ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Gov. Charlie Baker announces a MassWorks grant of $3.63 million to build 220 apartment units and a 132-unit hotel. Behind him are State Sen. Joseph Boncore on left and Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo.
Revere got its moment under the bright lights on Wednesday when Gov. Baker and Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo, the man who is at least Baker’s equal in wielding political power in the state, came to town.
Baker and DeLeo came to Revere to announce a state MassWorks grant to pay for local infrastructure work. Infrastructure is one of those technical-sounding words and the work the grant will pay for is decidedly mundane: Water and Sewer pipes, sidewalks and traffic signal improvements are typical MassWorks projects.
The money announced by the governor and the speaker represents just the most recent state investment in Revere. When the city moved forward with supporting the giant Eurovest residential and hotel construction proposal under former Mayor Thomas Ambrosino’s administration, the state quickly responded by building a large parking garage on North Shore Road and building a pedestrian bridge to Wonderland Blue Line station.
In the 10 years since the Eurovest mega development was first proposed, Revere Beach has blossomed into a commercial renaissance focal point for a city that counts a pristine, well-tended beachfront as one of its prime assets.
Former governors Mitt Romney and Deval Patrick bought into the notion that development oriented around transit stations like Wonderland makes economic sense. In Revere’s case, private and public visionaries saw how parking lots located between the Blue Line tracks and Ocean Avenue could become residential high-rises and hotels.
These visions are coming to fruition with construction along Ocean Avenue and continued state support in the form of MassWorks spending.
The city has benefited from three governors taking an interest in its fortunes. But it is DeLeo who quietly and consistently has been the city’s benefactor.
His abiding interest in beachfront development has been matched by a commitment to ensure the city has a top-flight school system. Five new schools have been built in Revere since 2006. Thanks to DeLeo, the city can point to modern schools and burgeoning development in its bid to attract new residents.
The bigger question for Revere now that construction is well underway is how will beachfront development send an economic ripple spreading out across the city. Is money spent along the beach for development a revenue source to help improve neighborhoods located around nearby Shirley Avenue?
Is construction along the beach the spark required to ignite development planning for the former Wonderland Greyhound Park site and land around Suffolk Downs race track?
Eurovest planners allowed local imaginations to run wild with visions of beachside development jumping across North Shore Road to give the crumbling dog park a new life as a development complex.
Similar visions emerged for Suffolk Downs only to fade to a glimmer after the city’s bid for a local casino collapsed.
The Baker administration takes a practical approach to spurring development by paying for nuts and bolts work like roads and sewer pipes. This infrastructure spending helps private projects get off the ground and become a success.