A property-rights fight has erupted in New Bedford over plans by the owner of the 104-year-old former Cliftex mill to demolish the building.
The City Council voted unanimously to allow the property owner, Edward Fitzsimmons, to proceed with demolition, but on June 25, Mayor Scott Lang vetoed the decision. On July 19, councilors will take a final vote on whether to override the veto and grant the demolition permit.
Fitzsimmons, who protested outside City Hall for three days following Lang’s veto, maintains that the city has no authority to deny him the permit.
Fitzsimmons likened himself to “David” fighting the “Goliath” city, and said he followed all the appropriate steps to get the permit, but was still denied.
“That is the bottom line to it all – it’s the private citizen’s right to his property,” Fitzsimmons said. “The way I feel is that the mayor, or any governing body, doesn’t have any right to tell any property owner what they can do with their property.”
In a letter to the councilors, Lang said the city shouldn’t rush to supply a demolition permit to a building that the New Bedford Historical Commission says is of historical value.
In New Bedford, any building older than 50 years must be reviewed by the commission before demolition.
“It is not prudent, and it is short-sighted, to attempt to find a quick remedy for an individual who may not have a comprehensive overview on the future vision or development plans for this section of the city,” Lang said.
Fitzsimmons said the building represents the oppression of mill workers, which isn’t a positive historical value.
For council Vice President David Alves, who voted to grant the permit, the issue isn’t whether to tear down the building. Rather, it’s about the resale value for Fitzsimmons, he said.
“What it does is give the owner a little more leverage in dealing with buyers,” Alves said. “A number of potential buyers were like vultures, swooping in to buy it because they thought he was going to go bankrupt.”
Fitzsimmons agreed, saying he isn’t determined to tear down the mill. He said he has three options – tearing the mill down, selling it or filing for bankruptcy.
“As of right now, I’m going forward with the demolition. But I’m open to any investors coming forward and saying they have another idea,” he said.
However, he’s been talking with a demolition crew that would pay him an undisclosed amount for the rights to the building’s materials.
Fitzsimmons would then sell the 5.6-acre vacant parcel – assessed at about $436,700 without the building’s value – for which he’s already found four interested developers, he said.
Since fiscal year 2003, the 300,000-square-foot mill building’s value has jumped about 53 percent – from $536,700 to $1,008,800, according to the city assessor’s office.
This year, Fitzsimmons’s property and building garnered about $32,000 in taxes, up about $7,000 from 2003, when Fitzsimmons bought the property. With rising energy costs, his monthly bills are getting to be too much, he said. So without the permit, he would likely file for bankruptcy.
“Basically, I told them that if they don’t let me take it down, I’m going to file for bankruptcy. Then the city will own it and can do whatever they want with it,” he said.
Selling prices of other former mills – such as Whaler’s Cove and Whaler’s Place, neighboring properties that have been renovated into luxury apartments – played a part in the boosted property value for the Cliftex mill, said Peter Barney, administrative assistant to the board of assessors.
“Mill buildings have been going up because we’ve been having some pretty good sales with that type of building,” he said.
For now, Fitzsimmons is looking forward to the July 19 vote and is being vocal in his response to the mayor’s veto.
“He’s been picketing City Hall, marching back and forth with a chest sign, making it known he’s unhappy with the mayor,” Alves said.
Fitzsimmons said his sign read, “What’s mine is mine … and Mayor Lang’s.”
“Every blade of grass that [the mayor] turns against me, I will be fighting him tooth and nail,” he said. “And I’ll be fighting to keep this in the public eye for as long as possible.”
