NEW BEDFORD – After an extended bidding process, the city yesterday announced it has selected Dickinson Development of Quincy, Mass., to develop the Fairhaven Mills project.
New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang said the city has accepted Dickinson’s $500,000 bid for a 6-acre city-owned parcel that includes one former mill building, as well as the developer’s vision for the property.
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Dickinson envisions a project driven by retail, with the potential for more mixed use, in the full 14-acre site that fronts Interstate 195 and the Acushnet River. As currently configured, the project will not require any funding from the state or the city.
Construction is expected to begin in early 2008.
“I am pleased that the city has reached an agreement with a development team that will infuse new life into the site,” Lang said in a statement. The bid “offers a fair purchase price for our property, and most importantly … we have done so in an open process with much public involvement.”
Dickinson Development had been in a two-partty race for the site, according to the mayor’s office, and beat out rival Mitchell Sawyer Partnership. Both bids for the site were submitted in November.
During negotiations, Dickinson upped its ante for the site from $200,000 to $500,000, and agreed to develop the property in a “mixed-use” way, adding a $100,000 boathouse, a waterfront park and a pedestrian walkway.
