Old Library Redux Soup

“Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?”  At the League of Women Voters meeting on June 12, that Groucho Marx quote could not help but come to mind as Selectman Michael Harrity explained the Town’s proposed sale price of $10,000 for the Old Library.  He said that the $1,075,400 figure that is currently on the town assessor’s property record as its assessed value (as well as its appraised value, by the way) does not reflect its fair market value, which he insisted is zero.

So what was the valuation process the selectmen used to support their decision to accept $10,000 as the sale price for the Old Library?  The Town’s first step was on April 5, 2012, when it issued a request for proposals (RFP) titled “Disposition of Interest in Real Property and Adaptive Reuse of the Josiah Smith Tavern and Old Library.”

A week later this RFP was listed on the Secretary of State’s Central Registry, showing estimated values of $1,075,400 for the Old Library and $2,717,000 for the Tavern.  Additional information in this listing noted that the Old Library’s assessed valuation was $529,900 for land and $545,500 for the building.

Because no proposals were received by the RFP’s original deadline of June 7, 2012, it was extended to July 23, 2012.  This extension yielded only one qualified proposal—from Urbanica, which supposedly was aware that it would be the sole bidder when it made its proposal.

Urbanica’s development concept shifted to a more profitable scheme as competitive bidding melted away to nothing.  In its December 2011 letter or interest, the developer proposed that the Old Library house a “flexible event space” that would “require the least amount of internal re-arrangement, thereby
maintain[ing] both the interior and exterior quality” of the historic structure.  Its July 2012 “winning” bid would convert the Old Library’s entire interior into three luxury condominium apartments, with no public access to, among other things, the architecturally significant main reading room. 

Urbanica’s proposal offered to buy both buildings for a total of $22,000.  It also requested that the Town contribute $4.1 million to subsidize 50% of the development costs and that the Town change its zoning by-law to allow residential as well as commercial use of both buildings.  On December 11, 2012, Urbanica and the Board of Selectmen executed a Letter of Intent which stipulated the $22,000 purchase price for both buildings.

Over the next months, there were several public meetings about the Urbanica development plan for both buildings.  In the presentation made at least at one of these meetings, there was an exhibit labled “Current Property Valuation” that asserted the total market value “as-is” on February 20, to be zero.  This appraisal performed by Cushman & Wakefield had been commissioned by Brookline Bank, Urbanica’s construction lender, on March 7.  The exhibit showed the prospective market value upon completion of the project as $4.1 million, coincidentally equal to 50% of the total development cost.

Because the Planning Board needed more time to craft the zoning change to accommodate the more complicated mixed uses being considered for the Tavern, the selectmen decided to defer the vote to authorize its sale until the December 2 town meeting.  At the same time, the selectmen decided to proceed with the sale of the Old Library along with a transitional zoning by-law amendment that would allow Urbanica to go ahead with its profitable conversion of the building into residential condos.

It is worth noting that at their April 22 meeting, the selectmen finally got around to voting a declaration of the Old Library as surplus property available for public sale.  The normal practice in other towns appears to have such a declaration as a first step, not as a step that is nearly at the end of the disposition process.  The declaration is then supposed to be followed by advertisements of the property being offered for sale.

The Town asserts that the RFP, with its one qualified response, took care of all those advertising and bidding requirements.  Nonetheless it would be reassuring to residents to see those advertisements posted on the Town’s website, along with an explanation why the receipt of only one qualified proposal is an adequate response.  Alternatively, the Town could have decided this was obviously not adequate and sought some way to reinvigorate the bidding process, but did not do so.

Instead, the selectmen expressed a worry about Urbanica’s threat to “walk away” if the authorization for the Old Library conversion was delayed until the Fall.  And the $22,000 sale price was split so that Urbanica would only need to fork over $10,000 to buy the Old Library.  That threat’s credibility should seem doubtful, however, considering Urbanica’s chance in hand to acquire a valuable property like the Old Library for $10,000.

Even with this urgency, the simplified zoning change could not be finished in time for the Annual Town Meeting, so the three warrant articles related to the Urbanica project were doomed to be passed over.  While the Annual Town Meeting was still underway, the selectmen met to vote a call for the June 17 special town meeting and to approve its warrant consisting exclusively of those three articles, which at that point had yet to be passed over at the Annual Town Meeting.   

Meanwhile, a May 6 appraisal report to the selectmen by Crosswhite Property Advisors offered this succinct analysis of the Urbanica plan for the Old Library:  “The sale of the Old Library is not exactly an arms-length transaction.”  It went on to observe that “The minimum bid for the property is a reflection that the [Urbanica] development plan is not the highest and best use from an economic standpoint.”

Another old vaudevillian was fond of constantly asking, “Wanna buy a duck?”  If you don’t want to buy a duck or if you want to see if there might be a better duck for sale in the Fall, come to the June 17 special town meeting at 7:30 pm in the High School auditorium and support the motions to postpone action on all three warrant articles related to the Old Library sale.

Nearly 200 of your Weston friends and neighbors have already signed a petition urging the selectmen to do that.  There will be many more signers by Monday night.  Please join us in making that postponement happen.

Bill Sandalls, Wood Ridge Circle

June 14, 2013