The last oil tank is down at the former ExxonMobil tank farm in South Everett. That is the real news here, underneath the City of Everett’s usual press-release fog machine.
The site is 105 acres, now controlled by The Davis Companies and Global Partners LP, and it has spent decades looking exactly like what it was: an industrial tank farm on the Mystic. One giant piece of that past just got hauled off the board.
According to the city, the final tank measured 190 feet in diameter and once held 16 million gallons of home heating oil. Demolition did not mean one dramatic smash and a photo op. The city says crews spent months preparing the structure, cleaning it, cutting into it, and dismantling it piece by piece with specialized equipment.
Mayor Robert Van Campen showed up for the demolition and called it “both significant and symbolic,” which is the sort of thing mayors say when they want you to understand they were present for history. Still, in this case, the symbolism is not fake. A site long defined by tanks now has no tanks.
Van Campen said, “It’s the last tank to come down, and it represents the broader transformation we’re going to see on this 105-acre site right here in South Everett.” He also said, “This moment is symbolic. It marks the end of Everett’s industrial past here and the beginning of a new chapter.”
That is the sales pitch. The more important part is the process underneath it.
This site does not turn into anything useful unless someone with money is willing to spend years cleaning up contaminated industrial land, dealing with permits, taking political heat, and then actually building. That is what Davis has been trying to do. The city says this remediation is the largest in Everett’s history. If true, that matters more than a dozen slogan-heavy planning meetings.
Michael Cantalupa, chief development officer for Davis, put it plainly enough: “This final step in the demolition process clears the way to begin vertical development and realize the potential of the Everett Docklands.” He said the company envisions “a resilient, walkable, innovative neighborhood” with housing, retail, open space, and commercial uses.
Now comes the part Everett should pay attention to.
The city says remediation is “nearly complete,” and that the tank removal clears the way for “vertical development.” In plain English: the cleanup phase is giving way to the building phase. That is where policy fights, zoning games, and activist fantasies can do real damage.
Because this site has already been dragged into one manufactured political fight over a hypothetical data center that Davis never proposed. While the city is celebrating demolition as progress, it would be worth asking whether City Hall and the Planning Board are actually prepared to let redevelopment proceed without turning every zoning line into another proxy war for outside groups.
Still, one fact is not in dispute. A huge, contaminated industrial parcel in Everett is physically changing. The final tank is gone. That is not theory, not a petition, not a social media campaign. It is actual progress on the ground.