Please Support Local Advertisers
IPSWICH — For over four decades, Kim Eckmann has made her living grooming dogs in Ipswich.
Her career began straight out of high school and settled, for the past 15 years, into a corner storefront at the Bruni Marketplace on Essex Road.
“It’s been a long time doing this,” Eckmann said. The work, she added, has taken a physical toll.
“I’m not really looking to retire, but I just wish I could make enough money, you know? It’s just expensive to live around here,” she said, her voice catching. “Now I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Eckmann is among several small-business owners facing eviction from the Marketplace as AvalonBay, a multibillion-dollar real estate investment firm, prepares for a large-scale redevelopment of the property.
Avalon has proposed a 214-unit housing development — with 25% of the units designated as affordable — on the 13.3-acre site. The Zoning Board of Appeals approved the project last September, though not without reservations.
Timeline
For now, the project remains tied up in court, even after two abutters recently withdrew their appeal, according to property owner John Bruni.
Asked if he had a timeline for asking tenants to vacate the Marketplace, Bruni said, “No, I don’t. Those dingbats just keep appealing stuff [in court]. I don’t have any timeframe.”
In a recent letter to the editor, Chris Florio of Ipswich Citizens for Sustainable Growth said the group’s appeal “is very much not ended.”
“We are determined to continue to resist a project that is far too large for the property, puts the town’s water supply at even greater risk than it already is, and would strain every aspect of the town’s infrastructure and services,” Florio said.
Bruni said he has remained in communication with the business owners and indicated that he will give them advance notice before any eviction.
Town Building Inspector Jim Bone recently told the Select Board that he expects AvalonBay to begin submitting permit applications in the coming months.
“I’m not 100% sure about that, but they’ve been making some inquiries into extending the water and sewer lines,” he said. “I think, typically, when Avalon does a project, they come out with all guns blazing.”
‘Huge loss’
Some tenants have already made plans to leave. Beth Israel Lahey Health will relocate its primary care offices to Boston Street in Topsfield at the end of the month, and Corliss Brothers already has plans to move its office to Mitchell Road.
Others in the Bruni Marketplace are still searching, with little success.
Juan Fournier, manager of Upholstery by Fournier, said he has looked as far away as Andover for a new location.
“We’re not finding any space available around here. I worry about finding a new space,” he said. “It’s not easy. We don’t want to roll the dice. We know [the eviction] is coming soon.”
Next door to Dip N’ Clip, Mike McGrath has run Zenobia and Ipswich Photo out of the same storefront for the last 15 years. She was previously on Hammatt Street for 15 years.
McGrath said the uncertainty has already begun to shape her business decisions.
“I’m just getting a little bit here and there to keep things going until the day comes,” she said, explaining that she has already scaled back on inventory orders.
Even if space becomes available in town, she said, it often comes with trade-offs.
“The rent is extraordinary, or there’s no parking,” McGrath said. “You can’t be walking three blocks in the rain with your photos. That’s one of the reasons this location is so ideal. It’s frustrating.”
While she’s confident that she’ll be able to keep her business going, McGrath does worry about the future and what Ipswich could lose.
“I really don’t know what everybody here is going to do,” she said. “We need an upholstery place, we need Dip N’ Clip, we need Zenobia. We only have a few stores downtown. It will be such a huge loss for Ipswich.”
Generations
For Eckmann, owner of Dip N’ Clip, the uncertainty is deeply personal. Over the years, she has watched generations of families pass through her shops.
“I’ve seen so many people move to town. They came in here young and pregnant, and now I take care of the second or third generation of their dogs,” she said. “Now their kids are coming in here, bringing their own dogs.”
“It’s been so much fun,” she added. “To think about not doing this … it’s hard.”
