Potential new housing project discussed in Marion

MARION — Four years after Lockheed Martin closed its operations in Marion, the developer that owns the property has proposed a housing project on the site of the facility, located at 7 Barnabas Road.

Sippican Holdings attended a presubmission conference with the Planning Board on Monday, April 7 to discuss plans to potentially convert the existing structures on the property into apartments. 

The Zoning Board of Appeals granted the developer a variance June 12, 2025 allowing for the building of no more than 50 residential units in an industrially-zoned area. 

Planning Board member Ryan Burke said he and fellow board members believe this zoning must be approved by Town Meeting before the developer can build.

“We felt that zoning change needed to go to town meeting, which is standard for change of use for zoning purposes, but the ZBA did issue a variance for that property.” Burke said.

He said this preliminary meeting was a first step in a process that could result in new housing in Marion, but the developer must go through an application process first. This could include site reviews and requesting special permitting. 

While the timeline for the project is unclear, Burke said time is ticking on the developers zoning variance, with a soon-expiring deadline.

“It could be weeks, it could be months,” he said. “Their variance has an expiration date if they don't start the process, so I suspect it'll move forward fairly soon.”

The site was the longtime home of an electrical-mechanical engineering firm founded in 1940 by brothers Tim and Sam Francis, alongside Phil Tabor. The company went public as Sippican Ocean Systems in 1981, and Lockheed Martin aquired it in 2004.

The company closed its Marion location late 2022. The company was the largest employer in town at that time, with 400 jobs relocated by the location's closing. 

Previous suggestions for use of the land included a village-style community housing development, but did not move forward.