Town seeing a slew of projects

When it comes to new developments just north of Boston, most of the buzz centers around Chelsea's waterfront and along Revere Beach.

But Winthrop, a peninsula with just two roads in and out of town, is catching the eye of developers.

A series of developments, already underway or in the talking stages, will not only change the face of the town, but also what community observers call the old town philosophy of resisting outsiders and change.

Revere attorney James J. Cipoletta, a Winthrop resident and former Board of Appeals member who represents many of the project developers, said a series of occurrences in town, from the change in government style two years ago to a surge of new businesses, have been key in igniting development proposals.

"To a degree there was always a little bit of resistance to outsiders coming in to develop and change things," Cipoletta said. "Right now if you stand in the center of town on a Saturday morning, the vast majority of people you see weren't born there, so it's no longer such a homogeneous community as it was 20 to 25 years ago."

Only minutes from Boston and with untapped waterfront potential, Winthrop is the North Shore's best-kept secret, as the Winthrop Chamber of Commerce advertised on a Route 1A billboard last year, said chamber president Trudy Macero.

"Some of this development has been needed. It will help with property taxes since Proposition 2 1/2 overrides haven't been accepted here," Macero said. "When people do come to Winthrop, even just to stay, and if they're working in the area for a while, or just visiting, most people fall in love with Winthrop. . . . They really love that hometown feeling."

Planning Board chairman Richard Dimes said the advent of mixed-use development in the past decade led to developers taking a serious look at Winthrop.

"Then all of a sudden the waterfront became very attractive," Dimes said. "Whether all this is an improvement, I don't know . . . From a tax base point it's got to be a plus all around. We have no industry; 95 percent of the town's tax base we get from homeowners."

The majority of the proposed developments in town are for privately owned properties, such as Crystal Cove Marina and the former Winthrop Hospital.

"Anybody coming to Winthrop right now is about five years ahead of the curve. Winthrop is just now in its infancy of development," said resident Alex Mavrakos, who chairs a local activist organization, Citizens For Fair and Balanced Government.

"We did a survey of waterfront communities from New Hampshire to the Cape, and Winthrop is the only community out of all of those that has done nothing in the past 50 years. So now it's the only one left, and it's catching attention."

But some residents are concerned about overdevelopment. Many still shake their heads in disapproval over the Atlantis Marina luxury condominium project on Pleasant Street because of its size. Atlantis is completed and about 65 percent sold, said Cipoletta, who represents the owners, who also own Crystal Cove on Shirley Street.

At a meeting with town department heads this month, developers revealed a preliminary design for the Crystal Cove project, comprising three separate buildings, compared with one large one like Atlantis, featuring marine-related businesses, a restaurant, and some residential units, Cipoletta said, adding that it will be less dense than Atlantis. He said he is organizing a community meeting for sometime before the end of the month to discuss the proposal with residents.

Another Cipoletta client, owners of the former Winthrop Hospital on Lincoln Street, is planning to convert the building into residential units after years of legal fights with the town and neighbors concerned about the proposed density. The town recently changed the site's zoning to allow up to 78 residential units.

It's not just private developers getting in the act. The town decided to sell the former Dalrymple School on Grovers Avenue and is working with a developer on a 36-unit luxury condominium development.

Macero, the Chamber of Commerce president, said other crucial developments in town include the completion of the town pier, scheduled to open next spring, and the state's plans, which still need federal approval, to add 500,000 cubic yards of ocean sand to Winthrop Beach.

The state also recently approved a $2 million improvement project for Short Beach, which straddles Winthrop's border with Revere.

"If you build it, they will come," Macero said of plans for the town pier, envisioning its use by "water taxis and other boaters that just want to visit and walk down the street to shops and restaurants. This will give a boost to our economy. I believe 10 years down the road we'll see a completely different Winthrop."

Developments that are still in the talking stages include the former Muffin Town property, which Cipoletta said might be better off if it's rezoned from light industrial to residential use. The DeMarco family, which owns Kathy's Place on Putnam Street, has drawings for loft-style residential units, but nothing has been presented to the town, Cipoletta said.

Talk is also brewing to redevelop a site on Deer Island with a mix of business, commercial, residential, and restaurant uses, Cipoletta said. However, the plan hinges on a settlement of the Winthrop-Boston dual ownership issue.

Katheleen Conti can be reached at kconti@globe.com.