No Steps Forward, Many Steps Back - Editorial
Much like the Bourne Planning Board, we were utterly perplexed to learn that the longstanding plans for the development at 2 Kendall Rae Place have been completely scrapped. The project, which underwent extensive review by town boards and committees over more than two years, is now going back to the drawing board.
The reason for abandoning the plans for a mixed-use residential and commercial building, as told by the new developers from the Michaels Group, was even more baffling than the decision of starting over that followed: banks were apparently wary of the “finance-ability” of the complex’s commercial aspect.
This feels nonsensical, especially considering that mixed-use development has been highly touted in recent years as a promising incentive for communities to both increase density and provide a public benefit. A ground-floor restaurant, café or retail storefront can enhance a residential complex, providing a best-of-both-worlds type of rejuvenation that encourages living in and visiting these walkable, blended communities.
The town has envisioned a sort of renaissance for downtown Buzzards Bay for quite some time now, and this mixed-use complex was a fundamental piece of the Kendall Rae Place campus that is home to the Hampton Inn, Keystone Place and Calamar’s Connect55+ residential building. The new proposal for the site eliminates any commercial aspect of the project, which has left us asking the same blunt question that planning board member David O’Connor asked developers early on in the process, in November 2021: “What’s in it for us?” The board is looking for the commercial public good that was promised with this project and, frankly, we are, too.
It is worth noting that the board’s sharpest criticism of the new proposal alluded to a much larger, pervasive problem in real estate: as presented, this iteration of the proposal was designed purely to monetize the parcel to benefit the property owner without any substantial benefit to the community. That issue is much too intricate and arduous to unpack here, but it is worth ruminating on.
We hope that the project’s developers will seriously consider the board’s recommendation to reintroduce a commercial aspect that benefits the public. Anything accessible to the greater community would be better than nothing—and while a courtyard, deck and swimming pool overlooking the Cape Cod Canal sounds great, it really has no use to the community if it is open only to the building’s tenants.