WATERTOWN — Developer Michael E. Lundy has promised the city that he will clean up his Clinton Street property that has prompted complaints.
In a recent phone call, Lundy assured City Manager Eric F. Wagenaar that he will remove a large hill of construction debris that has become overgrown with vegetation from the property.
Nearby residents have called it an eyesore.
The 2.5-acre downtown property has sat idle since Lundy’s company, Lunco, purchased it in 2016 for $525,000.
He recently confirmed that a potential anchor tenant for a 28,500-square-foot office building that Lundy planned to build bowed out of the project.
The condition of the site, at the conjunction of Clinton, Sherman and Mullin streets, came up at City Council meetings last month.
In the phone call, Lundy told Wagenaar that now that a Watertown Savings Bank expansion project next door is finished, he’ll clear the site of debris.
“We want to give him the opportunity to take care of it on his own,” Wagenaar said.
Last week, Lundy told the Watertown Daily Times that he had talked to the city manager. He said that the work will be completed once a company excavator was finished at another job site and would be used to get the work done at Clinton Street.
Wagenaar contacted Lundy about the situation after council members asked him to intervene.
Lundy is still looking at other options for the property since former potential tenant Kim Allen is no longer interested in creating corporate headquarters at the prime piece of downtown property for the businessman’s financial consultant firm.
The firm would have been the primary tenant. Other tenants would be sought.
After demolishing a one-story structure on the site, the other two-story building was going to undergo a complete renovation.
The property is adjacent to the Watertown Savings Bank’s main branch, where a 14,000-square-foot addition to combine the bank’s lending department was just completed during the last few weeks.
Bank officials have declined to comment about the condition of the property next door.
In recent weeks, however, city officials expressed frustration with the lack of progress and the deteriorating condition of the site over the past eight years.
In response to the council inquiry, the city code enforcement office said it will make sure that the site and a construction fence remain secure and not a hazard. City codes also will keep track of the construction debris.
Saying that he appreciates the city manager getting involved, Councilman Benjamin P. Shoen expressed more frustration about the lack of progress getting the site cleaned up.
“We need to treat everybody the same,” he said, stressing that the city would enforce others to clean up a site in a certain amount of time.
