A private investment firm continued its bid Monday to convince a planning board in Westford, Mass., to approve the development of a single-story self-storage facility. Cathartes Private Investments (CPI), a Boston-based real estate and energy development firm, presented the development plan to the planning board for the first time in November. Since then, the discussion has been postponed three times, once by the board and twice by CPI. During Mondays meeting CPI representatives offered a revised site plan to satisfy concerns expressed during the review process.  

Attorney Doug Deschenes, a partner with Deschenes & Farrell, P.C., and Andrea Tavares, a civil engineer with Land Tech Consultants, represented CPI. 

The proposed development will be located on Commerce Way off Groton Road near Westford Solar Park and the ACE Hardware Plaza. The facility will encompass 72,800 square feet of storage and 570 units in seven single-story buildings. One of the buildings will include a 600-square-foot office for customers. An existing 14,000-square-foot office building will be demolished.

The proposed development also includes reconstruction of the intersection of Commerce Way and Groton Road and roughly 1,100 linear feet of Commerce Way leading up to the facility. The board had previously expressed concerns about increased traffic at the site. Deschenes assured them during Mondays meeting that traffic to the facility would be minimal and more frequent on weekends. However, vice chairman Mike Green requested that CPI provide a detailed summary of the current onsite traffic conditions and predict traffic the facility might generate. The vote was continued to Feb. 4.

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