Capital Group Properties Fails to Deliver $100,000 Contribution Promised to Lancaster in Exchange for a 2023 Zoning Change

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In exchange for a approving a zoning change in 2023, Capital Group Properties/702, LLC promised two $100,000 contributions to Lancaster.    The second contribution is more than three months late.  The town administration is considering its options. 

 

October 4, 2025
Russ Williston

Capital Group Properties/702 LLC has failed to deliver the $100,000 payment that it promised to Lancaster in a “Memorandum of Agreement” in 2022.     The payment was due within 24 months of June 9^th, 2023.  

At the Select Board meeting on September 8^th, Town Administrator John Woodsmall announced that the town sent a “30 Day Demand Letter” to Capital Group properties to follow up on the missing contribution.   In an email with me Friday he confirmed that the town still has not received the payment and is working on follow-up actions.  Woodsmall said that the failed payment is not on the Select Board agenda for October 6^th but will likely be on the October 20^th agenda.

William A. DePietri, as Manager of 702 LLC,  signed a “Memorandom of Agreement” with Lancaster on November 14^th, 2022.   702 LLC is the corporation that Capital Group Properties is using for its North Lancaster project.   He pledged that 702 LLC would make two contributions of $100,000 to Lancaster.   The agreement was contingent on Lancaster adopting an expansion to the “Enterprise Zone” in North Lancaster. 

702 LLC wanted Lancaster to expand the “Enterprise Zone” district to include 120 acres of residentially zoned land off McGovern Boulevard.    The land to be re-zoned included a portion of the North Nashua Area of Critical Environmental Concern;  702 LLC asserted that it needed the additional acrerage to accommodate a 1,000,000 square foot warehouse that it would construct for a client.    Lancaster adopted the zoning change at a Special Town Meeting on January 28^th, 2023; 702 LLC has yet to construct anything in Lancaster.

The Memorandum took effect on June 9^th, 2023

Section 5 A. of the “Memorandum of Agreement” laid out the payment schedule:  “Within twenty-four (24) months of the Effective Date of this Agreement as defined in Section 9.1 below, the Owner shall pay the Town the additional sum of One-hundred-thousand ($100,000.00)”

Section 9.1 defined the “Effective Date” of the agreement as the date that Massachusetts Attorney General’s office finished its review of the approved change: the AG approved the zoning change on June 9^th, 2023.

 

The first contribution, in 2024, was receive several months late after an inquiry by Select Board member Ralph Gifford

702 LLC did make the first payment of $100,000 in 2024, several months late and only after Town Counsel reached out to them.   It was due in June but wasn’t pursued until after Select Board member Ralph Gifford inquired about it on August 5^th, 2024.

That first contribution was due 12 months after the agreement effective date.   

The town Administrator in 2024 was Kate Hodges.   She made a few game efforts to cover up the late payment.  First she claimed that Town Counsel was “already working on it” – but Town Counsel first contacted 702 LLC on August 6^th, the day after Ralph asked about the payment at the Select Board meeting.

On August 6^th Kate Hodges asserted that Town Counsel has “recently inquired” about the payment.

In fact: Town Counsel had reached out “very recently” – that same day, the day after Ralph Giffords inquiry.

 

 

Hodges issued a memo on September 12th claiming that 702, LLC that Capital Group made its payments in “early August” – as if they had made them unprompted -- but a citizen request for accounting records showed that the payment was only recorded on August 28^th.

Credit due to Member Ralph Gifford for getting that first payment for Lancaster.   It’s alarming that in a year when the town was looking at staff cuts and pressing Nashoba Regional School district for payroll cuts, the town would “forget” to collect $100,000.

A few weeks later Hodges attempted to orchestrate a series of staff complaints about Gifford to oust him from the board.    That attempt crumpled and by the end of the year Hodges was committed to leave Lancaster for a Town Manager position in Dracut.  I’ll write about that in a subsequent blog post.