At 11AM on August 21, the property at 283 Melrose Street in Auburndale — formerly home to the Turtle Lane Playhouse and currently home to a failed real estate development — was slated to be auctioned off live.
However, one hour earlier that morning, the property’s current owner — Turtle Lane LLC — filed for bankruptcy, which set off an automatic 60-day delay. The auction is now scheduled for October 23.
As Fig City News previously reported, the development, which was first proposed in 2014, has faced a plethora of problems since the start, including back taxes, neighborhood complaints, COVID delays, and multiple stop-work orders from the City.
The project’s developer, Stephen Vona, initially proposed a mixed-use building consisting of 35 housing units, a 50-seat restaurant, and the restored theater. However, the scope of the project has narrowed over the years, and in 2022, it was finally reduced to 16 housing units, office space, and the theater.
In 2023, Inspectional Services Department (ISD) Commissioner John Lojek sent a memo regarding the project to Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, expressing “significant concerns about the structural integrity of the Residential Building and the overall safety of the site.”
Lojek wrote that, on multiple occasions, work on the project’s residential buildings was performed without building permits or ISD involvement. Work was also performed in direct violation of the State Building Code.
“As a result of such violations, the City has issued numerous stop work orders and notices of violation. Despite this, work continued to be performed in violation of the notices and orders,” the memo read in part.
After conducting a walk-through of the residential building, Lojek “determined that the structure was not safe” and issued a notice of unsafe structure. Additionally, he wrote, the Newton Fire Department deemed the residential building to be unsafe in the event of fire.
Former Ward 4 City Councilor Chris Markiewicz told Fig City News that the project’s outcome is disappointing.
“It’s a shame, really. This is a great location for some housing; the permit provided for affordable housing units as well. It was a good plan,” he said.
It’s especially unfortunate, Markiewicz noted, considering that zoning for the 283 Melrose property is now more “favorable” — thanks to the passage of the Village Center Overlay District zoning in 2023.
“It’s a head scratcher …why a project of this size — it’s not that big — and one that everyone from the neighborhood, to the City Council and Administration, wants to see completed, has gone sideways for a decade,” he said.
“The amount of hours that City departments — including Planning, ISD, Engineering, even the Council and Fire Departments — have spent on inspections, reviews, and site visits, all intended to help get this project on its way, …many thousands of hours that use taxpayer dollars where that time could have been spent on other things. It’s a shame.”
Theo Younkin is this summer’s Fig City News managing student intern, a rising senior at Newton South High School, and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the NSHS Lion’s Roar.
