West Foster Building To Be Demolished

The building at 40-46 West Foster St. will be demolished as part of TD Bank's plans for a new branch in the adjacent former MASSBank building, according to Melrose City Planner Denise Gaffey.

In place of the building — which is owned by the same person who owns the MASSBank building and is leasing both to TD Bank — TD Bank plans to construct two-drive through kiosks and an extended parking lot for the new TD Bank branch at 476 Main St., Gaffey said.

"They have all their permitting in place," she said. "There's a dumpster there and they're doing some work … in the back building. I believe there's asebetos removal issue. They are maybe just scoping out that piece of the project at the moment."

Three business were located in the 40-46 West Foster St. building: Melrose Family Chiropractic and Sports Injury Centre has already moved to 653 Main St. in Melrose, and Gaffey said that the law offices of Waystack and Kirby is in the process of moving to a temporary location.

"(Waystack and Kirby) is moving to the bank addition," she said. "They're carving some space for his office in the bank building."

A spokesperson for the Folk Arts Center of New England, which is the third office located in the to-be-demolished West Foster Street building, could not be reached for comment.

Gaffey said that TD Bank has "pretty ambitious" plans for the MASSBank building.

"They are making a fair amount of interior modifications to the bank," she said. "Nothing radical — just to create the layout the way they want to."

The MASSBank building was vacated after Eastern Bank bought MASSBank in 2008.