Colchester selectmen decline option to buy former car dealership property - what's next?
Colchester selectmen decline option to buy former car dealership property - what's next?
Matt Grahn
The Bulletin
COLCHESTER — Despite the interest expressed by Colchester First Selectman Andreas Bisbikos (R) in having the town utilize an old dealership for town departments, the others weren’t interested.
At a meeting on Thursday, no motion was made by the Colchester Board of Selectmen, with one of the five not present, on whether the town would lease to own a decrepit former Chevrolet dealership building near the green, instead letting the developers find private businesses to come there.
“If the town wanted to do something with it, they should buy it, rather than buy it from a third party,” Selectman Jason LaChapelle (Unaffiliated) said.
Had the Board of Selectmen approved a motion, and then gotten voter approval by referendum, the plan would be to lease the space for $20,000 a month, eventually owning the property outright after a decade. The town would also pay for restoration and renovation costs, La Chapelle said.
With these costs totaling around $4 million, the Board of Selectmen was not supportive of the plan to buy 120 South Main St. because of the expected $11 million price tag for the new senior center, as the property wouldn’t be generating revenue for the town, Selectman Denise Turner (D) said.
Bisbikos originally announced the possibility at a Jan. 23 Board of Selectmen meeting. After the sale of the property to a new owner, The Commerce Center LLC, the town was given an opportunity to buy it from the new owner.
There were two different plans presented, which would have had the town use all or part of the space for the police department and/or the youth center and food pantry. A third plan is to let the developers find private tenants.
Property has been vacant for more than a decade.
The former dealership building sat vacant for well over a decade, as the price was too high for anyone to make a deal. As the prior owner also owns the plaza with the CVS Pharmacy, the old dealership was sold at a cheaper price, so long as no pharmacies would go there, said Brian Marvin, an owner of The Commerce Center.
Marvin, speaking on Wednesday, thought the dealership building was a good opportunity for the town, given the space needs for the police department and the youth center, along with the recent gift of $1.5 million from late resident Stephen Bendas.
“You could take 120 South Main and potentially, it could be renamed the Bendas building for what he did for the town after his death,” Marvin said. “Cragin Memorial Library, Hayward Volunteer Fire Company, Schuster Park; these are all names that have given back to the town.”
The Board of Selectmen will allow developers to find private businesses for this space, instead of using its right of first refusal to move the police department and youth center there.
The Commerce Center’s business model is buying distressed properties, rehabbing them, and selling them to tenants who are new to town, or want to expand in Colchester. Prior to this, the company rehabbed The Colchester Farmers Club on Halls Hill Road. That building now houses the Colchester location of Fornarelli’s Ristorante and Bar, Marvin said.
Considering the $11 million cost of the town’s senior center project, the dealership could have been “renovated for a fraction of the price, and serve the town for decades to come,” Marvin said.
However, plans already existed to make use of town property for expanding the police department and the youth center. If the town can approve roof repairs in town hall, the locations of departments can be rearranged to create more space for the police, LaChapelle said.
Once the new senior center is complete, the town can evaluate if the old senior center can be refurbished and used for the youth center, Turner said.
“It’s a matter of reworking things to see what we can do, and it’s going to take a little time,” she said.
Bisbikos said he always had these prior plans as secondary options, but felt 120 South Main St. was an opportunity the town should consider to mitigate space availability concerns. However, he’s still glad to see the building used for retail again.
“It will be expanding our tax base and keeping our mill rate low,” he said.
In the event the Board of Selectmen wasn’t interested, The Commerce Center planned on talking with the town planners about how to use the property best, whether it’s one large tenant, or to divide the space into multiple units, Marvin said.
“It’s about what’s going to be the best use of the property that’s going to be cohesive for the town of Colchester,” he said.