Vineyard Lands for Our Community, a fledgling nonprofit, filed plans this week with the Tisbury conservation commission for a sweeping new development, kicking off a lengthy permitting process for the multi-million dollar project.
A new and unprecedented development proposal is on the table from a new nonprofit looking to reshape a portion of prime real estate on the Vineyard Haven waterfront.
If approved, the proposal would transform properties along the harbor owned by the DeSorcy family, providing access to the beach and harbor, expanding Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway’s boat building shop, relocating two World War II-era building and creating new year-round studio and gallery space.
Vineyard Lands for Our Community, the fledgling nonprofit formed behind the project, filed plans for this week with the Tisbury conservation commission, kicking off a lengthy permitting process for the multi-million dollar development. The project would revamp five parcels along Vineyard Haven Harbor, from the Ernie Boch Jr. Park to the now closed DeSorcy paint building.
A rendering shows a new proposed building.
A rendering shows a new proposed building.
“It’s a new concept, totally, in that all of this... is being done for the community, not for the developer” said Steve Bernier, the owner of the Martha’s Vineyard Times and the president of the board for the year-old nonprofit.
Called HarborWorks, the waterfront project also envisions a public amphitheatre and lawn at what is currently a locked, private park owned by Mr. Boch, at 30 Beach Road.
Phil Wallis, Vineyard Lands for Our Community’s executive director, said that while a long-term agreement with Mr. Boch is still in the works, the seasonal Edgartown resident has agreed to let the nonprofit include his park in the designs to be reviewed by town officials and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
At the same time, the new foundation is scrambling to raise several million dollars over the next few weeks in order to acquire the adjoining Beach Road parcels from the DeSorcy family.
The closing date is August 1, said Mr. Wallis, who told the Gazette that Vineyard Lands for Our Community needs about $5 million for the purchase, closing costs and engineering work.
Taylor Stone, Phil Wallis, Althea Freeman-Miller and Andy Herr.
Taylor Stone, Phil Wallis, Althea Freeman-Miller and Andy Herr.
The professional team for HarborWorks consists of three Islanders: principal designer Josh Dunn, architect Maurice O’Connor and engineer George Sourati.
Drawings for the project show an elevated walkway between buildings, allowing ground-level views of the harbor, as well as a shady arcade and multiple seating areas.
The amphitheatre features an airy shed-style stage with translucent solar panels, and the beach has a dock into Vineyard Haven Harbor.
The expanded Gannon & Benjamin boat-building operation will help tell the story of the working waterfront, and also allow more Island teenagers to learn wooden boat making as interns, co-owner and designer Nat Benjamin said.
Althea Freeman-Miller’s Althea Gallery, the former Van Ryper boat model shop that turned out silhouettes of enemy ships during World War II to help coastal residents watch for danger, would be moved as part of the HarborWorks project, as would the MV Times building. Both structures would be relocated on either side of Boch Park.
Ernie Boch Jr.'s park could be used in the proposal.
Ernie Boch Jr.'s park could be used in the proposal.
Ms. Miller, a printmaker and president of the Vineyard Haven Harbor Cultural District, said she’d gladly move to the new artists’ building at HarborWorks, and that the park and amphitheatre would expand the opportunities for First Friday events in town.
Subject to town, MVC and state approvals over the year to come, work could begin on HarborWorks in 2025, according to the nonprofit.
There will be much for the regulatory bodies to consider, said Mr. Wallis, who was executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum when it renovated and moved to the old marine hospital on Lagoon Pond Road a decade ago.
“This is a complex project,” he said. “The museum... was no easy shakes, but this is one step further in complexity.”
Climate change and rising water levels, the proximity to Five Corners and the vulnerability of Beach Road are among the complicating factors, Mr. Wallis said.
The proposed 25,000-square-foot building for artists and artisans, is planned to be built on piles and will have 30 parking spaces underneath, likely drawing close scrutiny.
A rendering shows the MV Times building moved and a new ampitheatre along the waterfront.
A rendering shows the MV Times building moved and a new ampitheatre along the waterfront.
“This is the cutting edge of development in a flooding area [and] could take into next year to try and work it out,” Mr. Wallis said.
