After about a year of studies, officials from the Springfield Regional Development Corporation and Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) unveiled renovation plans for the former Park Street School at a school board meeting Monday.
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www.eagletimes.com
Old school building gets a new multi-use purpose By KATY SAVAGE ksavage@eagletimes.com Park Street School COURTESY SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — Old school building gets a new multi-use purpose By KATY SAVAGE ksavage@eagletimes.com Park Street School COURTESY SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — After about a year of studies, officials from the Springfield Regional Development Corporation and Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) unveiled renovation plans for the former Park Street School at a school board meeting Monday. SRDC Executive Director Bob Flint said the organizations would like to turn the building into a multi-use business center. There would be 11 loft apartments, a coffee shop, art gallery, rooftop deck and space for filming and editing. “We hope to leverage the high-speed internet capacity and turn that into a hub that can take advantage of that,” Flint said. Springfield has some of the fastest fiber internet speed in the world, making it an ideal location for film editing. Flint and CORI founder Matt Dunne presented plans for what the redevelopment could look like. It would include new parking spaces and a multi-use auditorium. SRDC and CORI has had an option to purchase the building for a nominal fee since last June. Flint and Dunne said they would likely ask for an extension before the option agreement expires at the end of this month. The redevelopment of the building would be a multi-million-dollar project. Dunne said they would know by September or October if federal funds are available to make the project feasible. “We are thinking big,” he said. SRDC, a private, non-profit regional development corporation, serves 10 towns in Windsor County and helps start-up companies and businesses locate to the area. SRCD owns several historic buildings in Springfield, which it is working to restore and repurpose. Similarly, CORI works with community leaders to build hubs in rural downtowns. The 1898 Park Street School building at 60 Park Street was a high school until the late 1960s. It was then converted to an elementary school until it closed about six years ago. SRDC and CORI are in the middle of getting the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A phase 1 environmental study, which looked at the history of the property, was also completed earlier this year, unveiling asbestos issues, but no large concerns. “Generally, environmental issues aren’t that bad,” Flint said. A phase 2 environmental study, which will involve soil samples, will be done this summer. Park Street School is currently used for the school district’s central offices. The gymnasium is also used by Springfield Parks and Recreation. Flint and Dunne are working with an architecture firm on the design details.They envision keeping the central district offices where they are. “It’s just stunning,” said school board member Jeanice Garfield of the design. SRDC Executive Director Bob Flint said the organizations would like to turn the building into a multi-use business center. There would be 11 loft apartments, a coffee shop, art gallery, rooftop deck and space for filming and editing. “We hope to leverage the high-speed internet capacity and turn that into a hub that can take advantage of that,” Flint said. Springfield has some of the fastest fiber internet speed in the world, making it an ideal location for film editing. Flint and CORI founder Matt Dunne presented plans for what the redevelopment could look like. It would include new parking spaces and a multi-use auditorium. SRDC and CORI has had an option to purchase the building for a nominal fee since last June. Flint and Dunne said they would likely ask for an extension before the option agreement expires at the end of this month. The redevelopment of the building would be a multi-million-dollar project. Dunne said they would know by September or October if federal funds are available to make the project feasible. “We are thinking big,” he said. SRDC, a private, non-profit regional development corporation, serves 10 towns in Windsor County and helps start-up companies and businesses locate to the area. SRCD owns several historic buildings in Springfield, which it is working to restore and repurpose. Similarly, CORI works with community leaders to build hubs in rural downtowns. The 1898 Park Street School building at 60 Park Street was a high school until the late 1960s. It was then converted to an elementary school until it closed about six years ago. SRDC and CORI are in the middle of getting the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A phase 1 environmental study, which looked at the history of the property, was also completed earlier this year, unveiling asbestos issues, but no large concerns. “Generally, environmental issues aren’t that bad,” Flint said. A phase 2 environmental study, which will involve soil samples, will be done this summer. Park Street School is currently used for the school district’s central offices. The gymnasium is also used by Springfield Parks and Recreation. Flint and Dunne are working with an architecture firm on the design details.They envision keeping the central district offices where they are. “It’s just stunning,” said school board member Jeanice Garfield of the design.
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I'd be a lot more impressed if SRDC worked to attract private equity money and high wage jobs than skimming grant funds managing empty real estate. Our selectboard needs to recognize SRDC for what it is and severe all ties.
ReplyDeleteAgree with this comment, never impressed with anything SRDC has done for this town and area. they are taking away from private people selling and renting their commercial property by utilizing state tax dollars against the people who pay the taxes how ironic.
DeleteRoger, it's the "private commercial properties" in this town that are the worst eyesores. "Selling and renting" to criminals and drug addicts, letting their properties run down, and then forcing us to pay to get rid of the slums. SRDC may not be the best solution to this town's problems, but at least they're getting something done. The fact that they don't conform to your supply-side, laisez-faire capitalist ideology is irrelevant. Maybe if the local investors gave a damn, and invested their OWN money in their properties, we wouldn't need tax dollars to do it!
DeleteIt's obvious by those comments that you don't own any nor have any reference to the point made. I'm not speaking of the 1 or 2 properties that are in downtown Springfield, I have no clue how to fix that except tear them down. Look up and down 106 these are not slum properties, the old Standtech they are running down because no one wants to rent them, because SRDC is pulling them all into 100 river street with low rates subsidized by our tax dollars. Its very clear! You can't spin it! Not sure to many of the Drug Addicts can afford commercial property anyway.
