WILTON – The town may have finally found someone who wants the Primary School.
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The building, located at 24 School Street, was built in 1949. When the school district was done with it, moving operations to Academy Hill School, it reverted to the control of the town. The board of selectmen have been trying to sell the property since 2007, with little success.
However, Keith Swett, of East Dixfield, and his family have a proposal to convert the building into residential apartments, after substantial remodeling. Swett is offering to purchase the building for $1, which would return the property to the town’s tax rolls.
The selectmen met with Swett at their last meeting to hear his proposal. They then decided that a public hearing should be held to let Swett present his proposal to interested residents, with that meeting happening on Aug. 4 at 7 p.m.
Swett says he’s looking to create nine apartments in the 7,500 square foot school; four on each floor and another apartment which would utilize the principal’s office and some other space. He said he was interested in creating one-to-three bedroom apartments with amenities found in homes, such as bathtubs, dishwashers and ceiling fans.
“We want to make them closer to a normal home,” Swett said. “With these basic things you normally have in homes, but just don’t see in apartments.”
Swett believes that the project would cost $200,000 to make the building usable again. This would include removing asbestos, lead and an external below-ground oil tank, and enlarging the driveway and parking lot so they will meet current state and local codes. External walls will also need to be replaced, as the wood nailed over the inside and outside of the windows created moisture traps which rotted out parts of the structure. A sprinkler system would also need to be installed.
After this was done, Swett has estimated that $300,000 would need to be spent to create the apartments. Actual expenditures, he noted, could be lower than those estimates as the Swett family intends to do much of the work themselves.
Swett is looking for some help from the town in applying for grants which require municipal entities, such a a Community Development Block Grant, funding for asbestos and lead abatement and a Maine State Housing tax increment finance agreement. However, if necessary, Swett said that the project can work without that assistance.
“We will do without, if we have to do without,” he said.
The timeline for the project, assuming the selectmen approve the sale and planning board approves the project, varies dramatically due to the grants. If Swett successfully applies for a CDBG, for instance, funding wouldn’t be available until July 2010.
Town Manager Rhonda Irish said that the selectmen were unlikely to make a decision after the Aug. 4 hearing. The town had listed the property with a Portland realty firm initially for $250,000, then later $150,000, but got no offers.
“We had some little interest,” Irish said, “but never enough for anyone to really come and look at it for anything.”
The town current lists the .58 acres of land and building as being valued at $370,000. That value could translate into an increase in the tax base if a private business or individual was utilizing the building. It is also costing the town nearly $2,500 annually to maintain.
