Commercial Real Estate in Danvers, MA

A local commercial real estate company on High Street

We are a commercial real estate company with two sides: we represent clients, and we are landlords. Our office is at 70 High Street, and several of our buildings sit on High Street and elsewhere in town. Our about page has more on how we work, and our services page lists what we do.

We work across the North Shore, including Peabody, Salem, Beverly, Lynn, Marblehead, Middleton, and Topsfield. This page is about Danvers: the property we own here, the zoning and approvals that shape commercial property, and where to read the primary sources.

If you own a Danvers building and are weighing a sale or a lease, see our commercial real estate broker in Danvers page. If you are looking for space, start with the buildings listed below or call 978-777-1817.

Commercial space we own in Danvers, including space to lease

We own commercial buildings in Danvers and rent them to tenants. Because this is our own inventory, we are the landlord when you call about these spaces. One building, 71 High Street, is listed as available for lease on our properties page. The list below is what our properties page shows.

• Retail: 71 High Street, a former restaurant space listed as available for lease; 75 High Street, a 10,000 square foot retail building; and 77 High Street, a retail property.
• Office: two office buildings at 194 North Street, and two office suites at 70 High Street, a mixed-use building that also has one residential unit and houses our own office.
• Industrial: 5 Healy Court, a 4,000 square foot industrial building.

Availability changes. Call us at 978-777-1817 to confirm what is open before you plan around any of these.

Downtown Danvers and mixed-use zoning

Downtown Danvers is governed by four character-based zoning districts in Sections 19 to 22 of the Zoning Bylaw: the Town Center Core, the Town Center Live/Work district, the High Street Mixed Use Corridor, and the Maple Street Traditional Neighborhood Development Smart Growth Overlay. Section 18 holds the standards they share. Section 18 describes these districts as mixed-use and pedestrian oriented, and says that in them the Planning Board reviews new and altered buildings under Sections 18 through 22 and that those sections prevail where the rest of the bylaw conflicts.

Our guide, Mixed-Use Zoning Comes to Downtown Danvers, walks through the districts, the state housing law behind part of the change, and where to read the bylaw yourself.

Older buildings are a related topic. The former fire station at 135 Maple Street, which we brokered, closed in July 2026, and we wrote about what that building says about adaptive reuse on the North Shore. You can see the 135 Maple Street listing for the building details.

How commercial zoning works in Danvers

Zoning in Danvers is set by the town’s Zoning Bylaw. This page uses the version amended through February 3, 2025. The town’s Zoning Bylaws page links to May 2026 Annual Town Meeting articles. We have not checked whether any of them changed the sections summarized here, so confirm with the town. Here is how it is organized.

• Districts. Section 5.2 lists the districts. Commercial III was set up for the Endicott Street area. Others include Industrial I, Industrial II, Danversport Industrial, the Health Care District, and the Waterfront Village District. Section 5.2 also names districts such as Commercial I and IA, the Highway Corridor Zone, the Route 114 zones, and the Village District, whose full text was moved into Table 1 in 2007. They still appear as columns in Table 1 and on the zoning map, so your parcel may be in one of them. The Danvers zoning map shows the district for most parcels. Its legend points to a separate map for the downtown character-based districts, so ask the Planning Division which map governs a downtown parcel.
• Uses. Section 6 sets the use rules, and Table 1 (the Table of Allowable Uses, at the end of the bylaw) shows, district by district, whether a use is allowed by right, by special permit from the Planning Board, by special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals, or not allowed. The bylaw says Table 1 is a summary and the text controls if they differ. A use that is not listed is treated as prohibited, but the Zoning Administrator can classify an unlisted use or a change of use as allowed by right, needing a special permit, or not permitted, and that decision can be appealed to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
• Special permits. Section 30 covers special permits.

We do not summarize which use is allowed in which district here. That is a parcel-by-parcel question, and the table is where the answer lives. You can read the full Danvers Zoning Bylaw on the town’s site.

Parking

Off-street parking is set by use under Section 10.2 of the bylaw, and the Planning Board can require more or fewer spaces or waive parts of it in some reviews. The downtown districts have their own parking table (Table 18-2 in Section 18.5), and its ratios depend partly on whether the property is within 300 feet of a municipal parking lot. If a space has limited parking, ask early how the bylaw treats the intended use.

Site Plan Review and change of use

Site Plan Review under Section 4 of the bylaw is required for projects such as:

• exterior construction or expansion of 1,000 square feet of floor area or more (or 5% of existing floor area, whichever is greater);
• a 10% or greater increase in site coverage or impervious area;
• adding 10 or more parking spaces; and
• a change of use between the residential, commercial, and industrial categories.

A change from one commercial use to a different commercial use is not a change of use for this purpose. Projects at the lower end above these thresholds, such as additions of 1,999 square feet or less or adding 10 to 19 parking spaces, get Intermediate Site Plan Review from Planning staff instead of a Planning Board hearing. A change of use with minimal exterior changes may be waived if Planning staff find it does not conflict with the bylaw’s purpose, complies with current zoning, and needs no further review. A change of use inside a multi-tenant building is also exempt when the property meets the bylaw’s parking requirements. These are summaries, so read Section 4 for the exact language.

These Section 4 thresholds apply generally. For a parcel in one of the four downtown districts, ask the Planning Division which review applies, because Sections 18 through 22 take precedence.

The Planning Board decides Site Plan Review (Planning staff handle the Intermediate level) and the special permits Table 1 assigns to it, while the Zoning Board of Appeals decides the special permits assigned to it. The town explains the process on its Special Permit and Site Plan Review page. The town’s Planning and Economic Development Division is at 1 Sylvan Street in Town Hall. The town takes applications through its ViewPoint Cloud portal, and Section 4 also requires a complete package to reach the Town Clerk and the Planning Division, so ask the Planning Division how filing works before you submit. Rules, forms, and the portal can change, so confirm with that office before you file.

Questions to ask the town before you commit to a space

Before you sign a lease or a purchase agreement, it helps to have answers to these:

• Which zoning district is the parcel in, according to the current zoning map?
• Is your intended use allowed there by right, by special permit, or not at all, according to Table 1?
• Would your plans trigger Site Plan Review, or fall under Intermediate staff review?
• Does the parking on site work for your use under Section 10.2 or, downtown, Table 18-2?
• Have any Town Meeting articles changed the bylaw since the February 3, 2025 compile?

Ask your attorney whether the lease or purchase agreement should give you time to confirm these answers before you are fully committed.

Roads and access in Danvers

Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization staff described Route 114 in a 2012 study as a principal arterial that connects Route 1, I-95, and Route 128 and runs through commercial and high-density residential areas in Danvers, Peabody, and Salem. See its Route 114 study for the road description. That study was published in 2012, so use it for the road layout and not for current conditions.

If you own a commercial building in Danvers

If you own a Danvers building and are thinking about a sale or a lease, our page for a commercial real estate broker in Danvers covers how we work, what the process looks like, and what to have ready before you call.

If you are looking for commercial space in Danvers

Tenants and buyers usually ask the same first questions: is the use allowed, what approvals could it need, and how much parking does it take? Those answers shape whether a space works, and they are worth checking before you tour. The sections above show where to find them in the bylaw and who at the town to ask.

Tell us what you need: use, size, timing, and parking. We can point you to the relevant bylaw sections and the town office that decides, and tell you whether anything we own fits. Use the email link at the end of this page or call 978-777-1817.