DeleteOne or two? Roger, you must be kidding. When I say commercial property, I'm also referring to the slum rentals there. Perhaps commercial is not the best way to describe it, but rentals ARE a business. There are four such buildings on River st, and four more on the end of Summer st, in addition to the storefronts and the P&W mess. I don't know who owns the ones on Summer st, but I DO know who owns the River st. dives, and they're not hippies! You hate SRDC for the same reasons you hate EVERYTHING subsidized through taxes, you think it's all your money. IT ISN'T. I'll bet your portion wouldn't buy a cup of coffee! Most of the rest of us pay taxes too, and if the local slumvestors won't so something with their properties, I guess we'll have to. It stinks, but at least SOMETHING is getting done. The Plywood Palace is starting to look good. In the case of the school, that IS our property, and I'm glad something is being done with it!
DeleteOk Bernie, if it's not my money when I work hard for it, and earn it, and don't get to keep much of it, then I guess it belongs to the Socialist Government of VT then.
DeleteHa! That's typical. Always go to the extreme! So sorry we forced you to be a contributing member of society, Roger! After all, you're so damned wonderful, we should pay you just to bask in your presence, right?
DeleteWhy is it right for the government to take over 40% of someones income? Typical shmypicable. You are a typical liberal. Don't lie. Do you give the government over 40% of your income?
DeleteNo, and neither do you! That's higher than the top rate under the OLD tax system! Even then, with all the loopholes and deductions, most wealthy people paid only about 15%. SO YOU STOP LYING! You are a typical conservative; you lie through your teeth and think we're all dumb enough to believe you!
DeleteAgain a Lie, I'm not wealthy and I pay above 30% to the feds and even more to the state for the past 10 years. Don't lump all people into those loopholes, and I do have a professional doing my taxes... As stated before, you throw out so much twist and turns in what you post here that none of it can be believed! Trump will fix it, and maybe you might even pay some taxes when he does, we need the bottom 90% to pay any taxes...
DeleteOh, you want to include ALL taxes paid! Then, yes, I spent most of my adult life (until retirement) averaging 42%! And all without complaining, or thinking I had the right to rule the world. Imagine that! Funny thing, that's only slightly less than my European "socialist" relatives pay, and they only work 30 hours per week, get 90 days paid vacation per year, healthcare, etc! DUMP TRUMP! BERNIE IN 2020!
DeleteIt's hard to believe you are okay with that. I will never be, and I have a few more decades of work in me. Bernie...haha. I don't believe Trump has done anything to negatively effect your life. This cycle on the blog spot is laughable. It always turns into socialist vs capitalist. I don't post here a lot so don't think you were ever talking to me. We are already a socialist country as it is. Lets not take those last steps, it will be the end of us.
Delete2:17, I was "OK with that" because I lived well enough to have little reason to complain. The only problem I had was the 50-70 hour work weeks! It also helps to see the larger picture; no one is an island, and no one can predict the future. We may ALL need those social programs one day; Social Security will be all most Americans have to retire on. I didn't include that in my 42%, since it is an insurance premium, and not a tax. The problem is that you conservatives think you're all SO independent, but I've never met one who could survive without being a part of the larger society. NOT ONE. That's the real damage Trump is doing; to the country as a whole. You don't understand that because you don't believe in society. You're what William F. Buckley referred to as "the primitives." And yes, we ARE a socialist country, and always have been. "Of the People, by the People, and for the People" has a nice ring to it. All we need to do now is live up to that! I stopped buying into the right-wing scare tactics decades ago. Thankfully, the younger generation isn't buying it to begin with; soon the "Party of Trump" will be nothing more than an unpleasant historical footnote. Sort of like fascism in Europe......
DeleteAnonymous 2:17 don't believe anything Anonymous 2:53 has to say, his post are all about himself and how great he is and how much he has given back to society with a smile... I don't believe any of it... he is living in a Bernie Sanders fantasy land... but won't admit it because when he does it even further mutes his points.
DeleteYou're describing yourself, Roger. (Except for the Bernie Sanders part.) No, my posts are mostly about the wretched excesses, greed, and hypocrisy of the extreme right, not myself, or Sen. Sanders. You're the one who brought him up! As far as living in a Bernie "fantasy land" muting my point, he actually wins his elections by popular vote, (unlike Trump) so exactly who am I muting it for? You, the minority who keeps losing, and has to cheat to win? I don't care what you think; I'm just countering your lies with truth! Well, I've done enough for one day. See you in the funny papers!
DeleteFinding a use for the old school is a step in the right direction. Of course, that still leaves a lot of run-down buildings in the area. Do something with Parks and Woolson and it'll be easier to attract businesses to downtown. Riverfront condos would be nice, people would pay good money for the view of the falls, if the other buildings in view were fixed up!
ReplyDeleteAMEN, 6/20/18 6:20 AM! Like you, I am very happy to see that SRDC is proposing a plan for the old high school, I agree that it will be very difficult to attract buyers and/or business people to a renovated high school building with that Parks & Wilson eyesore practically right across the street. At a minimum, tearing down the P&W building at the same time has to be part of the plan.
DeleteRe "people would pay good money" I think you mean the state would pay good money for lazy folks that won't work.
DeleteCommercial property like the old High School, East School, Parks and Wilson, Building 30, Odd Fellows, Wilson Block and Gilman Shop are essentially worthless. Heck, most of downtown is worthless. There is nothing to prevent scrap merchants like Mason from buying for peanuts, stripping anything for salvage, then walking away to allow the carcass to rot. The solution is zoning enforcement and not turning such eye sores into a payday like the Visiting Nurse building. No one will invest here if neighboring properties continue to be a liability.
ReplyDeleteHey you forgot the bryant grinder building. Which they still fix the roof.
Deleteif SRDC has so much interest in taking this building over,why is the school district still dumping money in to it ?
ReplyDelete