Enviromental Snag Puts C. Cowles Talks On Hold

The potential sale of an abandoned old Wooster Square factory has been put on hold not because pollution was found there —- but because it wasn’t found there.

The factory in question is the old C. Cowles & Co. plant on Water Street.

C. Cowles opened in 1838, initially making lanterns and other parts for horse-drawn carriages, then transitioning to car, truck and heating parts. The company moved over the past year to North Haven.

Developer Randy Salvatore has been in negotiations to buy the property and put up to 200 new apartments there. The neighborhood has largely embraced the plan.

But Salvatore has informed people in town that negotiations have been put on hold after he and C. Cowles owner Larry Moon reached an impasse over how to address potential environmental problems.

“I wanted to let people know that right now we had ceased our discussions. The seller wanted to go back and look at the numbers. I didn’t want people to think it’s moving forward,” Salvatore told the Independent Thursday.

“I wouldn’t say it’s 100 percent dead. There’s some environmental remediation on the poperty, no different from any other industrial property. It’s not deal-killing becuase of its size. It’s not deadly.”

The unresolved question, according to Salvatore: Who pays? And how much?

That said, Salvatore added, he remains ​“optimistic” that dialogue will resume.

Larry Moon expressed similar optimism about talks resuming.

He promised to ​“continue to talk to Randy as long as he wants to talk.”

Moon told the Independent that studies conducted to date as part of the negotiations have turned up no ​“exceedances” — no evidence of groundwater or soil pollution that would need to be cleaned up as part of a construction project. He said he understands that a developer buying a building needs to be prepared for costly future surprises like previously undetected environmental problems.

​“There’s just a dispute between what he wants to have for insurance and going forward and without what I consider the warranted amount of justification of what he’s found in the property,” Moon said. ” I wouldn’t say the deal’s totally falling apart. I told him I’d be more than willing to discuss with hiim different appraoches to risk-sharing in terms of going forward witih the deal.”

Wooster Square Aaron Greenberg said he ​“looks forward to working with whoever wants to develop” the property and ​“make the use compatible with the history and the present of the neighborhood.” Including Salvatore, if he hangs in. Greenberg praised the ​“great conversation” Salvatore had with the neighborhood.

Progress Seen In Hill

Meanwhile, Salvatore was upbeat about the turn of events surrounding another project he had been pursuing in a stretch of the Hill neighborhood near to downtown.

Salvatore negotiated with the city on a plan to put 140 apartments, 7,000 square feet of stores, 120,000 square feet of research space, and 50,000 square feet of offices on 20 acres bounded by Church Street South, Amistad Street, Cedar Street, Congress Avenue, College Street, and South Frontage Road. Officials hailed it as a profitable deal for the city, one that would also revive a neighborhood that was destroyed decades ago, on land that a previous developer had failed for more than two decades to build on.

But then some neighbors showed up to testify against hte plan at a public hearing, where the approval process for needed zoning changes was put on hold. Salvatore at the time said he was considering backign out of hte deal becuase he didn’t want to fight with neighbors.

Since then, a group called the Hill-to-Downtown Steering Committee has held three meetings to draft suggested changes to the plan that would meet with neighborhood approval. Salvatore said Thursday that he’s encouraged by that progress and expects to meet with the group to see if he can afford to make those changes and still build the project.

“It’s just wonderful that I’ll have someone to talk to,” Salvatore said. He said he can’t comment on specifics yet because he hasn’t met with the gorup to hear the suggestions. ​“I’m optimistic. It seems they’re showing urgency” to reach a deal.