PEABODY — Mayor Ted Bettencourt is looking to buy 135 acres of Rousselot’s land after the gelatin factory shuts down its operations in Peabody for good Dec. 31.
The land contains 11 of the 18 holes of The Meadow Golf Course on Granite Street, a facility owned and operated by the city since 2001, and abuts other parcels owned by the city in that area.
Rousselot has already agreed to allow the city to buy the land for $9 million, but the deal first has to be approved by the City Council. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for the Council’s Dec. 14 meeting.
The land would be left as open space or remain part of the golf course. Through the purchase, Peabody would own all of the land that connects from the Welch Elementary School to the city line with Lynn, Bettencourt said.
“This land is zoned Residential One, which would allow for residential development,” he said. “I think it’s very important for the city to preserve their recreational area for our residents in perpetuity and also to keep that land as open space for generations to come.”
The price tag would likely be covered by bonds over the next 25 to 30 years, which would be paid off using the golf course’s annual revenue.
The city is projected to generate about $500,000 from the golf course this year alone. Since the mortgage on the property was paid off about three years ago, that revenue has been used to repair areas of the site, Bettencourt said.
“I don’t intend to have any of the money [for this purchase] to be paid out of our yearly operational budget,” he said. “That is for those specialized funds that we’re going to be using, so I think it’s going to receive great support from the Council.”
Some of the golf course revenue will continue to cover the city skating rink’s deficit, a roughly $70,000 loss the city has faced each year for several years. Peabody is also looking for ways to bring back the revenue stream once seen at the rink, Bettencourt said.
The Rousselot land deal is similar to a $7.2 million acquisition of 80 acres by the city earlier this year. That land also borders the golf course, along with Spring Pond and Cedar Grove Cemetery. It too is being kept as open space with an opportunity for the city to expand the cemetery.
The fate of Rousselot’s roughly 200 remaining acres in Peabody, including its main campus on Allens Lane and Washington Street is unclear.
It’s a top issue the city will address in 2024. But the mayor, finance director, community development director, Ward 2 City Councilor Pete McGinn and Ward 1 Councilor Julie Daigle have been in contact with Rousselot about the plant’s closure, Bettencourt said.
“Rousselot has been very cooperative with us in terms of this purchase,” he said. “They have told me they want to be community partners, they want to leave a good legacy here in the city and they want to try to make sure that they’re leaving in a positive way, which is great.”
Rousselot has announced that it would close its Peabody plant at the end of the year. Some work to fully shut down operations at the plant will occur in the first quarter of 2024, Bettencourt said, but nothing will be manufactured at the site after New Year’s Eve.
The pharmaceutical-grade gelatin manufacturer employed about 100 employees. It also used Peabody’s last operational railroad line to bring in materials for production at the plant. That line shut down in September, he said.
The site was originally opened as a glue factory more than 200 years ago. It’s best known to most residents today as Eastman Gelatin, which produced gelatin for Kodak camera film there until the early 2000s. The property was acquired by Rousselot in 2011.
Rousselot has hired Coldwell Banker Real Estate to handle the marketing of its remaining property in Peabody.
The main property is currently zoned for industrial use, which means a change to residential or commercial use would have to be approved by the city.
State Sen. Tom Walsh secured $100,000 in funding this fall to help support the city as the plant closes and assess all 14 of the company’s parcels in Peabody. The land would also have to be surveyed for contamination.
For the main campus, Bettencourt said he would support some uses over others but that it’s too early to say what those uses should be—or if the city will buy the land.
“It’s a great piece of property in the heart of our city,” he said. “It’s an important piece of property for that reason, but there’s already a lot of traffic in that area.”
Rousselot’s closure will also lead to a $3 million loss of water and sewer revenue for the city until a long-term solution for the lost revenue takes shape—one reason the city raised water and sewer rates by 30% for Fiscal 2024, Bettencourt said.
Despite this jump, he doesn’t anticipate a raise in these rates for fiscal 2025, he said.
“I wasn’t expecting the water and sewer tax increase to come out like it did, but I knew there was going to be one,” Bettencourt said.
While Rousselot did give the city a good amount of notice of its closure, the mayor said he wasn’t fully expecting news.
“I knew [Rousselot closing] was a possibility at some point down the road, but this threw us off a little bit and accounted for [part] of the higher increase,” he said.
The plant’s sewage made up 11% of all sewage processed by the South Essex Sewerage District. This organization collects, treats and disposes of waste water from Salem, Peabody, Danvers, Beverly and Marblehead, Bettencourt said.
“Rousselot has been part of Peabody certainly for generations, but it has a deep effect on the whole region,” he said.
“Not only with the employees that unfortunately lost jobs, but in all kinds of operations, so that’s a big deal. and it wasn’t quite expected.”
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com.