Peabody Planting Seeds to Help Route 1 Prosper

Ward 5 City Councilor Dave Gamache is proud of his unofficial title, the "Mayor of Route 1."

He has lived and served many constituents in this area for 22 years and he and his colleagues at City Hall have worked hard over that time to help Peabody's 2.8-mile stretch of the state highway transition from a collection of boarded up motels and restaurants to a place of vibrant business again.

"We've done a lot on Route 1. Are we done yet? I don't think we are," he said.

Several projects are in the works and others are in the pipeline that will soon displace the remains of the former Carriage House Motel, Country Side Motel and the former Bel-Aire Diner.

, such as Red's Kitchen and Tavern, an 8,000-square foot development owned by John Drivas, owners of Red's Sandwich Shoppe in Salem, are being constructed behind the former diner. Less than 100 feet away, JRM Hauling and Recycling Services is waiting to build a new state-of-the-art recycling facility on the site of the former Carriage House Motel.

The recycling firm has to wait until two lawsuits filed by the company that owns the adjacent Dunkin' Donuts restaurant on Route 1 North, SKM LLC of North Reading, are adjudicated by the Massachusetts Land Court in Boston.

Across the divided highway, several real estate companies that own portions of a 20-acre commercial and residentially zoned lot at the former Country Side Motel are waiting in the wings to bring new businesses there. A large strip mall that would house several retailers and eateries is one potential reuse of that property.

"We're trying to move with the times and bring in good businesses," Gamache said.

He believes began in earnest in the early 1990s when the city rezoned the area as a designated development district from a business highway use. This allowed businesses that came afterward, such as the Spring Hill Suites hotel,  , the and to be built at the site of the former Green Apple nightclub, the Bellevue Motel and the North Shore Plaza Motel on Route One North.

He said the city wanted to see new hotels developed so they could capture business generated by large conventions that need plenty of rooms. The golden triangle, which consists of the confluence of Route 1, Route 128 and Interstate 95 allowed the city's Centennial Drive business park to be built very quickly.

Mayor Michael Bonfanti believes Peabody's location was very attractive to , which just opened its new facility at 10 Centennial Drive, and the located in back of the .

Besides the new businesses that are being developed, Peabody's rezoning efforts allowed a former junkyard on Route 1 South to become the site of the Lattitude Sports Club facility. The former Bennigan's restaurant, whose parent company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, became Santarpio's Pizza restaurant on Route One North.

restaurant also chose Peabody as its first Northeast location because it was drawn to the new hotels on Route 1 North and the estimated 95,000 motorists who travel the state highway each day.

Karen Sawyer, director of the city's Community Development and Planning Office, said the city hopes to rezone the Route 1 corridor and Route 114 corridor as business residential to create consistent zoning for the entire area. She believes the type of businesses that are replacing the former motels and restaurants show that Peabody is "trying to roll with the times while keeping our eyes on appropriate land use and adjacencies."

Gamache said one of the most difficult obstacles that has prevented Peabody from attracting an Olive Garden or a Red Lobster restaurant to the corridor is the fact that Route One is a divided highway. People cannot turn around and head in the opposite direction to access different businesses as they can in Saugus' portion of Route 1 to the south, he said.

Still, he likes where the city is headed.

Mayor Michael Bonfanti said the city would like to do even more to attract new businesses to the Route 1 corridor, but is limited by the tough economic climate.

For example, he said Peabody would like to invest $4.5 million to upgrade old water pipes that serve businesses on both sides of the state highway, but cannot because of a lack of federal grant funds. Bonfanti said the city had laid the groundwork for future development as best it can, but it cannot always predict what new businesses will develop there.

"It's not always what you dictate. It's what is willing to come in," Bonfanti said.