Barnstable leaders have taken the first step to determine whether the city of Baxter's Boathouse Wharf will buy Hyannis Inner Harbor, a water that has been processed by the same family for more than 100 years.
On March 20, the city council voted to spend $ 160,000 for an assessment of the country and the buildings, docks, posts and bulkheads.
Assistant city manager Andrew Clyburn said that the assessment will help the city leaders to better understand the current condition and needs of the property, and the effect of both the current value of the property and the future capital finance requirements before they want to strive for the purchase.
The site consists of three packages on zero, 167 and 177 pleasant street a total of 0.56 hectares. It includes Baxter's Fish and Chips restaurant, docks of different sizes and 75 parking spaces. Structures on the real estate date mainly until the 1940s, according to city officials.
The city owns all the neighboring building, mentioned as a city road to the water, and the country borders the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority.
Baxter's Fish and Chips Restaurant is located at the end of Pleasant Street in Hyannis on Hyannis Inner Harbor. Barnstable Town Council is considering buying the property. The photo was taken on February 25, 2025.
An extensive evaluation
Clyburn said that the assessment will include an evaluation of architectural buildings, evaluation of architectural code, building dangerous materials, a site research, an infrastructure assessment on the water that includes the use of divers for underwater research, soft costs of the architectural staff and the soft costs of the architectural and permit.
Director Town Planning and Development Director Jim Kupfer said that because the building is usually over water and is stopped by Piers, it will be important to investigate the posts on reliability. Town Engineer Griffin Beaudoin said it will also be important to investigate flooding zones on the site, including considerations.
The $ 160,000 only pays for the initial real estate investigation, where the money comes from the general fund reserves of the city. According to Clyburn, this fund was certified last July with “only shy of $ 31 million.”
'We think it is the right thing to do'
The southern end of Pleasant Street proceeded from residential to commercial use in the early 1900s, where the site originally served as a fishing and packaging point before evolving to the Baxter family company. This included a truck company that goods to New York, a Vismarkt and the opening of Baxter's Fish and Chips in 1957, and the founding of the Baxter's Boathouse Club with Baxter's Fish and Chips in 1967.
Owners Ben and Sam Baxter said that they strongly think that they are giving the first Dibs to the community that the family has supported in recent decades.
“I know that the city is not in the restaurant company. It's about the country, the bank rights, the waterfront and the continuation of the port,” said Sam Baxter during the hearing of 20 March
The family believes that “the city could be better with the country in the future” than anyone else, he said.
“We think it's good to do,” Ben Baxter added.
Which comes first, assessment or asking price?
Council members were not in accordance with the question of whether they first had to determine an asking price for the property whether they should first do the assessment. But members acknowledged that the city must find the costs of acquisition and any future investments in the property balance with the broader financial needs of the city, including current projects such as the sewer system and school financing.
Alderman Jeffrey Mendes argued for negotiating a purchase price, and said that many of his voters asked him how much the city could look to pay. Emphasizes that he is not against the project, he said that the arguments behind the acquisition of the property are very logical, but “we need to know what we get involved before we start doing due diligence.”
Alderman Felicia Penn, however, was one of the majority who supports the idea of first doing due diligence.
“I think the baxters are very generous for the city and enable us to discover first before the selling price is clamped on the table,” she said, adding it, “you must first do it diligently so that you can find out what the price range would be.”
The properties are jointly assessed at $ 2,744,300. An assessment value has only been discussed in the executive session. First Assistant Town Attorney Tom Larosa said that the assessment is exempt from disclosure under the law on the State of Public Records, although as councilors wanted to, they could refrain from the exclusion – but this should first be done in the executive session.
Clyburn said that the city would start negotiations with an assessment value, of which he said it is “considerably more” than the assessment value.
An 'investment in the future of Barnstable'
For many, such as resident Cliff Carroll, comes the potential to preserve Hyannis Harbor as a community active, once in a life and is a vision that is worth striving to pursue public access to the waterfront, can prevent overdevelopment and illuminate the pressure around Ocean Street that is involved in the Related Traffic of the Dockid.
By buying the country, he argued, the city could ensure that the waterfront can preserve the preservation of the waterfront and prevent it from being sold to private developers who can give priority to commercial interests over the welfare of the community. “
The city may be eligible for important subsidies
If the city is progressing, this financing could investigate through state and federal subsidies that would not be available for properties in private ownership. This can include the Massachusetts Seaport Economic Grant program and subsidies for municipal vulnerability, which can help with the recovery and tackling of sustainability in the long term of the infrastructure by strengthening the area against serious weather and at sea level increase.
Clyburn noted that a “robust public process” would be part of determining the long -term vision for the site.
Heather McCarron writes about climate change, environment, energy, science and the natural world, in addition to news and functions in Barnstable and Brewster. Reach her at [email protected].
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Barnstable goes a step forward when buying a yard, but there were questions to
