Image courtesy of GSA

The U.S. government is auctioning off a 51-acre site at the Southfield property in South Weymouth over the objections of the local agency responsible for redeveloping the former naval air station.

The U.S. General Services Administration last week began an online auction of the former U.S. Coast Guard housing property, located approximately a mile from the MBTA’s South Weymouth commuter rail station. The Coast Guard demolished the 165-unit housing complex on the property between 2003 and 2015.

The Southfield Redevelopment Agency opposes the land transfer, which appears to bypass its involvement in the process. 

“The SRA’s opinion is that no person or entity in the Commonwealth is authorized to acquire property within the base from the United States government,” Chairman Thomas Henderson wrote in a letter to a Coast Guard real estate official issued in September, citing the 1997 state legislation governing the base redevelopment.

GSA spokesman Paul Hughes said this week the federal government attempted to negotiate a sale to the SRA for more than two years, but rejected the SRA’s offer because it believes it can obtain a better offer through the competitive online auction.

The auction which began March 1 set a starting bid of $500,000. The property currently contains three garages, a small maintenance office and surface parking. The Coast Guard took over ownership from the U.S. Navy in 1998, the year after the South Weymouth Naval Air Station was decommissioned.

Private developers have completed 1,274 housing units at the 1,400-acre former air base in the past decade, but ambitious plans for a large-scale commercial development sputtered under a series of master developers.

The Southfield Redevelopment Authority removed the most recent master developer, LStar, in 2019 for failing to meet its contractual obligations. In September 2021, a Superior Court judge ordered LStar to pay $63 million to the redevelopment agency for unfinished obligations during its tenure.

In August 2021, the agency selected a new master development team that includes Brookfield Properties, Boston-based New England Development and Pinehills Managing Partner Tony Green. The development team is expected to negotiate a new development and disposition agreement for approximately 339 acres at the former base.