The Select Board unanimously approved a motion to create a special purpose stabilization fund to eventually appropriate money for a VFW post at 89 Burrill St.

“To try to bring resolution to this long saga, hopefully it’s clear to everybody that’s paying attention that everybody wants better housing,” Select Board Vice Chair Doug Thompson said. “The major squabble we’ve been having all along is about the post and whether or not we fit it there somehow or if it needs to be somewhere else.”

Over the past few years, the town has focused on improving affordable housing for residents, with a focus on those over 55 years old and veterans. Swampscott is in the process of creating an affordable housing development at 12-24 Pine St. (acquired May 15, 2024) and the adjacent property at 10 New Ocean St. A land development and lease agreement was formed with B’nai Brith Housing. 

B’nai Brith’s proposals drew resistance from some Swampscott residents due to the affordable housing building’s intended height and if the VFW post were to remain at its location. 

In December of 2024, the Select Board had voted 3-1 to support the three-story housing building over the two pieces of land. This meant the VFW post would need to relocate.

In March of 2025, a special Town Meeting was held to discuss the VFW post. The failed warrant had proposed revoking the Select Board’s previously granted authority to sell or lease the properties at 10 New Ocean St. and 12–24 Pine St.

The proposed Veterans Crossing project includes 41 one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments, each approximately 600 sq. ft, according to a presentation by Senior Project Manager Holly Grace. The apartment layouts include full kitchens with dishwashers.

“Assuming all goes well, the town will get a rental payment of $1.54 million for letting them use that property for 99 years,” Thompson said. “That would come at closing.”

Thompson’s proposal, in front of the Select Board on Tuesday, was for the board to commit the $1.5 million, which the town will be receiving later from the rental payment, “to ensure that the post actually gets built right in a very modern, fully ADA, as best as possible way.”

“The idea here is let’s put our money where our mouth is and make sure that we’re actually going to be true to the vets and really move the post and really deliver to them a post that’s appropriate and usable and in good modern condition,” Thompson said.

Thompson and Select Board Chair Katie Phelan met with interim Town Administrator Gino Cresta and town counsel prior to the Tuesday meeting. Cresta and town counsel outlined two options for moving forward.

“First is when the money comes in, it goes to into a separate account called ‘proceeds of sale of real estate account,’ and then after that Town Meeting would appropriate those funds to the actual rehab of the building,” Thompson said.

If that path was chosen by the Select Board, the Town Meeting vote would have to be majority in favor of the appropriation of the funds. Town Meeting’s approval would not be needed to put the proceeds into the account at the start, however.

Thompson noted the drawback to this option is the uncertain timeline, saying, “who knows who’s around and what they remember.”

“There’s a little bit of vagueness there of whether those monies definitely get spent on the post,” Thompson said.

Select Board Member Danielle Leonard had suggested a memorandum of understanding, but Phelan noted that the funds would still have to approve the spending of the money.

“The other option is that we create a special purpose stabilization fund that would be very specific to 89 Burrill,” Thompson said. “In this situation, at this upcoming Town Meeting, before we get the funds at all, we would create that special purpose stabilization fund. There wouldn’t be any money in it, but it would be dedicated to 89 Burrill.”

The Burrill Street property is the former location of ReachArts and is the new planned house for the VFW post.

Once the funds come, with this second plan, an additional vote would still have to be taken to appropriate the money.

“The funds couldn’t get spent for another reason,” Phelan said.

Thompson recommended that the board choose the second option because the stabilization fund would ensure “you could always extract” the money at some point with a vote, even if it’s not approved in the first Town Meeting. 

Phelan added that this proposal would allow the Select Board to “take action on the commitments we make and not just make them words.”

“We did make a commitment to the veterans,” Select Board Member David Grishman said. “This board did vote to move them from their post to Burrill Street, and I think we owe it to them to allocate these funds in such a way that their new home is top notch. I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is.”

Select Board Member Danielle Leonard recalled that her support for the Pine Street property development was done because the board had said they would “commit to do something for hte veterans.”

“I think this does that,” Leonard said. “I would feel good about it.”