Quincy to take IHOP property by eminent domain, will pay $9.45 … – The Patriot Ledger

QUINCY − The city council has approved taking 119 Parkingway, the site of an IHOP restaurant, by eminent domain.
The owner will receive $9.45 million in compensation. An additional sum to be determined will go toward relocating the IHOP, which holds a lease through April 2028.
Quincy Director of Planning and Community Development Jim Fatseas told councilors during the Nov. 14 meeting that the taking will allow the city to move forward with redeveloping the area.
In October, D.J. MacKinnon of Atlantic Development outlined plans to build a 300-unit apartment building alongside an eight-story public parking garage, as well as retail space that would include a bank and “specialty grocer” rumored to be Trader Joe’s.
Fatseas said that once the city acquires the property, it can move forward with a land disposition agreement, by which the city transfers public property to a designated developer, in this case Atlantic Development.
Chris Walker, chief of staff to Mayor Thomas Koch, told The Patriot Ledger that the land disposition agreement for the project would be before the city council in “the very near future.”
The move will bring the city’s vision for the old Ross Garage area in the downtown district closer to fulfillment, Fatseas said.
In June 2022, the city council approved $53 million for improvements and land acquisitions in the area through District Improvement Financing, a state program allowing municipalities to pay for public improvements in areas designated for redevelopment with new tax revenues generated in that district.
Of that $53 million, $27.7 million was for land acquisition. The city acquired four properties with the money, including the IHOP building, two by purchase and two by eminent domain.
Quincy bought 1455 and 1459 Hancock St. in July 2022, the former for $2.9 million and the latter for $3.9 million, Walker said. Their combined assessed value is just over $3 million, according to city records.
The city plans to demolish the buildings to create park and patio space between two future high-rise residential buildings. The two buildings now house a doughnut shop and taekwondo studio.
A third property, 1620 Hancock St., was taken by eminent domain in July 2023 for $2.2 million. Mayor Thomas Koch said in 2022 that he planned to sell the property, a former pizzeria that has been vacant since a fire in the 1990s, to a developer. Walker said there hasn’t been a concrete proposal for the property.
The taking of the IHOP building at 119 Parkingway marks the fourth and final acquisition through the District Improvement Financing approved in 2022. It is owned by Parkingway Q Business Center LLC, whose listed agents are Adrien Shapiro and Alex Matov.
Shapiro and Matov, principals with LBC Boston, the developer that built the seven-story, 171-unit Nova residential building on Hancock Street, are major players in the redevelopment of downtown Quincy.
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In 2014, Shapiro and Matov bought 119 and 153 Parkingway, which are contiguous lots, for $14.6 million, according to city records. The city is acquiring only 119 Parkingway as part of the eminent domain taking.
In 2014, Shapiro and Matov also bought the neighboring property, 100 Parkingway, which they sold in 2019 to the city for $9.25 million, more than doubling their investment. The mixed-use project proposed by Atlantic Development would comprise both 119 and 100 Parkingway.
Shapiro and Matov own a row of properties next to Nova Quincy on Hancock Street where they plan to develop a six-story, 215-unit residential and commercial building with 12,000 square feet of retail space. LBC acquired one of the parcels in the project area directly from Quincy after signing a land disposition agreement with the city in 2020.

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