Gov. Baker On Hand for Opening of Sal Lupoli’s Haverhill Heights Mixed-Use Downtown Development

The 10-story “The Heights at Haverhill” officially opened Thursday morning with Gov. Charlie Baker and other dignitaries cutting the ribbon.

The building will house Northern Essex Community College’s Lupoli Family Culinary Arts Institute, a MassHire office operated by the college, 42 luxury apartments, an Italian restaurant called “Bosa” and a rooftop bar called “Bar Bosa.” Baker said he first met developer Salvatore N. Lupoli 10 years ago at Lupoli’s Riverwalk in Lawrence.

“Sal and his team working with local officials, state officials, lenders and others, have managed to create and reimagine properties across Gateway Cities all over the Merrimack Valley,” he said.

The meeting was a reunion of sorts between Baker and former state Rep. Brian S. Dempsey. The governor, who was presented with a commemorative Harbor Place jacket by Dempsey near the project site four years ago, told Dempsey “we miss you on Beacon Hill.”

Coming on a day where counting votes cast in the presidential election remained controversial, Haverhill Mayor James J. Fiorentini said he is thankful for the local spirit of cooperation.

“Now this project only happened because we don’t have the national insanity here. We work together. We have great public-private partnerships with everybody working together. Gov. Baker, this would not have happened without you,” he said.

Back in 2016, Baker came to Haverhill with another $9 million MassWorks grant to help move along a second phase of Harbor Place and money for a boardwalk extension and public parking to support Lupoli’s project.

The mayor credited City Councilor Joseph J. Bevilacqua for introducing him to Lupoli about a decade ago.

“I took Sal for a ride in my car—the governor’s right, I’ve done that a few times—and I took him down to Merrimack Street where there was a building for sale. Do you remember Sal? I said, ‘Sal, buy this building,’ and he bought it,” the mayor added.

The building at 192 Merrimack St. formerly housed Ocasio’s True Martial Arts and became the parking for The Heights project.

Lupoli said the new development is a model for growth and development.

“This is a poster child for economic engine. This poster child exists in a Gateway City. It is servicing housing—market rate housing, workforce housing. It partnered with an education component. It’s opening restaurants. It has MassHire. It checks all the boxes,” he said.

Northern Essex Community College President Lane A. Glenn said while the current pandemic has been very tough on restaurants, they will rebound.

“For a lot of years we were asked could you provide some training for chefs, for managers, for restaurateurs, for people who want to open their own businesses, small business owners who create products out of their home kitchens and so forth. And, it took the right ingredients to make that happen—to sort of borrow a metaphor from the third floor where all of our kitchens are up there.”

The ceremony took place on a newly created green space in front of the building overlooking the Merrimack River.