Housing groups buy Woolson Block in Springfield

Housing Vermont Inc. and the Springfield Housing Authority on Thursday put $25,000 toward what they hope will be their future renovation of the downtown Woolson Block.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150828/NEWS02/708289913

ublished August 28, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Housing groups buy Woolson Block in Springfield By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — Housing Vermont Inc. and the Springfield Housing Authority on Thursday put $25,000 toward what they hope will be their future renovation of the downtown Woolson Block. The two nonprofit housing groups were the high bidders for the dilapidated building during a tax sale held by the town Thursday morning. The current owner has a year to redeem the building. Matt Moore, a developer with Housing Vermont, outbid another Springfield developer, Daryl Lee, who earlier this year bought the Odd Fellows Block. Lee bid $21,233, the amount owed to the town for taxes and water and sewer fees by 3141 Main Street LLC, the corporation that has owned the Woolson Block since 2008. Bill Morlock, executive director of SHA, which publicly confirmed its ambition to buy the building earlier this year, said negotiations so far with the owner of 3141 Main Street LLC hadn’t gotten very far. Morlock said E.J. Cully of Bridgewater, the owner, wants too much for the building considering how much money the housing groups would have to invest to bring it up to code. He said SHA had an estimate of $4.6 million for the necessary work. “I think he wants to sell, but he wants more than we can afford,” he said. SHA and Housing Vermont want a mixed-use building, commercial and residential use, Moore said. He and Morlock said the building needs sprinklers installed, as well as an elevator and significant renovations. According to town records, 3141 Main Street LLC bought the building in 2008, at the height of the real estate boom, for $325,000. After Moore made the successful bid, Morlock quickly left Town Hall to go to his nearby office and get a check for $25,000. Town Attorney Stephen Ankuda, who ran the sale of 10 properties for overdue taxes, said the current owner has one year to redeem the property by paying the overdue taxes to the winning bidder plus 1 percent interest per month. Ankuda said almost all properties sold at tax sale are redeemed within the one-year time period. “We can’t do anything for a year,” Morlock said. He said he had “talked a little bit” with Cully, but negotiations had not been “substantial.” Moore said he had a minor role in another SHA-Housing Vermont joint project: the renovation of the fire-damaged Ellis Block. As for the Woolson Block, Moore said if the two groups succeed in buying the building, it will be lengthy process to plan the project and raise the money. “It would be one to two years before anything would start,” he said. Lee, a relative newcomer to Springfield, said the Woolson Block was “too big” a project for him to tackle. He didn’t make a second bid, he said, once the two housing groups made their intentions known. Lee said he is working to get the Odd Fellows building filled, although he said it is “late in the season” to start the necessary repairs. Jenevieve Johnson, owner of Jennywren Café, one of the building’s few tenants, said Cully is now running a seafood business. The name of the business, based in Killington, is MayaPapaya CSA, which brings Vermont produce and meats to Boston-area health food clubs.