HANSON – In Court papers signed by Plymouth Superior Court Justice Brian S. Glennny on May 27, 2025, another legal salvo was fired in the ongoing dispute between the town and owners of a commercial building at 1057 Main St.
This particular outbreak has been building over several years of motions and delays as Hanson officials have tried to achieve what Glennny ruled in response to requests of the Court from Hanson Fire Chief Robert O’Brien, the Building Inspector and the Hanson Fire Department..
Citing safety violations which “have continued over a long period of time,” Glenny ruled that Joseph Marangiello, in his capacity as Trustee of J&M Realty Trust, and owner Plymouth County Superior Court Justice Brian S. Glennny of the building at 1057 Main St., in Hanson is in civil contempt for failing to comply with the court’s July 16, 2024 order to evacuate some building tenants, permit safety and health inspections and to maintain a safe building.
Meanwhile, Maria Marangiello insists that the properties she and her husband own as J&M Realty Trust at 1011 and 1057 Main St., have been the target of hostile filings made by the town.
“In reality, their (the buildings) are old, they don’t want to see them there, they feel its unsafe, but, my thing is, we haven’t had any issues with fires in there – or anything, to be honest,” Mrs. Marangiello said Tuesday, so I don’t see the logic of being singled out just because it’s old. It was being used correctly. It wasn’t being abused.”
“We’re not making this guy tear this building down,” said Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “We’re not making him sell the building. We’re merely holding him to a standard that everybody else is being held to, which is, if you’re going to own a property, it needs to be safe an if you’re going to rent it, it needs to be safe for other people to be coming in and out of the building.”
“We don’t stand a chance,” Maria Marangiello said on Tuesday, July 8. “Everybody’s moving out. There was an auctioneer in.”
Mrs. Marangiello said she understands that town officials are concerned about public safety, but questions why that same concern is not evident toward similarly aged commercial buildings in town. As to the reason, she just looks to the two new mixed-use commercial/residential buildings not all that far down the street.
“Personally, I think whoever owns those apartments is paying off, to be honest. I don’t care what anybody says. We were doing fine. We didn’t have any issues there,” she said, adding that she and her husband are fine and have accepted the situation. She added that, for town officials like the Select Board, just because they are elected, does not make them perfect.
“For over two years, we’ve been going to Plymouth Court [to challenge Hanson’s demands for those inspections and improvements,” said; “The judgment was that the building is technically condemned, so he has to move everything out. He had tenants in there who were kind of pushed out and everything.”
“The thing that pisses me off is that people are saying [largely on social media] that,’ the town is just doing this because they want to develop [the property],” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said Monday. “No. We literally had the state fire marshall come to the site, as well, on more than one occasion.
Deputy Fire Chief Charles Barends could only confirm that the court order was made “after a long take with code enforcement.
“That’s pretty much all we have,” he said. “Everything else is a legal matter at this point, so unfortunately, we’re limited as to what we can say.”
Is the town trying to take possession of the building?
“Nope. No. Not at all,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “No. No. No, you don’t want to own that liability.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said the town, especially, the Select Board, had been trying to help Marangiello with his plans to develop the property.
“We offered him a TIF,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I personally offered a TIF (Tax Increment Financing plan) to him, with [then-Select Board Administrative Assistant] Merry Marini. We said, ‘If you want to do the work to bring his building up to code, we will defray taxes until you get the building up to the point where it needs to be, and then we’ll tax you. We figured the town would win because we’d get the building fixed up and we’d ultimately get taxation on a more improved building.”
But, she said Marangiello had turned down the offer.
Before her, former Selectmen David Soper and James McGahan had also sought to assist Marangiello.
Mrs. Marangiello countered that “everything was an issue, from Day One.”
“They’re just trying to clean up shop. It’s very discriminatory in my mind If I had the money, if I was that rich, I would definitely try to sue that town, she said, pointing to the town’s fight against th MBTA Communities program.
“It’s not right, people have to live,” Maria Marangiello said, noting that the town is “very cliquey, they have the lawyers that they hire which are paid for by the town.”
She also charge the building commissioner with having the mission of shutting them down.
“We have a whole group of people, ready and willing to work with him – the Select Board, building commissioner, our Planning Board and our planner, all ready to work with this guy,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “He’s been offered help multiple times. He just doesn’t want it,”
In 2016, he had also been approved for converting some of the building into apartments, but that was never done. FitzGerald-Kemmett said there is a problem on the property, but was uncertain how much that contributed to the lack of follow-through on the apartments.
She did say that the DEP recently reached out to the Select Board to let them know the agency “has some problems with 1057 Main St.,” concerning contamination of the property.
“He’s put so much money into fighting the town instead of just doing what he should do,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “You don’t get to have all the benefits of owning a property and making money off of it, without having the responsibility of keeping that property up to code. … It’s not your house. It’s a commercial property.”
Even after the court order to evacuate the property, FitzGerald-Kemmett said Marangiello had been advertising for commercial tenants on Craig’s List and other outlets, and the building is still for sale, for $1.25 million.
“It takes up such a huge chunk of Main Street, that every single person who’s run for Selectman has come in and said, ‘I’d love to see something come in and get improved there,” she said. “And I have tried … and it killed me to know that court order was going to mean that some businesses might not have a location, but I knew there was available space across the street, so if they’re legitimate businesses they can relocate, or find another spot because we do have some vacancies in town.”
On the other hand, Assessor Denise Alexander has told FitzGerald-Kemmett that she is not certain the town is receiving revenue from any of the businesses at 1011 or 1057 Main St.
“A different path we could have taken – had we had a competent building inspector at the time – would have been to have that building condemned and then order [Marangiello] to have it taken down, but we didn’t take that path, its for sale,” she said. “We thought maybe someone will buy it … The main thing we’re concerned about is fire hazards and the tenants that are in there.”
Conditions
The court’s conditions include evacuating the property at 1057 Main St. fortwith except for nine businesses and a residential unit occupied by Joseph Marangiello Sr., “and no others;”
- permit inspection and evaluation for building, fire, health and sanitary code issues, specifically for tenant businesses King’s Ransom Antiques, the cabinetry warehouse/supplier, a gunsmith/firearms dealer and any areas, units or portions of areas within the property used as storage;
- keep the property free of occupants for all areas, units and businesses not already exempted unless the town explicitly allows reoccupancy in writing or the court rules otherwise. Use of some areas for storage only – and no other occupancy – may be permitted with written guidance from the Hanson Fire Chief to the defendant through counsel and reinspection of storage units;
- arrange for and complete the inspection and certification of the building’s automatic sprinkler and fire alarm systems and provide reports and confirmation tp the Hanson Fire Department; and
- correct any and all violations of state building and fire code violations.
- Marangiello was given 14 days to complete the terms of the order, but it could be extended so long as good cause was shown, and King’s Ransom Antiques.