SALISBURY — A massive development that would see new homes and businesses built along Salisbury Beach cleared one of its last major hurdles earlier this month.
Big Block Development Group’s One Oceanfront project, anticipated to cost approximately $190 million, received a vote of approval from the Conservation Commission during its meeting Sept. 6. The condominium/apartment complex would be located at the corner of Broadway and Oceanfront South.
“We did get a favorable vote, a so-called order of conditions was approved, but we have not gone through the appeal period yet. So it does not become official for probably a couple of more weeks,” said Wayne Capolupo, managing partner for Big Block Development Group.
He noted that conceptually they have been working on this project for several years.
“It has been about 20 years since we started working on the overall revitalization from which the former Big Block, now known as 1 Oceanfront, was conceived. This actual iteration, the One Oceanfront project as is currently being permitted, started in 2015,” Capolupo said.
The development would see approximately 235 residential units in a five-story building, with 7,500 square feet of retail space included.
“That space would of course be on the first floor. and although that has not been tenanted up yet, we’re hoping that there will be a casual-style restaurant there as well as some traditional beach or seaside type retail shops and outlets for gifts and bathing suits and other beach type supplies,” Capolupo said.
Selectmen Vice Chairman and Conservation Commission member Michael Colburn shared his thoughts on the decision to approve the project.
“I’m happy to see that the old, outdated building that is all hardscaped on the beach being taken down and a more environmentally friendly building going up. There was some heated discussion about if it is more environment friendly, but the Conservation Commission tried to lower the hardscape on their dune and this achieved that,” Colburn said.
Capolupo addressed concerns that the project could hurt dune integrity.
“We have a team working on that whole environmental impact analysis, and we feel very comfortable that the mitigation steps that we have included in our project will not result in any adverse impact to the primary dune system. In fact, we feel that it’s going to enhance the resiliency of that system,” Capolupo said.
Among those mitigation strategies is a plan to build a 34,000-square-foot restoration sand dune.
“There is another dune or structure made out of sand and gravel that would act as another dune-type impediment to the ongoing wave action in the event of a storm,” Capolupo said.
Town Planner Lisa Pearson spoke about what the project will mean for the beach as a whole.
“We’ve been working on some Broadway Mall designs and we’re able to now feel confidence in utilizing what is going to be there in the future for Oceanfront South and for the Big Block so that when we come up with our ideas for this new beach design, we can really know what we will be butting up against, which is great. So we can sort of utilize that as all one plan as opposed to we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Pearson said.
Matt Petry covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: [email protected].
