Home project a model for city
City leaders hope their efforts developing a small residential lot on Ten Eyck Street can be duplicated on a larger vacant lot sandwiched between North Pleasant Street and California Avenue.
Thursday morning, a small contingent of Advantage Watertown committee members toured the home being built at 122 Ten Eyck St. by Neighbors of Watertown.
The agency has worked with the city and a lending agency to finance the project and plans eventually to sell the home with the hope of turning a profit.
Reginald J. Schweitzer, deputy director of Neighbors, said the two-story, three-bedroom house being built at 122 Ten Eyck St. will be complete in about two weeks.
"The floors will be put in at the end of this week and beginning next week," he said. "That will make a huge difference."
The 1,600-square-foot house is being built on a site that was once occupied by a concrete tenement. The apartment building was razed and the property was taken by the city in 2004 for back taxes.
City Hall is hoping that any success seen from the Ten Eyck Street project will be a sign of good fortune for the former Ogilvie Foods site off North Pleasant Street.
The roughly 5-acre site is now overgrown with small plants and is covered in "shock rock," unscreened rock blasted from local quarries used to cover the cement remains of the plant, including the plant's foundation.
In April, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency brownfield program promised $200,000 to remove about 950 cubic yards of petroleum-laced soil located on the northeast corner of the site.
"We'll spend the next year working on the cleanup and we'll focus on development after that," City Planning and Community Development Coordinator Kenneth A. Mix said.
Outside the Ten Eyck Street home, Advantage Watertown members discussed what type of development would best fit the Ogilvie site.
"It's wide open at this point," Mr. Mix said. "No one has decided what type of development to put there other than that there's a need for residential development."
Redeveloping the Ogilvie site could also mean the city will work with Neighbors again.
Mr. Schweitzer said Neighbors would like to build more houses around the city, using the Ten Eyck Street property as a model.
"If we can get the price down a little, we'll have something we can work with," he said.
Mr. Schweitzer said an open house will be held shortly after construction is complete. He requested that anyone interested in a tour of the home should call Neighbors at 782-8497.
The agency would develop vacant lots in the city and sell the homes at a target price of about $160,000, he said.
