Davis Founder and Wife Make $1000 Contributions to Mayor’s Campaign
By Josh Resnek
One of the first actions taken by the president of the Davis Companies, and his wife, before announcing the planned purchase of the 95 acre Exxon site in Everett, was to make twin $1,000 donations to Mayor Carlo DeMaria’s campaign account.
Also listed as contributing from the Davis Companies are executives Richard McCready, who made a $1,000 campaign contribution to the mayor on 8/23/21 and another Davis executive Michael Cantalupa who contributed $500.
McCready lists his residence as 121 Chestnut Road, Weston.
Cantalupa lives at 5 Churchill Circle, Winchester.
Records on file with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) reveal that Jonathan Davis and his wife, Margot of 76 Fernwood Road in Chestnut Hill made the donations on 5/10/21.
The Davis’ made contributions of $1,000 and $500 respectively to DeMaria in 2019 and an additional $1,000
contribution by Jonathan Davis in 2018, according to OCPF records.
The donations speak volumes about the mayor’s propensity for raising campaign funds from potential developers interested in or developing in Everett.
Their timing also indicates a great deal of interest in acquiring the Exxon site by the Davis Companies.
During mid-2021 Exxon officials indicated they were interested in selling the property, as reported by the Leader Herald at that time.
Although contaminated, the parcel represents one of the biggest, best and last major development sites in Greater Boston within a stone’s throw of downtown Boston.
Last week, Davis Companies held the first of what is expected to be a number of get togethers between stakeholders and residents of the neighborhood to be affected by the development.
This first public meeting was held inside a large conference room at the Encore Hotel and Casino and was well attended.
The firm’s chief development officer, Michael Cantalupa, confirmed in an e-mail that a Davis affiliate has signed
an agreement with Exxon for its Everett fuels storage and distribution terminal, but would not comment beyond
that. (Davis is also building a roughly 225,000-square-foot “last mile” distribution center near the Chelsea-Everett line, rumored to be for Amazon.)
Similarly, a spokeswoman for Exxon, which had hired brokerage firm JLL to market the site last year, declined to say
much about the deal other than to confirm it and to add that it is consistent with the energy giant’s strategy to “continually evaluate and upgrade our portfolio, according to the Boston Globe.
The present fuel storage site was once a refinery and then an asphalt batching plant.
It has been used for industrial purposes only since the early 1920’s.