“We all believe — the board and others that I interact with — that there’s so much goodness and rightness in this design [and] that there’s going to be trade-offs,” he said.
Tisbury select board member Roy Cutrer was impressed with the proposal.
“Personally, I feel that area is in need of improvement,” he said. “The design looks well done and well thought out.”
Comments
Two hundred years ago, the
A. Bowdoin Van Riper Vineyard HavenTwo hundred years ago, the deliberate blocking of Bass Creek at what's now Five Corners opened the sand spit that is now the Beach Road neighborhood to development. Since then, Beach Road has been a shipbuilding center, a heavy-industry zone, an eclectic commercial district, the center of a wooden-boat renaissance, and the home to a set of workshops that turned out 15,000 exquisitely crafted works of art in the form of miniature ships.
My grandfather and his eclectic crew of local woodworkers, painters, and metalsmiths were part of what Beach Road was in the mid-20th century . . . I'm thrilled and delighted to see this sweeping, yet attainable, vision of what it might become in the 21st. Save me a seat at the amphitheater!
Hey Bo - your parents were
Simone DeSorcy WTHey Bo - your parents were great stewards of the waterfront…as were their friends Leo and Florinda DeSorcy, and then Donald DeSorcy. And let’s include Ralph Packer and Captain Douglas. The Town voted in paralyzing zoning for the area in, I believe, 1999? Mr Packer, Captain Douglas, and Donald DeSorcy were already protecting the harbor (and paying ridiculous taxes) long before the wash-ashores felt entitled to bind the responsible protectors of the harbor via poor zoning. Those men were already protecting the harbor that they cherished. They could have developed the heck out of it, but they didn’t…they kept it for maritime use. This proposal hits me in the gut
It will be such a change to
MikeIt will be such a change to not see the DeSorcy/Benjamin Moore signs when coming in. Overall, though, there seems to be much positive here.
I agree, but wouldn't it be
Larry N EdgartownI agree, but wouldn't it be great if that wall could be replicated but in a much smaller scale, remaining as a monument in the park visible from the water, in memory of DeSorcy and the history of the area?
Good Idea. They need to put
Jay Swartz MVGood Idea. They need to put some kind of a reference of Memorial to the the DeSorcy family. Leo DeSorcy was a wonderful member of the Vineyard Haven Community, as is his family!
No
Christian Comazzi Vineyard HavenNo
What a wonderful project for
Margery Meltzer West TisburyWhat a wonderful project for Vineyard Haven!
The towns across the island
Bob EdgartownThe towns across the island need to take a closer look at these nonprofits that are able to skirt some of the tax laws. All nonprofits are not created equal, and some are really for profit industries hiding behind a loophole. I would hate to lose the tax revenue that these properties create. That revenue stream will have to be made up somewhere else. Governments have an insatiable appetite for money and losing any revenue in one place is troubling.
This is a wonderful, forward
Gary Vineyard HavenThis is a wonderful, forward thinking proposal that deserves serious consideration. I would like to see an addition to the plan, however. Shenandoah, an icon of the harbor and VH for 50 years, is coming to the end of her life on the water. She's becoming too expensive to repair and Martha's Vineyard Ocean Academy does not yet have the funds to build her replacement. I would like to see her put up in drydock in Boch's park or nearby and used for land based training and education so she remains here. Something like what's been done in Mystic, CT or the Cutty Sark in Greenwich England.
I was talking to my friend
Bobby Alfano Vineyard HavenI was talking to my friend the other day who happens to be a founding member of the Vineyard Lands for the Community. (VLC) Board of Directors. He told me that his organization’s intentions for this project is to save the marine heritage of the Tisbury working waterfront. They also want to ensure that they, for the first time, will create public access to the waterfront and make spaces for all to celebrate.
He also told me that they are welcoming all the challenges necessary to do what is right for the community as well as the environment.
I cannot even imagine what it would be like to sail to Martha’s Vineyard, into Vineyard Haven Harbor and not see the Shenandoah anymore or the Gannon and Benjamin sailing fleet that they have built and maintain. They are a very significant part of the entire working waterfront. I am afraid if they fail we will all fail.
-Bobby Alfano
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