By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — A large multi-family apartment house and former hair salon at 155 Division St. that had long been considered an eyesore has been razed, and the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency will retain the lot for future development.

At the PRA’s monthly meeting Tuesday, Executive Director Michael Cassidy reported that the lot has been cleared and graded, and the PRA will put up a chain-link fence around the property to keep vehicles out. He said the PRA would like to see the lot eventually redeveloped for housing, but they plan to retain it until the economy improves.
Cassidy added that he would like to see any structure that might get built there to be situated so the corner stays clear at the intersection of Division and Summit streets.
In other matters, Cassidy told the board that an EPA clean-up on Front Street is progressing as planned. He said the state Department of Environmental Management has requested a few more soil samples to be taken on the site, which housed a former textile mill and auto salvage business. He said the Board of Health has also signed off on an asbestos abatement plan for the buildings in question.
The property, which was contaminated with various materials associated with its long industrial use, is being remediated through federal “brownsfields” grants totaling $600,000, with an additional $120,000 municipal grant. Plans call for the buildings at the site to be demolished and for the soil to be cleaned and capped in keeping with DEM’s standards for residential use.
The remediation will allow for the property to be eventually sold according to “riverfront zoning,” which allows a mixed use of residential or commercial development. The city will retain a permanent easement along the river which will be set aside as part of the Blackstone River Bikeway project.
Also on Tuesday, the PRA board approved a resolution to appropriate $10,800 to Almighty Cleaning Services for an interior clean-up of the former Old Colony Bank Building at 347 Main St. Cassidy said the goal is to remove dirt and debris that has accumulated inside the long-vacant building to prepare it for sale. This project will not involve any type of environmental clean-up work, Cassidy added.
Earlier this year, a developer had come close to purchasing the historic building for redevelopment as commercial space. However, given the cost of renovations, he told the PRA that the project no longer seemed viable once the state withdrew its historic tax credit program.