2 more sites face leveling; US aid arrives

SBA opens office to aid recovery

Wrecking balls are set to hit Liberty Marina and the Concord Oil gas station, two of several businesses damaged last month by a fiery blast at an ink-and-paint factory on the Waters River that left Danversport in shambles.

At least two commercial buildings, the vacant Danvers Propane and the top half of a building housing Danversport Bakery and Danversport Pizza Factory, have already been torn down after town inspectors deemed them unsafe. More properties, including at least nine homes, will also be torn down.

"A lot of work lies ahead," Town Manager Wayne P. Marquis said this week at Town Hall. "It's still very early yet, but we are encouraging businesses and homeowners to work with us.... This will be a major recovery."

Some longtime owners vow to rebuild.

"Our plan is to come back better than ever," said Wendy Gerson Cheever, co-owner of Liberty Marina, a 200-slip facility. "We have the best boat owners in the world. We'll be there for them.... We plan to start launching April 1."

Said Tom Lamoly, owner of Concord Oil on Water Street, "We'll be back.... And the neighborhood, when they rebuild it, should be nicer."

The explosion on Nov. 22 damaged at least 70 homes and businesses, triggering help from the US Small Business Administration. A team of seven SBA loan officers are staffing an office in the Danvers Town Hall, where they are processing applications for aid from local residents and business owners. The cause of the explosion is still being investigated.

"This is a unique disaster," said Tom Nocera, a spokesman for the SBA. "The explosion, and the subsequent fire, created a lot of different kind s of damage. Homes were pushed off their foundations, businesses blown apart. Our goal is to aid the entire economic recovery."

The total economic loss -- in terms of physical damage to homes and businesses and lost revenues -- is not yet known, officials said. SBA loan officers spent much of this week visiting businesses in the Danversport neighborhood, a peninsula home to both residences and an eclectic mix of businesses, including a tombstone maker, a lobster dealer, boat brokers and other one-of-a-kind operations.

SBA loans carrying a 3 percent interest rate are available to homeowners and renters. Homeowners can borrow up to $200,000 and renters up to $40,000 to replace personal property. Businesses can borrow up to $1.5 million at 4 percent. Some loans will be made for as long as 30 years, the SBA said.

At Liberty Marina, Cheever is unsure if she'll apply.

"It looks like a very good program," she said Tuesday, while fielding calls from anxious boat owners. "But I still have to talk to my lawyer, my accountant.... Right now, I'm just really concerned for my boat owners."

Lamoly, who has owned the gas station property for 32 years, said he probably won't apply, because he's fully insured. "A 4 percent rate, over 30 years, is a really good deal," said Lamoly, who leased the building to Concord Oil. "If I didn't have enough insurance, yeah, I'd really consider it."

But Nocera urges all homeowners and businesses to consider applying. "It's rare that people are 100 percent insured," he said.

The SBA is also offering working-capital loans for other area businesses that l ost money due to the explosion. An example would be a supplier to a business that was destroyed, or a retailer that lost revenues due to the closing of Route 35, the main artery through Danversport, which was blocked off for nine days.

Businesses in Essex, Middlesex and Suffolk counties, and Hillsborough and Rockingham counties in New Hampshire, are eligible to apply under the federal disaster declaration issued by the SBA on Nov. 29. "Very often, the economic impact of a disaster extends well beyond where it occurred," Nocera said.

In Danversport, some business owners said an SBA loan probably wouldn't be much help.

At the RC Car Store Hobby Shop, owner Craig Michaud estimates he's lost $40,000 in revenue since the blast. The day after Thanksgiving usually is his single biggest day of the year, but not this year. "It was a complete dud," he said. "We were open, but people thought they couldn't get here."

Still, he probably won't apply for a loan. "It's still 4 percent money," said Michaud, who moved his small shop to Water Street in Danvers from Beverly six years ago.

Michaud said that "never in a million years" would he have thought an explosion down the street would shake up his little hobby shop. "I truly feel for the people who lost their homes and businesses," said Michaud, whose shop escaped major damage. "The important thing now is for people to know 'Danversport is open.' "

Kathy McCabe can be reached at kmccabe@globe.com