MassDevelopment

How a state grant is helping this dentist redevelop a 100-year-old Fall River building


December 16, 2021 : The Herald News, by Charles Winokoor


FALL RIVER — Ramesh Izedian says $400,000 is nothing to sneeze at.

“If not for the funding, I’m not sure this project would be feasible,” he said.

Izedian was referring to a state grant award he received earlier this month from MassDevelopment and its 11-month-old Underutilized Properties Program.

Izedian’s plan to rehabilitate and redevelop a vacant, three-story building at 285-299 South Main St. is one of 20 such projects statewide that were granted a total of $7.5 million from the state’s nonprofit, property development finance agency.

The downtown Fall River apartment project is the Canadian native’s first foray into the field of commercial development.

Izedian is a full-time dentist who owns three dental practices including Dentistry in the Highlands in Fall River. The other two are in Lawrence and Somerville.

Mixed-use development plans

He plan is to develop 28 one- and two-bedroom apartments inside the nearly 100-year-old building that at one time was occupied by Aetna Insurance and, before that, Adaskin Furniture.

Izedian says rental rates will reflect current real estate market conditions. But he also hasn’t ruled out that some might have lower rents as “affordable housing,” if he were to qualify for federal funding from the HOME Investment Partnerships Program.

In addition to the apartments — which will be on the two top floors and in the rear of the first floor that overlooks Pearl Street — the mixed-use project will incorporate two street-level, retail or office storefront spaces facing South Main Street.

The project proposal also calls for the creation of an underground parking garage for tenants.

Izedian said the South Coast Rail commuter line that will connect Fall River to Boston’s South Station by the end of 2023 wasn’t a factor in his decision to pursue his project.

Izedian — who in 1992 began working in a Fall River dental office located where the Fall River Justice Center courthouse now stands — said he bought 285-299 South Main St. in 2016 with the intention of trying to help revitalize a long-stagnant downtown.

“My office manager back then told me when she was a kid how downtown was so vibrant with everybody walking around,” he said. “It’s such a shame that a lot of these old downtowns can’t come back.

“The area needs families to move in for gentrification.”

How the MassDevelopment grant works

Izedian said the $400,000 grant award from MassDevelopment not only will help offset costs but will help expedite the bank financing he needs to get the project off the ground.

“The bank looks at your debt, and if you can’t pay with the income being generated then they’re not interested,” he said.

The Underutilized Properties Program grant was secured for Izedian by the 501(c)(4) non-profit Bristol County Economic Development Consultants, which is located in the Cherry & Webb building on South Main Street, and its executive vice president Ken Fiola.

“We’ve got to do this together,” Izedian said, referring to the assistance he received from Fiola and MassDevelopment.

Construction to start in summer

He said the MassDevelopment grant stipulates that his financing needs to be in place by a certain date in March. Once that has been achieved, he said he’ll go through the municipal permitting process.

“It would be great if we can start construction by the summer,” Izedian said.

Fiola said construction should take about a year. He said the $400,000 will be released by MassDevelopment once the funding has been secured.

As for compensation to Bristol County Economic Development Consultants, Fiola said his business management office is paid an hourly fee by Izedian and will also collect a percentage of the state grant.

ZBA variance requests

Izedian’s 285-299 South Main LLC was previously granted a variance last spring by the city’s zoning board of appeals to develop 17 apartments.

The ZBA is holding another hearing to consider a second variance to allow that number to increase to 28 apartments.

Fiola says the design for the 28 apartments is better suited and more in keeping with the character of the building.

He estimates that each apartment unit will cost Izedian between $275,000 and $325,000 — which translates to a total investment ranging from nearly $8 million to slightly more than $9 million.

That doesn’t include the cost of building a lower-level parking garage and either installing a new elevator or upgrading an existing one.

Fiola said there are three categories of renters who will be attracted to the new apartments, which will have granite kitchen counters and individual washing machines and dryers.

Empty nesters who no longer want to live in a suburban house that’s too large for their needs is one.

The second category is the young professional who commutes to Providence, the Cape or the Boston area. And the third, he said, would be Fall River apartment dwellers who yearn for and can afford more modern amenities.

Fiola says the benefits to downtown can’t be underestimated.

“The biggest public benefit of market rate apartments downtown will be a constituency of people with disposable income,” he said, adding that “I truly think it will be successful and will spur future investment. It’s contagious.”

Fiola said the commuter rail line linking Fall River to Boston will inevitably also have a positive effect on downtown.

More than a dozen businesses and organizations, including Fall River TDI Partnership and One SouthCoast Chamber, have submitted a letter to the city’s zoning board urging it to approve the variance for the 28 apartments at 285-299 South Main St.

Possible future plans for two other properties

Izedian owns two other downtown buildings on the west side of South Main Street.

These include the Besse System building at 221-229 South Main St. and a much longer, segmented building just south of Spring Street whose tenants include Pacheco’s Furniture, Dollar Fun and Nexus Property Management.

Izedian says depending on the success of 285-299 South Main, he eventually may develop the second floor of the that two-story building, which is now used for storage, into more apartments.

“We’ll see how it goes,” he said.