THE DRUKER COMPANY
Preventing a Community from Erecting Barriers to a Development Project

The Druker Company, Ltd., is a Boston-based real estate and development company that develops, acquires, owns, and manages urban office, retail, market and affordable residential, entertainment, parking, and hotel properties.

Druker had beaten out 16 other developers for the rights to a prime $45 million project, located at a high-visibility intersection in the affluent suburb of Wellesley. But it had served for years as a maintenance depot for the state Highway Department, and thus the location was a typical brownfield, namely a contaminated site but with active potential for redevelopment or reuse. Druker agreed to remediate the property in the course of acquiring the development rights, but owners of abutting properties, concerned about the migration of carcinogens when the ground was disturbed, threatened to vehemently oppose and possibly delay or derail the project.

To diffuse such negativity from the outset, message points and statements positioned the advantages of the project for Wellesley residents, highlighting the value of sole tenant Harvard Pilgrim Health Care as an excellent corporate neighbor that would make a positive contribution to the community. These statements responded to abutters' concerns by detailing the benefits and careful steps taken to remediate the property, and they educated reporters from the Wellesley and regional newspapers that seemed inclined to find a negative story. With even-handed media coverage ensured, a grand ground-breaking ceremony was organized, with town and state officials, and about 200 guests, including state and local government officials and executives from Harvard Pilgrim. The project was completed on time without disruption, and today Wellesley Gateway is known as a landmark property.

This case history describes a program created by the principals of Solomon McCown & Company while we were members of a prior agency co-founded and managed by Helene Solomon.