The old Swampscott Police Station sits on Burrill Street, in the middle of a block that contains most of the town’s municipal buildings.
It has sat vacant since 2013, when the new headquarters on Humphrey Street were completed. Now, the town is actively engaged in trying to make a decision on how to use it.
“We are looking to breathe new life into the building,” said Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald. “It’s one of the key municipal buildings in the town, across from the library, Town Hall, fire station and Reach Arts, so it has a ton of potential to be something extraordinary. It’s been mothballed for too long, and the town is looking for the right partner who has a vision and a can-do idea that will support our master plan.”
The master plan includes goals, policies and strategies on topics ranging from housing, economic development, historic and cultural resources, open space/recreation and transportation, according to the Planning Department.
Toward that end, the Select Board discussed results from a Request for Information (RFI) proposal at a meeting earlier this month.
“What we were looking for was to see if there’s any interest out there,” said Fitzgerald. “There may be some great ideas out there. There may be a place for some nonprofits. This neighborhood is almost a campus, if you will, with all the municipal buildings on the street. There’s got to be some way this building can fit the needs of everyone around it.”
Fitzgerald is allowing himself to think big.
“What are the exciting ideas we could ponder?” he asked. “Maybe we could put some kind of a coffee shop there, or a store. That would really serve the needs of the people there. You can buy yourself a cup of coffee and go to the library to read. Or sit on a bench by the beach and read.
“It could be a good place for firefighters,” he said. “There are any one of a number of ideas that would germinate successfully. We want to reach out and get the best ideas. The town just doesn’t have the luxury of just holding onto the building.”
He concedes that there may be some work that needs to be done, and a lot of that depends on the ultimate decision on it.
“The building is definitely dated,” he said. “Certainly, there are different standards of code compliances, depending on who moves in there.”
The building is used basically for storage now. And it has its curious quirks.
“The (holding) cells in the basement are painted pink,” he said. “I guess that’s because there was some study that suggested a color like pink would make the prisoners calmer once they were down there. I don’t know.”
He rattled off possible uses, saying that it’s only himself speculating, and not anything official from the town.
“It could be a regional veterans’ center,” he said, “or it could be public health. Right now, we’re just trying to get the best ideas we can. Then, we’ll sit down and have a conversation about its future possibilities.”
Since the area is zoned for residences as well as municipal buildings, if there were to be a store or coffee shop in there the designation would have to change to include businesses.
“We may have to look at that,” he said, “but anything’s possible. You have all sorts of busy things happening in Swampscott, and wouldn’t it be nice if you could have something where you could just walk over and pick something up?
It could really add to the fabric of the community.”