Representatives of Timber Ridge Homes of Long Island are in discussions with JPI to become the developers of the long-stalled project at the site of the former Symmes Hospital, the Redevelopment Board was told Monday, Jan. 4. The board has received no formal or informal plans.

Carol Kowalski, town planning director, confirmed Jan. 5 that Thomas N. O'Brien, an executive with current developer JPI, said the two companies are in talks with each other and with mortgage holder PNC Bank and are operating under a letter of intent.

Dec. 20, 2009: Redevelopment Board's letter spells out terms to potential Symmes developers

The potential builder is discussing a townhouse development, which would be all condos and no apartments, Kowalski said. In addition, two large buildings on top of the hill would be replaced by townhouses, she said O'Brien told the board.

Further details could not be learned. O'Brien and a representative for Timber Ridge, headquartered in Medford, N.Y., did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Word of these discussions came after the Redevelopment Board in December sent a letter to PNC Bank making explicit the terms of a deal to develop the Symmes site. The letter of Dec. 10 was sent after potential developers, seeking to take over from JPI, backed out last fall.

The letter says, in part: "The Town would like to see as much condo development as financially feasible. A developer interested only in rental units would not be consistent with the Town's goals for this project."

The letter to PNC Bank was written following reports that Jake Upton, a former representative of E.A. Fish who now has his own development company, was reported to be a bidder on the Symmes project. 

Michele Barry, chair of the Symmes Neighborhood Advisory Committee (SNAC), said in November that PNC Bank, which holds the $16 million note on the Symmes project, has indicated some openness to releasing the mortgage if a new developer would pay an amount, perhaps $5 million, and assume JPI's vendor obligations to subcontractors. She said PNC Bank also indicated a desire for a transaction to close by March 31.

Meanwhile, Town Treasurer Stephen Gilligan said he received competitive bids from bond underwriters in December for a $5,262,000, 12-year bond issue. Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. submitted the winning bid on the bonds with an average interest rate of 2.386%. The town received a total of five bids on the bonds. Proceeds of these bonds will be used to finance the town’s share of the Symmes urban-renewal project.

Prior to the sale, Standard and Poor’s Ratings Group, a municipal bond credit rating agency, affirmed the Town’s AAA bond rating, the highest rating attainable.  The rating agency cited the Town’s extremely strong market value, low debt burden, good debt management, sound financial position and good management policies as positive credit factors.

The town will not need to make payments on the bonds until later this year, Gilligan said.

The history of the town's role in trying to develop the Symmes site dates to early 2001, when officials, including then-Selectmen Charles Lyons urged the town to buy the 18 acres. In the spring of that year, voters supported that plan. Voting yes were 4,441; 2,476 voted no.

The binding ballot question said:

"Shall the Town of Arlington be allowed to exempt from the provisions of Proposition two and one-half, so called, the amounts required to pay for the bond issue in order to acquire the Symmes Hospital site and to renovate the buildings thereon?"

Soon after E.A. Fish of Braintree bought the property from the town in June 2007, the company sold the property and its special permit to build 200 units of housing to JPI of Southborough.

After demolishing the hospital buildings in February 2008, JPI lost its $60 million construction loan the following summer and has not made property tax payments, which stood at $123,000 last summer.

This story was first published at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2009.