Rob Levesque of R. Levesque Associates at Planning Board Nov 18 with warehouse proposal for Aero Fasteners.
Photo credit: Westfield Community TV
WESTFIELD — On Nov. 18, the Planning Board unanimously approved a site plan for a warehouse on Cycle Street to be occupied by Aero Fastener, an aerospace manufacturing company currently located on Servistar Industrial Way.
During the presentation, Jim Avery, president and owner of Aero Fastener, said he’s been blessed with the company that started on Union Street, moved to Servistar and now to Cycle Street.
“What we deal in is aerospace. Stuff you can buy at Rocky’s, but can’t put on a plane,” Avery said, adding that their product is made of titanium and certified for aerospace.
Avery said the business currently has 27 employees on one shift, with the earliest worker beginning at 6 a.m. to about 4:30 p.m. The only traffic to the warehouse are daily pick up and drop off deliveries by UPS, Fedex and DHL, and an occasional semi — they have two tractor trailers scheduled for November, and one in December, he said.
“Right now our building is full.” Avery said. His customers, Gulfstream being one of the largest, are looking to expand their work with the company. “I need a bigger footprint to support that work and the people working with us,” he said.
Rob Levesque of R. Levesque Associates presented the site plan for the by-right 40,000-square-foot industrial warehouse building to the board. He noted this was a property they had seen before for a self-storage business that did not go forward. At the time, abutters were vocal at meetings in opposition to the self-storage units.
The warehouse is being designed and built by One Development Corporation in Westfield. Derek Helie, senior project manager from One Development Corporation, said the building will be decorative block and not like a normal metal warehouse building.
“The client is proud of this building and the way it’s going to display,” he said, pointing to a similar design for Nupro in Greenfield, displayed on the One Development website.
After answering questions submitted by City Planner Jay Vinskey concerning fencing and plantings among others, and the reading of stormwater approval by the city engineer, the meeting was opened to the public for questions and comments.
Councilor Kristen Mello presented a list of questions, mentioning previous contamination on the site and asked if the builders have a hydrogeologist to ensure stormwater won’t be impacted, as the property is surrounded by three rivers.
Mello also acknowledged that the project proposal was much better than the previous one for storage units.
“This is much better than the last one, hands down,” she said, adding that there is currently an easement in place on the property until a district judge says it’s terminated.
Vinskey added later the project would comply with any easements, which he said are granted from a private party to another private party.
Levesque said many of her questions were outside of the purview of the Planning Board, especially regarding the monitoring of a closed well, and regulated by state and federal regulators at MassDEP and Environmental Protection Agency. He said the building project is outside of a wetland resource area.
Helie said they were working with two licensed site professionals, and as part of the project, they have installed sacrificial wells to test groundwater through Tighe and Bond.
Ward 2 Councilor Ralph Figy said this is different from the last go around.
“With my conversations with folks on Cleveland and Cycle that I spoke to, they were tickled pink self storage is gone and probably wasn’t coming back.” Figy said he told them about the warehouse, and heard had no objections.
Westfield resident and realtor Harold Murphy said he grew up on Cleveland Avenue from kindergarten on.
“It’s nice to see business coming back to the area,” he said. “It’s good to see responsible design and inclusion of business and residential together.”
After a discussion by the board on lighting, signage, fencing and plantings, Levesque said he didn’t have anything else to add.
“This is an exciting project for Mr. Avery, as mentioned. He has a client, Gulfstream and others, counting on him. In this particular case, we would like to get moving.”
The board then approved the site plan, giving a list of normal conditions.
After the meeting, Figy said he is supportive of the new venture.
“I think it’s much more appropriate than the self storage units that the neighborhood did not want. I think the neighborhood is accepting of the warehouse, because they did not show up at the hearing. That could have been because I spent a lot of time during my campaign going door to door to explain this to them,” he said, adding, “Aero Fastener is a phenomenal company. We’re lucky to have them and keep them.”
