A sole applicant is in the running in Edgartown’s second search for someone to lease and renovate the Yellow House.
Christopher Celeste and Julia Celeste Tarka, operating as Summer Main LLC, submitted the lone proposal by the deadline Monday.
The Celeste family owns and operates Rosewater Market & Takeaway, the business one door down from the Yellow House on South Summer street, Rosewater Wine & Spirits on Main street, and the Dairy Queen franchise on Upper Main street.
Selectmen took note of the bid at their weekly meeting Monday. More project details were unveiled Tuesday at a Yellow House committee meeting.
Procurement officer Juliet Mulinare said the proposal appeared to be complete, though it still had to be fully reviewed by town counsel.
The Celestes plan to work with architect Dudley Cannada and general contractor/builder Gerret Conover, Mr. Celeste told the Yellow House committee. They propose spending on a $2.5 million mixed-use project, with street-level retail and apartments on the upper floors. They also propose expanding and renovating the small detached building on South Summer street into retail space. There are no additional details about who would use the space, according to the documents but the Celestes intend to make the apartments yearly rentals.
They propose payments totaling $100,000 to the town over a 30-year lease. According to financial documents filed with the plan, the Celestes plan to spend about $2.5 million on the project.
The submitted plan includes creating a town hall plaza with public outdoor space between the Yellow House and town hall.
Mr. Celeste said he and his family have had a house in Edgartown for about a decade and always wondered about the poor state of the Yellow House.
He said the addition of the detached building on South Summer street, which was not part of the available area during the previous RFP, made the proposal more financially appealing.
“We were trying to respond in a way that would be good for the village,” he said. “We view this as investing in the town.” At the end of the 30-year lease, the property and any improvements will belong to the town.
“We don’t think the town should go another season without Summer and Main being alive again” he said. If work begins in early September, Mr. Celeste said, the first part of the project — exterior work, landscaping and the small retail building — could be completed for the summer 2019 season.
“I want to think the Celestes for coming in with the proposal,” Yellow House committee chairman Chris Scott said. “Thank you for the time and effort in putting this together. We look forward to reviewing it.” He added that the committee wanted to move forward as quickly as possible.
Selectman Michael Donaroma added his appreciation. “We’d like to see this keep moving,” he said. “A lot of hard work has been done. We thank everybody and the sooner, the better.”
The town took the property on the corner of Main and South Summer streets for $3 million by eminent domain last year, and a committee drafted a request for proposals in search of someone to lease and renovate the old building. In early February selectmen signed off on a plan to lease the property to a team headed by Island contractor Mark Nicotera, including Mr. Cannada as architect. Mr. Nicotera and his partners proposed renovating the house and turning it into rental apartments and retail space with a 30-year lease.
At the last minute concerns arose about protection for a shade tree on the property, which had been the subject of ongoing legal disputes with the previous owners.
In fairness to other bidders and to comply with public process, selectmen decided to reissue the RFP to include protections for the tree.
The second RFP was released June 6. Terms were roughly the same as the first request for proposals. Residential use is not allowed on the first floor of the building.
The new RFP states that the house can be moved, but not closer to Main or South Summer street. There are limits to where additions can be built on the property and the bidder must hire an arborist, pay the fees of an arborist chosen by the town, and get advice from the arborists about how to protect the linden tree. Plans to safeguard the tree are mentioned in the proposal.
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