Chelsea wants a new fire station and does not own a single piece of land it could put one on. That sentence is not a characterization. It is what the City Manager told the council in February: “Since the City does not own any property that could accommodate a fire station, we have reached out to several property owners.”
The search began with Council Order 2533 in March 2025. Almost a year later the administration reported one promising lead: Barry Berman, chief executive of Chelsea Jewish Lifecare, and his organization’s land on Admirals Hill. “We have had very fruitful and positive conversations with Mr. Barry Berman,” Maltez wrote. “We are happy to report that a fire station would fit on their property.”
The design and the number
Public Works produced a preliminary design with Gorman Richardson Lewis Architects and a cost estimate, both attached to the letter. The drawings, dated January 7, show a two-story station measuring roughly 56 by 87 feet at the corner of Commandants Way and Captain’s Row, next to the Cohen Florence Levine Estates and the Florence and Chafetz House, across from the Anchors Weigh apartment parking lot. Upstairs are six bunk rooms, two bathrooms, a day room, a kitchen, a laundry and an exercise room.
The estimate on the cost sheet is $6,079,260 for construction.
What the letter does not say
It does not say what the land would cost, or whether it would cost anything. The word used is collaboration. In April the Public Safety subcommittee, chaired by Councillor Lisa Santagate, weighed Captain’s Row, which is donated but small, against Marginal Street, which would have to be purchased. Fire Chief John Quatieri presented a site report scoring the candidates. At the same meeting the committee heard that Engine 4 has been back in full-time service for the first time since receivership.
Terms for the Admirals Hill land have never been disclosed to the public. Whether the offer is a gift, a long-term lease, a sale, or a trade for something the nonprofit wants from the city is not in any packet this year. That is the single most important fact about the proposal and it is the one the record does not contain.
Why a station there
Admirals Hill is a peninsula at the northeast corner of the city, reached by a limited number of roads, holding a dense cluster of elderly and assisted-living housing, including the Chelsea Jewish Lifecare campus itself. It is also, as the city’s other filings this year make clear, in the flood zone the Island End River barrier is meant to protect. A station there would cut response times to exactly the population least able to evacuate on its own.
It would also be built by an organization with a direct interest in that response time. That is not a scandal. It is a reason for the terms to be public before the council votes on anything. The city has a $6.08 million estimate, a floor plan, a willing landowner and no disclosed deal.