St. Pierre family sells site of planned 248-unit Shrewsbury development for $2M
Photo | Grant Welker
440 Hartford Turnpike in Shrewsbury
Photo | Grant Welker
526 Hartford Turnpike in Shrewsbury
Photo | Courtesy | Town of Shrewsbury
A rendering of the planned Pointe at Hills Farm in Shrewsbury
Photo | Courtesy | Town of Shrewsbury
An aerial plan for The Point at Hills Farm shows 440 Boston Turnpike at left in a first phase and 526 Boston Turnpike at right in a second phase.
A site spanning more than 10 acres that's sat undeveloped on Route 20 in Shrewsbury while a housing development has been planned there for years has sold for $2 million to a Boston development firm.
The site at 440 Hartford Turnpike has been proposed as part of a 248-unit development known as The Pointe at Hills Farm in what's largely an industrial stretch of town. The project first went before town officials for permitting approval in 2015.
Plans call for four three-story buildings to include 39 units each, centered around a small park and a 9,300-square-foot common clubhouse. A separate portion a few parcels to the north would include more buildings and green space in a second phase.
In all, 186 units are slated to be market-rate and the remaining 62 set aside under affordability restrictions. The development is a proposed so-called 40B project, its name a reference to the state law allowing developers to build more densely than they'd be able to otherwise if they include affordable units in communities without enough affordable housing stock. The Shrewsbury Zoning Board of Appeals gave approval in 2016.
The number of planned units has varied throughout the permitting approvals process, from between 248 and 300 units, but the Zoning Board of Appeals ultimately ruled on a plan with 248 units.
The new site owner, Boston development firm GFI Partners, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment Monday on The Pointe at Hills Farm development.
The stretch of Route 20 in Shrewsbury is due to face larger changes in the years ahead, with work underway less than 2 miles away on the Edgemere Crossing at Flint Pond retail and housing development, and a number of existing commercial and industrial site advertised for development opportunity.
The St. Pierre family owned 440 Hartford Turnpike for more than 70 years, according to planning documents. The site was last assessed by the Town of Shrewsbury at $967,400. The Hartford Realty Trust still owns the smaller of the two properties where The Pointe at Hills Farm is proposed, a nine-acre site at 526 Hartford Turnpike.
Both vacant sites had been listed for sale for at least a decade.
The sale of the 440 Hartford Turnpike, which closed Feb. 12, gives GFI Partners the latest addition to its Central Massachusetts portfolio. GFI Partners bought the site from the Hartford Realty Trust of Shrewsbury and trustees Robert and Roderick St. Pierre.
Last spring, GFI Partners bought the former A. Schulman Inc. manufacturing plant at 53 Millbrook St. in Worcester, a site closed in 2019 when the company was bought by the chemicals firm LyondellBasell. Worcester manufacturer Polar Beverages signed a lease last November to occupy the nearly 100,000-square-foot space as an expansion of its production capacity in and around Worcester.
GFI Partners has also bought in the past two-plus years Worcester Sand & Gravel's site off Route 170 in Shrewsbury for $7.5 million, Simonds Saw's 135 Intervale Road facility in Fitchburg for $5.6 million, a 168,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 5 Cudworth Road in Webster for nearly $6 million, and a 45,000-square-foot warehouse at 12 Industrial Drive in Sterling for just over $2 million. It also owns 150 Blackstone River Road, a 600,000-square-foot warehouse in Worcester.
The firm has unloaded some area properties in the past few years, including a Quiet Logistics facility in Devens, the former AMSC headquarters, for $36.7 million, and a 147,000-square-foot distribution facility in West Boylston for $10.6 million.
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