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Politics & Government

Building Committee to Make Recommendations to Selectmen

Proposals for Greenwood Avenue, Temple properties have been reviewed and scored.

The Town Building Oversight Committee met for four hours Wednesday night, as they reviewed and scored four responses to the town’s request for proposals to develop the

With two proposals for each property to consider, the committee ultimately decided to send both Greenwood Avenue proposals to the selectmen for their consideration, but favored a proposal to build 19 detached single-family homes on the Temple property, based largely on the difference in the purchase offers from the two developers and concerns over one proposal's timeliness, financing and compatibility with the neighborhood.

The committee including Chairman Martin Grasso Jr., Michael McClung, Bill O’Brien and Gail Rosenberg spent the majority of their marathon session reviewing and scoring each proposal publicly.

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Greenwood Avenue property:

Both proposals for the Greenwood Avenue property call for development of 41 condominium units in a larger single structure building.

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The first proposal reviewed, from Groom Construction, proposes demolition of the existing building and construction of market-rate housing in a new building. The Groom proposal also anticipates more than $160,000 per year in annual tax revenue for the town once the units are sold and offered a purchase price of $625,000. The TBO Committee scored the Groom proposal with a 58 of a possible 75, through criterion they had previously developed for the two properties.

The second proposal, from Stratford Capital also calls for 41-units, but proposes to preserve the historical portion of the existing building and would result in rental apartments for the affordable housing market, meaning people who earn 60 percent of the town’s median income. The proposal anticipated estimated annual tax revenue for the town at $26,000. The Stratford proposal was scored as a 58.5 out of 75 and the developer has offered the town $500,000 for the property.

“Why don’t we just tell the Board of Selectmen that we have two good proposals, they are both of high-quality and we have high confidence in both,” said O’Brien. “The real question comes down to whether they want affordable housing (in a refurbished building) or they want market rate housing.”

Rosenberg agreed saying, “We have two proposals, they each have their own merits and one is not vastly superior to the other.”

Temple Israel property

As much as the two Greenwood Avenue proposals offered similar, yet different visions of the re-use of the Greenwood property, the two respondents to the Temple request for proposals could not have been more different.

Yet, as different as they were, both proposals scored 51.5 out of 75 by the TOB Committee, though for far different reasons.

The first Temple response that was reviewed was by Charring Cross developers and principal owner Phil Singleton for demolition of the existing building and construction of 19 detached single-family homes in a cluster development.

Though the proposal did not comply with the TOB’s original vision for re-use of the site, the committee did note that they had invited proposers to be creative in the RFP, so they viewed the Charring Cross proposal as responsive.

Charring Cross offered a $2.2 million purchase price and estimated annual tax revenue to the town of $157,000 once all of the homes were sold.

By contrast, the proposal from B’nai B’rith New England would look to construct a single apartment building with 64 affordable housing rental units for residents 55 years and older.

Like the Charring Cross proposal, the B’nai B’rith proposal does not comply with the original vision for the property in that it proposes 64, mostly one-bedroom units, and the TOB had been seeking a proposal for approximately 40 units. However, TOB Chairman Grasso did note that the proposal does not exceed the gross maximum square footage outlined in the RFP.

The B’nai B’rith proposal estimates annual tax revenue for the town at $115,000 from its plan, but instead of proposing a purchase price have instead proposed a 99-year lease payment of $61,000 annually.

Following the scoring of the two proposals, Grasso noted several concerns he had with the B’nai B’rith proposal including the proposals reliance on government subsidies to begin construction, a timeline that stretches to 2015 in the best case scenario and the “significant discriminator” in the difference between the proposed purchase prices.

The committee voted to again send both proposals to the selectmen for consideration, but agreed that “the financial merits of the Charring Crossing proposal carries great importance with the committee and should be weighed as significant by the Selectmen.”

According to Town Administrator Andrew Maylor, the is likely to take up discussion of all four proposals at its October 12 meeting.

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