The redevelopment area spans 14 acres and includes several parcels, some of which are currently owned by the town.
A group of residents want Westfield officials to put the brakes on a plan to redevelop the former Lord & Taylor and several adjoining properties for office, residential and retail uses.by HBC, the owner of the former Lord & Taylor site, and its real estate arm, Streetworks Development.
One Westfield Place would be a mixed-use, transit-oriented development that would occupy several sites along the railway. The proposed development includes 138 apartments and 16 townhomes for those 55 and older, 16 non age-restricted townhomes, and 35 loft-style apartments. The proposal also includes turning the Lord & Taylor building into 100,000-square-feet of office space and more than 13,000-square-feet of street-level retail. Along South Avenue, immediately east of the train station, two mass timber buildings would comprise 210,000-square-feet of Class-A office space and 12,000-square-feet of street-level retail., the developer has previously stated.to the plan based on feedback from the public, including building 18 fewer residential units, reducing an office building from 75 to 65 feet, and making improvements to public spaces, traffic and parking. Frank Fusaro, president of Westfield Advocates for Responsible Development, still feels that the project is too big and moving too quickly. “I get phone calls and emails every day from people saying ‘we didn’t know this and that,’” he said. “We’re asking for additional time. Let’s slow this down and let everyone digest what’s going on so we can discuss what people want and don’t want.”that has more than 1,800 signatures. The population of Westfield is about 30,700, according to U.S. Census data. Mayor Shelley Brindle has said that Westfield’s downtown has suffered with the shift to online shopping. “While other towns were reinventing themselves,” Brindle said, “we got hit particularly hard. National chain stores that generate a lot of traffic were closing.” When Westfield was working on its Master Plan in 2018 and 2019, it realized that Lord & Taylor wasn’t going to be there forever and invited HBC into the process, she said. “[We} wanted to make sure the town had a seat at the table .. to help drive the outcome of what’s going to happen there,” Brindle said. “And we didn’t have the panic of them closing during pandemic, because we knew we were already on the journey of figuring it out.” The Master Plan that was adopted in 2019 was an instructional manual, she said, not just for Streetworks but for anyone who would be investing in the town. Carla Bonacci, a member of Westfield Advocates for Responsible Development, said if the town had brought the public into discussions back then, it would’ve been better community engagement. “A small select group of people were the community who got to engage and define this complex,” she said. “That’s why we are where we are.” Westfield Advocates for Responsible Development is also concerned about the PILOT payments for the project. The Lord & Taylor property currently pays about $558,900 in property taxes per year, Brindle said. The municipality gets about 16% of that, which is about $90,000. The school district gets 60% and the county gets 24%. Under the proposed PILOT, the municipality will get about 95% and the county will get 5%. That will equate to about $200 million in PILOT revenues for the town over 30 years, or about $6.6 million per year, the mayor said. Fusaro has lived in Westfield for 57 years, went through the school system and so did his five children, he said. “Westfield has one of best school systems in the state, he said. “None of the PILOT money is guaranteed to be used for schools. It’s at the discretion of powers that be in town – for the next 30 years.” He also noted that $73 million of the PILOT money will be used to pay the debt service on the bonds the town has to take out for the beautification of the public areas.The Westfield Town Council is scheduled to vote Jan. 31 on the introduction of an ordinance that would move the development plan forward. The Planning Board would then make a recommendation to the council on whether it adheres to the town’s master plan. And then the council would vote Feb. 14 for approval of the redevelopment ordinance. If the plan clears those hurdles it would then have to go before the planning board for site plan approval – where things like architectural design and building materials would be discussed.“There is often times opposition to any new project,” she said, adding that she has gotten compliments from officials in larger cities and others about how transparent this redevelopment process has been. “Everything is about compromise,” Brindle said. “As public officials we have an obligation to look out for the long term interests of the community and make sure we’re set up for success.” Westfield has lost about 2,000 jobs since 2015, she said. The development is expected to add back about 1,300 jobs, she said. The development would also take some of the property tax burden off residents, which currently comprise about 90% of the tax base, Brindle said.
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