A former representative of E.A. Fish who now has his own development company is said to be a bidder on the long-stalled project at what once was Symmes Hospital and has been reaching out to Arlington neighbors.

A source says Jake Upton, who fronted for Fish when that Braintree company was the developer for Symmes, has submitted a bid after efforts by JPI to get a new developer fell through this fall. Details about the bid made to PNC Bank, formerly National City Bank, could not be learned. Upton, of Upton Partners LLC, did not respond to a request for comment.

Town Planning Director Carol Kowalski wrote in an e-mail Dec. 2: "There is no buyer yet, but JPI/the bank are accepting offers from two or three parties."

Michele Barry, chair of the Symmes Neighborhood Advisory Committee (SNAC), said she met recently with Upton and provided this information:

"I did meet with Jake Upton, who as you probably know may be interested in buying the Symmes site. His main goal, with which I agree, is if he can get the right deal struck, he wants to have meetings with the neighbors, the ARB, the BoS, and others very early.

"He believes that with collaborative town support, greater flexibility on quality of life elements of the project, and an updated plan to make it work economically, it could be a very successful project. I believe that such collaboration will be necessary for any developer, including Jake."

Barry offered words of caution and comments reflecting neighbors' views. The project has been on hold since the summer of 2008, when financing fell through. JPI, the current developer, brought hope to the Redevelopment Board starting in late August with the promise of fresh financing and a new builder, but that deal did not survive.

"Obviously, the economics of the site need to work for him and any other developer," Barry wrote.

"I shared what in essence is a neighborhood perspective: we are tired of living near a wasteland; we need an outcome that provides revenue to the town to cover the impact on the services such a site would demand; we view the NPP [Neighborhood Protection Plan] and the LDA [Land Disposition Agreement] as worse-case options and would prefer both better construction behavior than the NPP and a better outcome than the LDA.

"By better outcome, we mean things like less density, careful placement of lighting, careful/thoughtful placement of any fencing, a park that is a usable park in which kids could play and not the center of a traffic circle, community access to any park/playground/other amenity (i.e. no gated community), thoughtful replacement of the trees cut down by JPI."

In addition, Barry attended the Nov. 23 Redevelopment Board meeting and provided this summary:

"In a nutshell, a small, unofficial, ad hoc-type group has been meeting with JPI reps Tom O'Brien and Jim Duncan in an effort to stay in touch during daytime hours with JPI's continued efforts to find a buyer for the Symmes site/project."

She said group includes Kowalski, Redevelopment Board member Bruce Fitzsimmons, Town Manager Brian Sullivan, former Planning Director Kevin O'Brien and sometimes Juliana Rice, the town counsel. Thomas N. O'Brien is a vice president for JPI; Duncan is divisional senior vice president and operating partner at JPI.

"Recently," she continued, "that group also met with JPI's contact at PNC Bank, which holds the mortgage. From what Carol and Bruce observed, the main purpose of this meeting seemed to be for JPI to show PNC Bank that the town does indeed want this project to happen.

"The upshot of all of the activity is that Tom indicated that JPI had received written offers (he doesn't seem to have used LOI [letter of intent] language, so it's unclear how firm these offers are). In a nutshell, PNC Bank holds a $16 million note and indicated some openness to releasing the mortgage if the new party would both pay some amount (possibly $5 million) and assume JPI's vendor obligations to subs and other contractors. PNC Bank also indicated a desire for a transaction to happen quickly, closing by March 31, 2010.

 "Obviously, as no deal has been struck as of last night [Nov. 23] as far as anyone knew, exact numbers and dates don't exist for such a deal.

"It also isn't clear whether PNC Bank would take the hit for the difference between the $16 million and whatever they get or if they'd go after SRA [Symmes Redevelopment Associates] for that difference (if there's anything left of SRA to pursue).

"... SRA is mostly JPI, a little E.A. Fish, and possible other investors that JPI brought in (but I don't know for sure if they brought investors into SRA, or how they structured their financing). Because the property is under water (meaning the note of $16 million is far greater than the market value of the property), foreclosure isn't in PNC Bank's best interest, because they can't turn the property around and make their money back that way."

Barry listed four other items that the board discussed Nov. 23:

1. That JPI, PNC Bank, and any new developer would ultimately have to come to the Redevelopment Board for any actual town decision about the site;

2. The desire to get the Symmes project moving again;

3. Reiteration of some willingness to be flexible within reason in working with a developer, at which point the board also indicated the desire to have the  SNAC engaged with any developer, too, so as to ensure that the neighbors are involved; and

4. An environmental issue on the site stemming from damage to monitoring wells during demolition in the winter of 2008: JPI didn't or couldn't repair the wells; the town did some repair from a budget line for Symmes.

In response to a question from YourArlington, Kowalski wrote Dec. 2:

"The Symmes remediation fund was used to restore the monitoring wells, on the advice of our outside environmental legal counsel. We have not received an invoice yet, but the estimate was less than $10,000, and we expect JPI to repay the fund."

Barry concluded her summary:

"Really, until a credible buyer surfaces, there isn't going to be much else to talk about with Symmes, though it is a pretty regular ARB agenda item lately."

JPI faces a Dec. 15 deadline, the latest of many deadlines, to secure financing or a new developer. No new deal is expected by the, and board member foresee extending the deadline again.

This story was published at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009.