South Shore medical office complex postpones all in-person appointments after building deemed unsafe

HANOVER, Mass — A South Shore medical office complex was forced to evacuate and postpone all in-person appointments after the building was deemed unsafe.

Hanover Building Commissioner Joe Stack told Boston 25 News that the revelation was made last Wednesday.

He said crews working on the construction of a new pool in the basement at the Hanover Wellness Center found significant corrosion on multiple steel columns.

According to Stack, those columns hold up the support beams for the second floor of a building that’s located at 20 East Street off of Route 53.

A structural engineer inspected the critical support columns in question on Thursday.

More than a dozen offices and small businesses that operate out of the complex were evacuated later that day, and the building’s occupancy permit was revoked.

“It could take a matter of days or a couple of weeks,” explained Stack. “It all depends on the availability of what we need to get these repairs done and the engineers involved.”

Stack said as many as 400 people come and go from the building every day.

It’s not only home to array of medical offices but also a daycare.

“The fact that we have a daycare in the front corner that has 40 children on a daily basis, that certainly added weight to our decision,” said Stack. “But the whole decision was based on life safety.”

Doctors officers and other businesses are entering a new week not knowing when they’ll be able to return.

Stack said satisfactory reports from the engineer will be a critical step in resuming operations there.

“This has nothing to do with the construction of the pool,” added Stack. “I’m actually glad they were doing it because this would have went unnoticed.”

The business whose contractor is credited with uncovering the hidden danger in the basement offers swim classes at several other locations.

An email from Powers Aquatics that went out to families explained that its contractors discovered the corrosion while taking down a wall that needed to be replaced.

It also shares more information about the current uncertainty.

As for Powers Aquatics, our construction has stopped and we have no idea when it will start back up/if it will be able to start back up. There is a temporary plan in place to secure these columns which will allow the rest of the building to open back up, the timeline of that is unknown to me, but the area occupied by Powers Aquatics will have to remain closed until there is a permanent fix in place.

This has been such a hard week for my husband, Jim, and I. We have not even told our children yet as there are still so many unanswered questions for us. My family has worked SO hard at East St and our kids have really been a huge part in all of this; they have planned and helped execute all of the amazing things we had set up for all our kiddos.

It breaks my heart to be writing this email, as this has been a dream of mine, and we have poured every ounce of our lives, souls and savings into this space for the last eight months. We have dealt with so many obstacles along the way and while we have pulled through each and every time this is simply out of our control. Powers Aquatics will be moving forward with the assumption that we will not be at East St for the foreseeable future.

Boston 25 News reached out to the owner of the building and have not yet heard back.

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