Means and motif

Twelve years after the Civil War, inside a jumble of five red buildings on the tip of Rocky Neck, workers revolutionized the fishing industry, creating copper-based paint that allowed fishermen to protect their boats from the barnacles that attach to the vessels on long trips.

Since then, the Tarr and Wonson Paint Manufactory has become a Gloucester icon -- a navigational tool for fishermen, who used the factory's smokestack as a guide on foggy days, and an inspiration to artists, who still lug their cameras and brushes to the shoreline to capture the site, in watercolors, oil paintings, and -- in 2000 -- on film, as a backdrop in ''The Perfect Storm."

But the 128-year-old former paint factory, one of the last links to a time when Gloucester was the capital of the fishing world, may not be intact much longer.

Pursuing a proposal unveiled four years ago, new owner Vahid Nickpour wants to knock down three old factory buildings and construct a 10,000-square-foot mansion -- complete with wine cellars, an art gallery, a cigar humidor room, a sculpture garden, and a garage above a boat launch.

''I'm committed that we're going to do this thing," said Nickpour, who purchased the property for $850,000 from Fred Miller last year. The factory closed in 1985 and the 1-acre property is assessed by the city at $1.15 million.

This is not the first time the landmark has been targeted for redevelopment. In 1998, a plan to build condos on the site was scrapped after it was approved by the city but challenged in court by abutters.

Four years ago, local developer Anthony Giacalone, who had an option to purchase the property from Miller, proposed the mansion concept. At that time, the city approved a zoning change, making the property residential, conditional on the developer keeping two of the factory's buildings.

Confident that the mansion would be built, Giacalone identified potential owners such as singer Billy Joel, actor George Clooney, and Legal Sea Foods owner Roger Berkowitz.

But by 2003, the project had stalled with the state and federal permitting authorities. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection wanted more information about public access to the waterfront property as required by state law. Also, the Army Corps of Engineers had yet to review a structural analysis of the property. With the process slowed, Giacalone dropped his option to buy after investing $250,000.

Two years after quitting the project, Giacalone is now acting as a consultant to Nickpour and thinks the project is on track for final approval from the state and federal government. Giacalone speculated that a mansion on the site could sell for as much as $5 million today. With whitecaps reaching as high as 10 feet in the harbor during storms, Giacalone thinks a mansion would only appeal to a particular type of person.

''It has to be somebody who just has the love and the need or the want to be directly on the water, because you can't be more on the water than this," he said.

Just how the site will change if the mansion is built is unclear. The project still needs the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Environmental Protection.

During the summer, the Army Corps of Engineers asked the Gloucester Historical Commission and the Massachusetts Historical Commission to sign a memorandum of agreement that would allow the demolition of some of the buildings. The document cited a structural analysis, prepared by the owners, that concluded that most of the factory's buildings are too deteriorated or potentially contaminated to be rehabilitated.

''If the paint factory goes, that's another nail in the coffin for the fishing history of Gloucester," said Maggie Rosa, chairwoman of the Gloucester Historical Commission.

Acting on the advice of the city's legal department, Rosa declined to sign the proposed agreement. Mayor John Bell also advised against agreeing to the demolition of the structures, and insisted that the developers stick to the 2001 agreement with the city. That special permit specified that the manufacturing building and the factory's office building be restored.

David Keddell, project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, said his agency would not issue a permit to the developers without receiving comment from the historical commissions. Brian McNiff, a spokesman for the state Historical Commission, said the state had not received the memorandum of agreement.

At a commission meeting earlier this month, Giacalone unveiled architectural drawings of the proposed mansion, which called for demolishing all of the buildings except for the old factory office.

After commission members reminded the developers of the agreement to keep the former manufacturing building, Nickpour consented to renovate the old manufacturing building. Nickpour said he would return this fall with new plans.

''We're going to do a new set of plans that will be more sensitive to what the Historical Commission is looking at," said Nickpour.

Giacalone also pledged to keep the former manufacturing building, but said it would be a difficult task. Giacalone said the building is unsafe, with several support beams propped up by jacks. ''It's in rough shape," said Giacalone, who noted that the building is also filled with contaminated tanks, along with chemicals that have calcified and resemble icicles.

In Rocky Neck, where painters set up the country's oldest working art colony in the mid-19th century, the future of the old paint factory is talked about every day, said Michelle Greel. ''The general consensus is that there's better use for that space than a private home," said Greel, a waitress at Sailor Stan's.

Fisherman Sam Novello agreed, and said the factory should be restored to its 19th-century appearance. Novello also thinks it would be a better idea to open the property up to more than one residence, and build affordable housing.

Bernard Gerstner, who owns a gallery on the neck, said the complex -- with its different elevations and interconnections -- is a challenge to paint. For that reason, he has taken his students to the location numerous times over the years to hone their skills.

''It's a symbol and I think it would be missed," Gerstner said.

On Clarendon Street, close to the former factory, Muriel Sawyer and her son Arthur Sawyer said the real estate boom has caused Rocky Neck to change in recent years. They said new owners routinely tear down old houses to build bigger homes.

Muriel Sawyer would like to see the former factory preserved, but seemed resigned to some form of change. ''This whole area has changed over the last 50 years. What's another big house?" she asked.

Steven Rosenberg can be reached at rosenberg@globe.com.