55 High Street Condominium

The 55 High Street Condominium is a fifteen-unit industrial condominium on the southeasterly side of High Street in North Billerica, built in 1986. Behind it, on the land at 55 Rear High Street, is a vehicle salvage and auction yard run by Copart. The condominium lot and the yard were cut from one tract, developed by the same family business, Ronnie's Inc., and its sister company Brandywine Corporation, and they still share the two 50-foot rights of way that run back from High Street.

The land was farmland until 1911, when the Boston and Maine Railroad bought a large block of farms on High Street, Pond Street and the road to Salem for its North Billerica car shops (Boston and Maine Billerica Shops). The railroad's plan of April 1911, "Land in Billerica, Mass. on High Street, Pond Street and the Road to Salem Purchased by the Boston & Maine Railroad," shows the High Street frontage beside the Lexington Branch divided among the farms of Michael B. Hayes, Ellen A. and Margaret B. Devine, Edward Spaulding and the Bemis family. The individual 1911 deeds for this frontage have not yet been matched to the site. The railroad kept the land for nearly fifty years.

In June 1959 the Boston and Maine sold "about twenty-three (23) acres" on High Street, between land of the Bellis family and the Johns-Manville plant, to Danforth W. Comins as trustee. A plan of the same year divided it into Parcel A, which went to Avery and Saul Co., and Parcel B, 13 acres with 569 feet on High Street. Parcel B passed in 1966 to owners from Winchester, and in 1971 P. F. Avery Corporation (the renamed Avery and Saul Co.) sold both parcels, "with the buildings thereon," to Standard International Corporation, later Standex International, for $500,000. In May 1979 Standex sold Parcel B, "13 acres, 8,725 square feet," to Ronnie's Inc., an automotive business then at 35 High Street.

In June 1982 Ronnie's Inc. had Parcel B divided by James B. Monahan into Lot 1, 4.07 acres on High Street, and Lot 2, about 9 acres behind it. The Board of Appeals granted a special permit in July 1983 for a plan "showing Lot No. 1 of 4.07 acres containing fifteen (15) units," with automobile service and repair allowed in unit 1, and that November the company deeded Lot 1 to its two principals. Robert M. Gill and Associates of Lowell drew the "Master Site Plan of 55 High St. Condominium" on December 24, 1985, and the master deed was recorded on July 31, 1986: "The name of the Condominium shall be as follows: 55 HIGH STREET CONDOMINIUM." By then the developers "constructed 15 Condominium Units in one concrete and wood frame building with a poured concrete slab foundation. The veneer is concrete block." The units run in a single row facing a parking area on High Street, range from 2,000 to 4,635 square feet, some on two or three levels, and each carries a 6.666 percent interest. They "may be used only for office, retail or other commercial purposes."

In December 1989 the developers moved units 1, 2 and 3 to Brandywine Corporation of Chelmsford, and Ronnie's Inc. moved Lot 2 behind the building to the same company. Brandywine sold unit 3 in 2003 and unit 2 in 2004 to Amber Lane Investment, LLC, and unit 1 in 2009 to JO-ROC, LLC, whose purchase included the parking area behind the unit. The other units have passed among private owners, family trusts and small companies. In the 1990s the address was also the office of Faulkner Mills Acquisition Corp., which bought the Faulkner Mills in 1995.

The rear yard grew from Lot 2 and a long strip of railroad land. In 1967 the Boston and Maine sold 27.46 acres along the curve of its Lexington Branch, reached from High Street by a 50-foot driveway, to the Gerald Richard Real Estate Trust, with the usual railroad conditions: the buyers had to "build and forever maintain suitable fences," and the railroad would not answer for fire "communicated directly or indirectly by or from locomotive engines." Ronnie's Inc. bought the strip in January 1985 for $160,800. The town allowed the company to fill and pave low land in the flood plain in 1987, and Colonial Gas Company to pave on Lot 2 in 1994. A cell tower followed, leased to AT&T Wireless in 1997 and shared with Cellular One under a 2001 variance, and in 1998 the railroad released a narrow strip that squared off the yard on a 1997 Gill plan. On December 31, 2009 Copart of Connecticut, Inc., already the tenant at "55R High Street," bought the yard: the railroad land and strip from Ronnie's Inc. for $3,915,000 and Lot 2 and a 9-acre parcel from Brandywine Corporation for $385,000, taking on a court-ordered wetland restoration with it. The assessor lists the combined 27.46 acres as an auto salvage yard with an office building of about 1986.

Copart, the national salvage vehicle auction company, appears in the town's personal property tax books at 55 High Street and 55 Rear High Street from 2003 and is still listed in 2024. The condominium units have housed a changing mix of contractors, truckers and small manufacturers. Long-term tenants include Omni Glass in unit 4 (from 2003), Northeast Minicomputer in unit 6 (2003 to 2020), Crystal Computer Sales (2003 to 2016) and then R. H. Young Cooling and Heating (2016 to 2023) in unit 5, J. M. Industries in unit 7 (from 2005), Atlantic Fabs in unit 8 (2003 to 2011), Genetti's General Contracting in unit 2 (from 2005), Patriot Landscaping in unit 11 (2008 to 2023), and A. J. Proia & Son Asphalt Paving in unit 15 (from 2005). Unit 1 has been home to E. W. Larson Reload & Trucking (2005 to 2015) and H. R. Prescott & Sons (from 2015), and unit 14 to F. L. Larson Trucking (2016 to 2020). Unit 10 has been a limousine base, first for A Le Mark Limousine Service (2003 to 2006) and later for A-Executive Limousine (from 2012); unit 3 has housed paving contractors, J. M. Harrison Paving (2011) and J. M. Harrington Asphalt & Paving (from 2014), and Fan Distributors Company (2017 to 2020); and Gardner Race Service has been in unit 12 since 2019. Shorter stays include Braze All, Julious Craft Co., Protocol Partners, Rampe and Winning Auto Service in the early 2000s, Wildcard Performance (2005 to 2010), Wildfire (2008 to 2009) and Tomco Equipment Repair (2011 to 2013).

References

1. Billerica assessor, 55 U #01 High St (parcel 23-34-1-1): industrial condominium unit built about 1986, owner deed Book 23128 Page 53; units 2-15 are accounts 2101-2114.
2. Billerica assessor, 55 Rear High St (parcel 23-140-0): 27.46 acres, auto salvage (Copart), office building about 1986, owner deed Book 23656 Page 124.

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.