanley Black & Decker has been determined to be responsible for the eastern portion of the site’s mitigation, Frederick said. Testing of other areas could not be completed until the building was removed, and that is what is happening now.
Town taps MEDC for W.W. Cross partnership
After some back and forth, the Select Board has selected the Monadnock Economic Development Corporation as its partner for the redevelopment of the W.W. Cross site.
The Monadnock Economic Development Corporation is a nonprofit that provides real estate development services, technical advisory services and commercial financing to support community and economic growth in southwest New Hampshire.
The Monadnock Economic Development Corporation and Monadnock Affordable Housing Corporation are affiliates of Keene Housing. Their proposal for the site outlined a co-development public-private partnership with the town, suggesting a phased, mixed-use project that would incorporate both commercial and residential components. The proposal emphasized collaboration with town officials, local businesses and other stakeholders.
This winter, the town issued a request for qualifications for potential developers. A subcommittee that included Select Board member Charlie Turcotte reviewed the proposals and found that of those submitted and invited to submit, only the Monadnock Economic Development Corporation’s submission met the town’s requirements. The subcommittee recommended the town accept its application. In a Select Board meeting where then-Chair Franklin Sterling was attending remotely, the board voted to select the MEDC proposal.
As part of the request for qualifications, Mike Shea, president of Belletete’s Inc., submitted a letter in which he expressed that the company had interest in the property, but not in partnering in the town’s vision for the site, which is a phased, mixed-use project that would incorporate both commercial and residential components.
Specifically, Shea suggested that the property could continue to be used for industrial uses, particularly for an expansion of Belletete’s millwork operation. The board found that the application did not include the information the town had requested in its request for qualifications, and it was not considered.
During its February meeting, the board took no official vote but did offer Shea an opportunity to submit supplemental information by mid-March.
However, during its meeting on March 31, after appointing Turcotte as the new chair of the board following March elections, Turcotte said asking for those supplemental materials was a “rabbit hole,” and that the board would be sticking to its original decision.
“Only one met the qualifications that the Town of Jaffrey recommended they submit their qualifications to and about. The subcommittee solidly voted in favor of that applicant,” Turcotte said. He said the majority of the board had then accepted that recommendation.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m not taking it any further. Those results stand. There is no changing them. Although there is a rabbit hole we went down, and I’m sorry we went down that rabbit hole, but we’re not changing it. Done,” Turcotte said.
Sterling told attending members of the crowd that he had recused himself from the discussion.
Shea, who attended the meeting on March 31, said he felt the process was unfair because it was asking for a specific type of development that he didn’t see as feasible. While not consistent with that vision, Belletete’s did have a proposal for a productive use for the property.
“I have expressed time and time again to town officials Belletete’s interest in that property. I never expected not to have a seat at the table,” Shea said.
Shea said a mixed-use commercial and residential use of the property is a “Utopian view.”
“I would love it too, but I don’t see it happening,” Shea said.
Turcotte said the Monadnock Economic Development Corporation and Keene Housing have a track record of public-private partnerships.
“…It is a partnership that works, and it works for the community. And this is what the community wants,” Turcotte said. He added that if the community wanted to see the project work, they would have to show their support and “keep backing it up.”