Progress Report on a new fire house
Last January, before the Village elections, two real estate brokers approached the Village with separate proposals for purchasing 184 Main Street. The Board decided to put off making a decision until after the election.
Once the election was held, the Mayor met with the brokers. One represented Vermont Timber Frames, whose intended use of the property was conversion of the IGA Building into a corporate headquarters. The other broker represented a real estate development corporation who chose to keep the identity of their client private. After a public presentation by the brokers, the Village Board decided it best to have a market analysis done on the property. Once the analysis was in hand and with permission of the Village Board, both brokers were notified that the Village was ready to begin negotiations.
At that point, both brokers informed the Village that their clients were withdrawing their proposals. Vermont Timber Frame was dependent upon the sale of a property to finance the purchase and they realized that due to market conditions the sale would not be quick and they would not realize the monies anticipated. The second broker never gave a clear reason for their withdrawal.
Rather than simply list the property for sale, the Village Board decided to hire an architect to determine the exact footprint a new Fire House would require. The 'excess' property would then be listed for sale or lease.
After interviews with six architects, five were asked to submit proposals. The architects were CT Male & Associates, Mitchell & Associates, CA Bovenzi, HCP Architects (Daniel Patane of Greenwich is a partner) and Butler, Rowland and Mays Architects (Paul Mays of Greenwich is a partner).
An Advisory Committee met on February 16th and after reviewing the proposals decided to schedule interviews with four firms.
All interviews will be conducted in the second floor meeting room of the fire department. The schedule is:
Bob Mitchell: Monday, March 16 at 7:00 pm
Chris Bovenzi: Monday, April 6 at 7:00 pm
HCP: Monday, April 20 at 6:00 pm
Butler, Rowland & Mays: Monday April 20 at 7:30
It is anticipated that the Advisory Committee will tour one fire house designed by each architect. The end of the process will be the Committee making a public recommendation to the Village Board on which firm to hire.