COUNTY

Waterfront committee approves term-sheet agreement

Agreement provides framework for a detailed development contract

Brian Early
bearly@seacoastonline.com
Dana Lynch, left, and Steve Bird meet prior to presenting the term-sheet agreement that Dover's Cochecho Waterfront Development Advisory Committee approved later Tuesday concerning the waterfront project.[Deb Cram/Fosters.com]

DOVER — Dana Lynch keeps a copy of a page of the Pacific Mills master plan from 1984 that includes a blurb about the city-owned land by the Cocheco River that called for redevelopment by private enterprise.

The land “owned by the city of Dover on the east side of the Cocheco represents the most dramatic opportunity to change the role of Dover’s downtown in the regional economy. This tract of land close to the heart of downtown holds one of the few chances for a new, quality, water-oriented, mixed-use development at an urban density in the Seacoast region,” the blurb states.

He keeps the page as a reminder the development of the waterfront is a step-by-step process, which Lynch has been watching for decades. For a good chunk of that time, he’s been helping to steer the direction of the development as a member of the Cochecho Waterfront Development Advisory Committee, which he currently chairs, and its predecessors.

The process took another step Tuesday evening when CWDAC voted to approve the term-sheet agreement between the city and CWDAC’s preferred developer of the 29-acre waterfront parcel, Cathartes on a 10-1 vote, with member Sean Fitzgerald casting the lone vote against the term sheet agreement citing the lack of required commercial space in the agreement. Member Kyle Pimental was absent.

CWDAC's vote is just one of many more steps that need to be completed before any work can begin. The Dover Housing Authority, which oversees CWDAC, still needs to approve the agreement. If it does, then it goes to the City Council for approval. And if the council approves it, the city and Cathartes can begin hammering out a detailed development agreement that spells out how Cathartes would develop the land and the process of how the city would sell the property to the Boston-based firm. The development agreement would include a detailed concept plan for the site.

“For me, it’s been a long, methodical, creative process,” Lynch said. “For us to have a term sheet with Cathartes means that we are in a phase where we’ll start to see some serious plans with the first phase of development,” Lynch said in an interview.

The CWDAC met Tuesday afternoon and spent about the first 45 minutes in a non-public session to discuss the agreement. When the committee came back to the public meeting, there was no open discussion from any of the voting members, save for Fitzgerald who informed the board why he was voting no.

According to the agreement, there will be approximately 25,000 square feet of street-level commercial space of about 500,000 square feet of development or about 5 percent.

The agreement calls for roughly 475 units that could either be multi-family residential units and/or hotel rooms. The commercial aspects include office, retail, restaurant, hotel and/or banquet facilities, according to the term-sheet agreement. The development agreement and concept plan would spell in more detail what is expected as part of the deal for the city to sell the land to Cathartes for nearly $3.4 million.

Construction at the site would be broken into at least two phases. The first phase comes with a guaranteed tax assessment value of $15 million that would be assessed 18 months after the city issues the certificate of occupancy, according to the term-sheet agreement.

Jeff Johnston, a partner at Cathartes, said he envisions the first phase as residential units where the Dover Skate Park and the bluff are now, which would overlook Henry Law Park. He said that would allow the city to complete its improvements on the north side of the property. The second phase would be on the north side of Washington, which is closer to the Cocheco River, where Johnston envisions a hotel and townhouses.

The city is tasked with finishing the excavation of the bluff that is underway. It is also tasked with raising the elevation of the project site to plan for sea level rise, complete the shoreline stabilization, create the public park along the waterfront and build out the street with utilities. This work would be paid for through the Waterfront Tax Increment Finance District, which has $6.6 million appropriated, according to the city.

The timeline envisioned by the term-sheet agreement allows for Cathartes to do its due diligence on the site by Sept. 30, which is also the deadline of when the more detailed development agreement is anticipated. Cathartes is to submit plans to the Planning Board for the first phase of the project by Dec. 31 of this year and construction is to begin by March 31, 2021. But that is also dependent on the city getting the necessary permits and completing its part of the project.