
A Hingham company’s plan to build an office park on 100 acres in Kingston off Route 44 near Route 3 is moving along through town boards, its way eased by the estimated $1 million in annual tax revenue and the 1,000 jobs the project is expected to generate.
Kingston selectmen unanimously approved the proposed Kingston Commerce Center on May 3, and the Planning Board was also receptive in its review on May 9 of Saxon Partners’ plan to invest about $100 million in the site, which abuts Colony Place and the Kingston Collection mall.
“You can’t get better than pure taxes without many services being provided,’’ Board of Selectmen chairwoman Elaine A. Fiore said as the board voted to support the plan.
Donald Smith, a partner at Saxon Partners, said the company’s proposal no longer includes any residential or retail components, which were part of the mix when it was first presented in December.
Instead, Smith said, the Kingston Commerce Center will focus solely on being a “corporate headquarters’’ park with about 800,000 square feet of office and industrial space. Although no potential tenants have been named, he said, the space will also feature a hotel and a few chain restaurants on portions of the park nearest the highway.
Town planner Thomas Bott said the site is zoned residential, but he will probably work with the company to set up a new commercial zone for it. Any zoning change would require two-thirds majority support at Town Meeting. Smith said it could be ready for a vote as early as the fall.
“It’s a great project for creating jobs and taxes without causing any adverse effects on the town,’’ Smith said.
Saxon Partners also developed Colony Place in 2005, and the new development will feature the same type of boulevards, he said.
Although the bulk of the project will be in Kingston, the entrance via Commerce Way would be in Plymouth. Smith says he hopes it’s not an issue, since “jobs don’t have town lines’’ and the project will benefit both communities. Kingston police have also expressed concern that they would have to go through a section of Plymouth, where they do not currently have jurisdiction, to get to the park.
Bott said about half of the property to be developed is owned by Phillips Forestry LLC and the other half by the Sisters of Divine Providence in Kingston. The congregation also owns a large parcel of conservation land nearby that has been delineated as a priority habitat for rare species and wildlife near Muddy Pond, and that is not included in the development, he said.
Sister Mary Francis Fletcher, provincial director of the Sisters, said the congregation’s Sacred Heart School and other developed parcels it owns are not for sale. The school will continue to operate, she said.
Fletcher said it could be a “good marriage’’ to sell a portion of the congregation’s property to Saxon Partners and also to sell a larger area to a conservation group. She said the Sisters will use the sale to help take care of its aging population of about 200 nuns in the United States.
The protected land includes an important aquifer for the town, which relies on wells, she said.
Elaine Cushman Carroll can be reached at elaine_carroll@msn.com.



