Officials review vacant school development draft study

School and town officials got their first look at a draft marketing study designed to assist in the sale of the long-vacant Park Street School in Springfield during a meeting of the Park Street School Subcommittee Tuesday night. The committee is targeting mid-February as a date to have the final draft ready.

www.eagletimes.com    

2017-02-04 / Front Page Officials review vacant school development draft study By CAMERON PAQUETTE cameronp@eagletimes.com SPRINGFIELD — School and town officials got their first look at a draft marketing study designed to assist in the sale of the long-vacant Park Street School in Springfield during a meeting of the Park Street School Subcommittee Tuesday night. The committee is targeting mid-February as a date to have the final draft ready. “All this is is a marketing tool,” said Springfield Selectboard Chair Kristi Morris, one of two representatives from the selectboard at the committee meeting Tuesday, Jan. 31. The Park Street School Joint Committee, which included school board members Caron and Steve Karaffa and Springfield Selectboard members Walter Martone and Kristi Morris, had met in 2015 with Carol Lighthall of Springfield on the Move (SOM), Bob Flint with Springfield Regional Development Corp. (SRDC), and Erik Hoekstra, a development manager with Redstone in Burlington, in regard to the development of Park Street School. As of December 2015, the sub-committee found there was “no interest” in developing the building at that time, according to a letter from the committee to the Springfield Board of School Directors. After years of discussion and the realization that “neither the Town of Springfield or the Springfield School District had the resources to maintain and renovate the school building,” according to that letter, the committee recommended that the school board and administration contract with a commercial realtor to sell the building. The sub-committee, consisting of members of the school board and selectboard, voted in August 2016 to sell the building and hire a development firm to conduct a development study to provide prospective developers with an overview of the building located at 60 Park St. The draft study, created by Brattleboro-based Stevens & Associates, lists a number of potential development paths “including the challenges and opportunities inherent in redeveloping the school.” The cost for hiring the marketing company was approximately $4,300, and will be funded through proceeds from an earlier sale of the East Street School in Springfield. Officials sought clarification on several aspects of the study, including projected cash flows and other relevant data. The building is currently vacant except for a small space on the ground floor used as district administrative offices, and hasn’t been used as a school since 2005-2006. The school was constructed in two parts — a two-story brick and masonry structure with half basement was built in 1895, with another two story brick and masonry addition housing a 6,300-square-foot locker room and 4,200-square-foot auditorium and stage built in 1929. The draft study estimates the cost of renovating the two-story building at $24 million, with as much as $8 million available through various national tax incentive programs and grants. A market appraisal of the building was done in 2010 in which the market value was found to be about $300,000 based on four comparable school buildings in the state that had been sold during the previous three to six years. Selectboard representative Walter Martone noted that the town economy has changed since the 2010 appraisal, and the grand list has gone down in the years since. The appraisal found that the building has roughly 80,000 square feet of usable space, another aspect of the study that committee members sought clarification on. The draft study continued to say that “substantial below-market public funding and tax credit investment will be needed to do a gut rehab of the building and to keep rents affordable and debt service manageable.” To help with the estimated $24 million renovation, the draft study listed a number of potential tax equity credits that, depending on the use and developer’s status (nonprofit or private), cut the cost of the renovation roughly in half. The study included a variety of charts and datasets depicting the town’s historical economic and demographic shifts. Martone said that it is important for prospective developers to see the town as on the verge of an upward trend rather than having further to travel downhill. To that effect, the draft study highlights a number of “future opportunities” in the community, including infrastructure capacity, internet capability and availability, proximity to Interstate 91 and scenic setting. “A significant building investment or public sector investment will create impetus for further development in adjacent properties,” according to the draft study. Potential services listed include commercial office space, residential use, and use as a function center or multi-use facility. With the size of the building, the study recommends considering demolition of building sections that “are either in too poor condition or that are not well suited to redevelopment.” “It’s based on the fact that you’re renting space at high occupancy,” said Selectboard Chair Kristi Morris said of the study’s data regarding residential use. “We have a lot of vacant buildings and that’s part of the problem.”