Beverly Mulls Former Family Dollar Store's Future After Temporary City Hall Reversal

BEVERLY, MA — Beverly will host a public meeting to discuss the future of the former Family Dollar building on Cabot Street more than two years after the city spent $8 million in a "friendly taking" of the lot with hopes it could act as the temporary home of City Hall during an anticipated two-year renovation.

The meeting is set for Tuesday at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. Residents and business owners are encouraged to attend the meeting and share their input and vision for "this building in the heart of our hometown."

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Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill said in June that the exploration of moving staff to the former Family Dollar location — which the city purchased for $8 million along with the adjacent parking lot two years ago — proved infeasible with a price tag of about $2 million.

"We've already been looking around and inquiring just to get a sense of cost," Cahill said at the time of other temporary City Hall locations. "Our preference would be to try to stay in the downtown. That's been the preference all along. If that's not possible, we'll have to look a little farther out to some of the industrial space.

"Hopefully, it won't come to that."

The Beverly City Council in 2023 backed Cahill's proposal to borrow $6 million and use $2 million in so-called "free cash" (surplus tax funds) to purchase the building and lots that would preserve more than 100 downtown parking spaces. He said at the time that the "friendly taking" of the property would effectively block a planned five-story, 113-unit housing complex.

The plan, as outlined two years ago, was for the city to use the former store location as the temporary home of City Hall during the renovation and then look to sell or redevelop the property into preferred mixed-use and affordable housing once municipal employees moved back to the renovated City Hall.

Cahill said in 2023 that the $8 million spent on the purchases could be recouped by selling the property to an affordable housing developer.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)