Danvers Is Asking What Endicott Street Should Become. Its Lots Keep Filling In Under Today's Rules.

For decades, the Denny's at 152 Endicott Street was a familiar North Shore stop. Its booths even appeared on screen, in the 2013 movie "The Heat" with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy and in John Travolta's 2015 film "The Forger." The restaurant closed in 2016. The Econo Lodge behind it closed two years later, and both buildings stood empty on the site for years.

That lot is now a 116-room Home2 Suites by Hilton built for extended stays, with a Fidelity Investments branch out front, according to The Salem News. No new plan for Endicott Street was needed to make that happen. The town has now started one anyway, and its first public meeting is Thursday, November 12.

Those two facts fit together. Endicott Street is already refilling under its current rules, one lot at a time. The Endicott Street Visioning Study is about what those rules can't produce, however many lots turn over.

What the current zoning already allows

Most of the corridor is zoned Commercial III. Danvers Planning Director Brian Szekely has explained that this district permits most commercial uses and prohibits residential ones. A hotel, a bank branch, a big-box retailer, a golf simulator and a drive-thru restaurant all fit inside that definition. That explains why the most visible changes on the street over the past few years needed no change to the street's vision. The town has said it doesn't currently have one.

Here is where several recent projects stand, based on town permitting updates and published reports:

Ross is a good example of why national chains look at this corridor. MassLive reported on October 12 that Danvers and West Springfield were the company's first two Massachusetts locations, part of a fall push of 51 new stores across 17 states.

Back Nine Golf is the smaller example. The town's October 2026 permitting update lists a September 29 electrical permit at 180 Endicott for wiring the new Back 9 Golf simulation space, along with a gas fitter permit the same day for two new rooftop units at that address. The company's Danvers page still says opening soon. It's an indoor entertainment business going into existing commercial space, which is the kind of use Commercial III was written for.

Each project in that table was a sensible decision for its own lot. Together they show the corridor working the way its zoning intends.

What the lots don't add up to

Commercial III does have limits. No one can build housing on most of the corridor, however much demand there is. And a new tenant on a single lot has little reason to plan sidewalks between parcels, crossings that connect one plaza to the next, or open space beyond its own parking lot.

Those limits line up closely with the options Szekely has described for the study. In CNHI's report on the project launch, he listed:

• Expanding the types of commercial uses allowed
• Adding residential use
• Improving pedestrian and vehicle safety
• Adding more open space and walkable areas

He also addressed the most obvious worry about letting homes into a commercial corridor. CNHI reported that he said:

"The goal is not to just pump this area just full of housing. The goal here is really to have an area that's firing on so many more cylinders."

The safety piece already has a paper trail. According to the same CNHI report, the town's recent Transportation Community Needs Assessment identified a need for road safety improvements in the area. The project team hopes to use funding from the state's Complete Streets program to pay for them. That's a different kind of change from anything in the table above, because it covers the street itself instead of one property along it.

The study area covers Endicott Street and the nearby section of Route 128. Danvers is running it through its Planning and Economic Development office with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. MAPC listed the Endicott Street Corridor Study among the local projects in its technical assistance awards announced in May 2026.

Eighteen months, in order

Ross was announced for October, and the Back Nine fit-out was permitted in September. The visioning process runs on a much longer clock. Here is the sequence as CNHI reported it, by season:

1. Summer. Work began, with the project team analyzing current conditions on the corridor. A digital survey on the town's website stayed open through mid-August.
2. Fall. The team develops possible land-use scenarios based on community feedback and holds an open house.
3. Winter. The team develops formal recommendations, and residents can give feedback at a Planning Board meeting.
4. Spring. The team drafts zoning changes, with more chances for public input.
5. February 2028. Szekely expects any zoning changes to go to Town Meeting, about 18 months after the study began.

That last date is the planning director's projection, not a scheduled vote. Nothing in the study changes what's allowed on Endicott Street until Town Meeting approves it. Until then, Commercial III stays in effect, and every lot that turns over in the meantime will be filled under today's rules.

Permits like the ones at 180 Endicott will keep arriving month by month while the study works toward its recommendations.

What November 12 is for

The town calendar lists Endicott Street Visioning: Public Meeting #1 on Thursday, November 12, 2026, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Danvers Senior Center, 25 Stone Street. On the published timeline it falls in the fall phase, when land-use scenarios built from community feedback are on the table. The town's Endicott Street Visioning Study page is the project's home on the town website, and CNHI pointed readers there to learn more about the study.

At the scenarios stage, specific comments tend to be the most useful. Some questions that connect directly to the gaps the study is trying to fill:

• Where on the corridor is walking between businesses currently impractical, and which crossing would change that?
• If residential use is allowed, should it go on particular parcels or blend with retail, the "more cylinders" idea Szekely described?
• What kind of open space would get used on a commercial strip next to Route 128?
• Which commercial uses that Commercial III doesn't currently allow would fill a gap close to home?

Anyone who missed the summer survey still has a voice. The meeting, the winter Planning Board session and the spring zoning drafts are all open for public input before anything reaches Town Meeting.

The 152 Endicott site took years to go from empty buildings to a hotel and a bank branch, and it got there under the rules already in place. The Visioning Study decides whether the next few years of Endicott Street run under those same rules or under new ones that allow homes and safer crossings.

If you own property on or near Endicott Street and want to understand how the study's timeline relates to your own plans, The Caceda Team is happy to talk it through and follow the process with you as recommendations take shape. When you're ready to see where your home stands today, start with a free home valuation.