Hawthorne Reuse Committee Recommends Demolishing Restaurant, Mixed-Used Development

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — The 12-member committee charged with coming up with potential future uses of the town-owned Hawthorne property in the wake of this week's permanent closure of the restaurant presented a report to the Select Board that recommends demolishing the current restaurant building and redeveloping the property with a courtyard of mixed retail buildings along Humphrey Street and an oceanfront part accessible to the public along the shoreline.

The recommendations include proposing to potential developers a desire for two- or three-story buildings that include retail on the bottom floor and potentially residential units on the upper floors. Reuse Committee Chair Brian Watson told the Select Board on Wednesday night that the recommendations in the report were the result of 16 months of research and securing public opinion on the future of the site that the town purchased from the Athanas family for $7 million in 2022.

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The restaurant on the site continued to operate seasonally until it closed for good this past weekend.

While some have indicated the desire to have a new restaurateur operate in the current building, utilizing the current parking lot that has 110 spaces, Watson said the Committee was overwhelmingly against that concept both short-term and long-term as an impediment to a comprehensive redevelopment that satisfies as many of the objectives as possible voiced by residents during the Committee's work.

"This group, who have strong opinions and differ wildly on many of the aspects of this project, unanimously felt that leaving the Hawthorne Restaurant loses when you submit it to the filters that we know are important," he said. "Including, and most of all, the financial end result of what goes there. That's a significant factor.

"Out of the 550 responses that people sent us, maybe 10 ... maybe 10 ... said: 'Leave the restaurant.'"

Watson proposed that the $800,000 estimated demolition fee could be negotiated as part of the development agreement.

Select Board members did question the potential for residential units to be part of the property after residents expressed a desire for that not to happen when town meeting members originally voted in favor of the purchase three years ago.

Watson said the Committee did not find that same opposition during its research three years later but allowed that there likely "won't be too many thrilled developers" eager to bid on a project that does not include some residential component.

One proposed configuration of mixed retail and open space is here:

He said the Committee also ultimately decided against recommending a plan that would be entirely an open-space park with a price tag of $8 million to $9 million given the town's current financial forecasts and need for commercial tax revenue.

He said a development of two-story buildings could bring in about $250,000 in annual property taxes, with that number rising to $350,000 if three-story buildings were allowed.

The Select Board accepted the report — which, essentially, wraps up the work of the Reuse Committee, and will now move forward as a Board to determine next steps in the site's development or sale.

(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.)