Amesbury is thrilled to have Maples Crossing moving forward now. It is a great opportunity for the city as to gaining visibility and also to the businesses located here already. Governor Baker, Sen. DiZoglio, Rep. Kelcourse, and Mayor Gray all spoke at the event – as you’ll see in the attached video. All of the speakers tied together the links to Amesbury’s history as well as the opportunities the project creates in the future – for businesses, for residents, as well as kids that will be playing home hockey games at an incredible home rink……and be the envy of the region. Can you imagine the kids faces while skating?
What else does it actually mean to Amesbury?
Visibility to vehicles on route 495 approaching Amesbury – through the building profile as well as signage. The facility will attract tens of thousands of people each year that may never have visited Amesbury. It will be a smart thing for other area businesses to affiliate with Maples Crossing.
A huge construction project creating jobs throughout the trades for a multi year duration that will mean incremental spending for local restaurants, other food / hospitality related businesses, hotels, and services businesses in Amesbury.
A principally state funded upgrade to the route 495 / 150 interchange and entering into Amesbury. This solves a current safety problem and will make transit in the area more favorable as well as adding sidewalks for accessibility through the area. It will also represent a welcoming and organized entry into the city with the opportunity for visibility to other businesses through thoughtful signage.
New revenue business opportunities for existing Amesbury companies in construction and services related businesses through agreements with Global Property Developers. Global has already made numerous commitments with Amesbury businesses. There are at least a half dozen located at CI Works. As revenues are spent locally, they are typically recycled 2 or 3 times through community businesses.
The facility plans to not only be state of the art, but also be a shining light in terms of utilizing energy efficient building concepts and products throughout. This energy efficiency approach will set an example for other businesses in Amesbury to emulate, in addition to being located amongst 2 large scale solar developments owned by the city and located nearby, a model for other cities.
While there are tax related benefits offered to Maples Crossing by Amesbury in the initial project years, the tax revenue to the city annually on a $70 million project are estimated at over $1 Million per year. In addition, subsequent development phases at Maples Crossing that would include additional outdoor sports related venues and activities, an additional hotel, and other retail businesses could double that tax revenue number annually. What an enormous long term benefit to taxpayers in Amesbury!!!
Think of the addition of millions of dollars of discretionary spending annually at Amesbury businesses that are smart and affiliate and advertise at Maples. This will be from thousands of visitors to the facility that are not 3 hour visitors for a single game, but spend weekend and even weeks at a time in Amesbury. Now Amesbury needs to transform itself into a destination location.
Kudos to Mayor Gray, Econ. Dev. Dir. Bill Scott, and their teams for landing such an enormous and well thought out long term investment in their city. They identified and assisted in locating this asset in their city and the shared benefits to all located here in Amesbury. Well done guys!!!