WESTBROOK – The Westbrook City Council took a tentative first step Monday in the process of moving City Hall to another location and selling or leasing the building at 2 York St.
The council voted unanimously to ask City Administrator Jerre Bryant to send out requests for proposals to local real estate brokers to see what the City Hall building would be worth in today’s market, either for sale or leased to a new tenant.
Technically, it was the city’s Facilities and Streets Committee that met on Monday night, and is normally made up of only three councilors: Mike Sanphy, John O’Hara and Paul Emery.
But any other councilor is free to sit in and vote, and on Monday all seven councilors were on hand to discuss how the city should consolidate its unused real estate.
Councilors stressed to the public that no action has been taken on moving or selling City Hall. Bryant called Monday’s meeting, and the solicitation of proposals, merely “information gathering and due diligence.”
But the meeting and vote were clear signs of the curtain rising on a process that city officials and the public have been expecting to see happen ever since the Westbrook Junior High School at 426 Bridge St. closed in 2010 and the new Westbrook Middle School opened on Stroudwater Street.
Even before the doors closed on Bridge Street, there was talk the city could move City Hall, among other offices, into the newly vacated, 97,000-square-foot building.
More recent events have put a spotlight on the city’s need to make better use of its property. When Mayor Colleen Hilton first took office in 2010, one of her first acts was to consolidate the city’s finance department, which until then had two separate divisions, one for the school district and one for the municipal side. Now, both finance departments have been combined into a single entity. Hilton followed that with a similar consolidation of the city and school departments’ human resources departments.
While more efficient in many ways, Bryant said Monday night that the consolidations now force workers in finance and human resources to travel back and forth between City Hall and the school department’s central offices at 125 Stroudwater St., next to the high school.
“We continue to operate out of two separate locations, which continue to provide some challenges,” Bryant said.
And just last week, the School Committee took a first-reading vote on closing Prides Corner School, which, if the expected confirmation vote happens next month, means the city will have another empty building on Pride Street, a fact referenced by Councilor Michael Foley Monday night during the council’s discussion.
“I think it only makes sense for us to try to downsize buildings,” he said.
But, as Bryant told the councilors, before the council chooses to move City Hall into the former middle school, that building is going to need some repairs.
“The Westbrook School Department did not leave the Wescott middle school because it was in Class A, tip-top condition,” Bryant said.
To make the building suitable for municipal offices, Bryant said, various repairs an upgrades to the roof, electrical and plumbing systems, and other needed upgrades would cost an estimated $4 million.
Many of those renovations have already begun, and Bryant said the plan for paying for that involves four sources: an estimated $900,000 in federal and state grants, $900,000 in donations, a $1 million municipal bond, and $1.2 million from the sale of 2 York St., where City Hall is right now.
So far, Bryant said, the city has raised the $1 million bond, and to date generated $550,000 through grants, with another $250,000 in grants pending, and $800,000 in donations.
“We’ve done very, very well moving toward that goal,” he said.
Selling 2 York St., Bryant said, is expected to provide the last piece, but that assumes the city would get $1.2 million for it. Without a current estimate, there’s no way to be sure, so he wants to ask local real estate brokers to do an analysis of the building and submit proposals for helping the city sell it.
Even if Bryant gets a proposal that meets the $1.2 million estimate, he said, it would be up to the council to approve listing the property, let alone selling it. O’Hara emphasized this fact during the discussion, to quell fears that the city was rushing into anything.
“Nothing is cast in stone, as you can see,” he said.
Whether City Hall will move to the former middle school, now renamed the Fred C. Wescott Building, is also not set in stone. While the move to the Wescott building is by far the most high-profile choice, there is at least one other option. School Superintendent Marc Gousse noted the district’s central office building is underutilized, and a proposal to add onto that building and move City Hall there, instead of the Wescott building, has existed on paper for years.
Details on that proposal, including what it would cost, were not available, and Gousse stressed he was not trying to talk anyone into the central office building proposal, but he hoped it would get equal consideration from the council.
“We should look at any and all options,” he said. “If there’s a way to do it more cost-effectively, we should do that.”
One person who shares Gousse’s opinion is City Council President Brendan Rielly. On Monday, Rielly said he wasn’t ruling out the Stroudwater Street proposal, nor was he yet endorsing a move to the Wescott building.
In fact, during the discussion, Rielly noted a number of city services, such as general assistance and the recreation department, now renamed the community services department, and offerings such as the Westbrook Food Pantry and the Westbrook Historical Society, had already moved into the Wescott building. Rielly said he was concerned that moving City Hall and the district offices, and their 20,000-square-foot footprint, would take up too much space.
“That limits the offerings that we may have there,” he said.
One thing Rielly agreed upon, however, was the need to consolidate City Hall and the school department into one building, wherever it winds up being.
“That makes all the sense in the world,” he said.
Even if City Hall doesn’t move to the Wescott buiding, Bryant said moving out of 2 York St. would still offer the former school and its current tenants an indirect benefit. Many of the offices and organizations that now reside there, he said, do so rent-free, and the city wants to keep it that way.
“If they could afford market rent, they wouldn’t need to be here,” Bryant said during a visit to the building with an American Journal reporter on Tuesday. “They can’t, but we want to have those services available in the community.”
Right now, Bryant said, the city spends about $70,000 a year to heat, clean and otherwise maintain 2 York St. If City Hall moves out, he said, that money could be directed toward operating costs of the Wescott building, ensuring that its tenants wouldn’t have to shell out rent.
If the city sells the York Street building, Bryant added, that would put it on the tax rolls too, which could generate some $20,000 in new revenue per year, and since it sits on a 4-acre lot, a new owner would have plenty of room to add onto the building.
“The ideal buyer would be someone who is willing to expand on the site,” Bryant said.
The building, which is zoned commercial, Bryant said, is in a good location, close to Interstate 95 and an already vibrant business district.
“It’s a prime commercial lot with a lot of unused space,” he said.
Westbrook City Administrator Jerre Bryant and Maria Dorn,
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