Quincy's $4 million plan to add to city parks includes $1.8 million land buy

QUINCY − Mayor Thomas Koch wants to spend $4 million to create more athletic fields and a new park to honor Navy sailors and shipyard workers.

The money would add a half-acre to Cleverly Court Field near the former Fore River Shipyard for more soccer fields.

On the other side of the city, a small historic park featuring the Navy's "Lone Sailor" statue would be built in Squantum's Marina Bay near the boardwalk.

If approved, the projects would be paid for by the city's 6% hotel/motel tax, and would not directly affect Quincy taxpayers, according to a municipal finance report.

The finance committee unanimously approved the request, advancing it to the full council for a final vote on a later date.

Joe Shea, principal of Granite City Partners, a Quincy firm providing project management services, outlined the plans for both parks at a city council finance subcommittee meeting on April 8.

More green space for Quincy Point. More room for youth soccer fields

Cleverly Court Field contains two 30-foot-by-50-foot soccer fields that host Quincy Youth Soccer's under-10 program in the spring and the fall. Of the $4 million request, $2.5 million would go toward expanding those fields and the parking lot which serves them.

Quincy currently has five publicly owned soccer/lacrosse fields, according to a city webpage.

Most of the money would go toward purchasing 570 South St., which abuts the park, and demolishing the six-bay self-service car wash now occupying the land. The project would create a flat area for future development but would not cover the addition of any new facilities. "That would be another process," Shea said.

According to a breakdown of the spending plan, $1.8 million would go toward purchasing the car wash and the 1/2 acre on which it sits, which the city's most recent assessment valued at $684,400. The property was appraised for its market value by Cusack and Associates based on actual sales of similar properties, according to the appraiser's report. It last sold in 2019 for $1.25 million.

The property is owned by 570 South Street LLC, whose listed agent is Matthew J. Nicholls, the principal of Braintree-based MJ Nicholls Landscaping.

MJ Nicholls Landscaping has bid on multiple public contracts in Quincy. In 2022, it won a contract worth $2.6 million for renovations at Mount Wollaston Cemetery. In the same year, it won a $426,500 contract for tree plantings.

Ward 2 Councilor Richard Ash, who represents Quincy Point, welcomed the city's purchase of the land.

"This car wash could very well be purchased by a developer," Ash said, noting the industrial character and lack of green space in the district.

But Quincy's plans for Cleverly Park don't end there.

The city is also working to acquire a 1.82-acre vacant lot across Cleverly Court currently owned by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority with plans to "incorporate it into the vision of the larger park area ... in a neighborhood that really needs it," according to Koch's Chief of Staff Chris Walker.

Purchase of this parcel is not related to the $4 million request. It is uncertain how much, if anything, the acquisition would cost the city.

A Navy park at a former plant and naval air station at Squantum Point

The city would use the remaining $1.5 million of the $4 million request to create the "Quincy Navy Park at Squantum," on Victory Road between Marina Bay's Port 305 and Siros restaurants.

The park would honor men and women who served in the Navy or worked at one of Quincy's two shipyards – Fore River and the Victory Destroyer Plant, which was operational from 1918 to 1920. The Fore River Shipyard, one of the largest on the East Cost at its apex, was founded in 1896 and closed permanently in 1986.

The centerpiece of the park would be U.S. Navy's "Lone Sailor" monument, Shea said. Lone Sailor statues now stand in 18 locations around the world, including Pearl Harbor and Normandy, France. This would be the 19th, and the first in coastal New England, he said.

"He is about 25 years old, a senior second class petty officer who is fast becoming a seagoing veteran," reads a description of the Lone Sailor statue by the United States Navy Memorial organization.

In addition to the statue, the park would feature plaques honoring 11 Quincy natives who made significant contributions to the Navy, including six admirals, Shea said.

The admirals include Colin James Kilrain, John Ready, Giles Stedman, Bartholomew Hogan, Forrest Royal and Stephen Keith.

Other honorees include former Massachusetts Attorney General and Navy Lieutenant Francis X. Bellotti, former editor of the Quincy Sun Henry Bosworth who served in the Navy during World War II, retired naval aviator and Vietnam POW Richard Stratton and Charles Francis Adams III, who was U.S. Secretary of the Navy under Herbert Hoover.

One plaque would honor Mildred "Millie" Cox, one of the first women to join the Marines. Cox is a World War II veteran who later worked for Quincy Public Schools and Veterans Services while raising a family in the city. She recently turned 100 years old.

Another attraction at the park would be the bell of the USS Quincy, which was built in the Fore River Shipyard and launched June 23, 1943. The ship participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, where she fired on German batteries stationed along Utah Beach.

The ship was decommissioned in 1954 and sold for crapping twenty years later, according to a Navy webpage.

The USS Quincy also hosted the meeting between President Franklin Roosevelt and Saudi King Abdul Aziz, in which the United States promised the monarchy military assistance in exchange for access to oil, according to a Harvard University global affairs publication.

What is the total cost of the two projects including interest?

The city proposes to issue a 20-year bond to fund both projects, which would be paid off in 2044. With interest, the total projected cost of the bond comes to $5,761,268.50.

However, the Marina Bay site designated to host the park is private property, belonging to two different companies. The city has agreed to pay the companies $1.2 million in licensing fees, over and above the requested $4 million. Walker said the money comes from the federal American Rescue Plan Act and will have no direct impact on taxpayers.

One of the companies, Board Walk Shops Realty LLC, is controlled by Peter and Thomas O'Connell, according to state records. The O'Connell family is well known in the city for developing much of Marina Bay beginning in the 1980s. The O'Connells also developed the Granite Links Golf Course, One Chestnut Place and other properties.

The second company is Dallas-based Safe Harbor Marinas, LLC.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Mayor Koch wants to expand soccer fields, honor Navy and shipyard