Lease, Development and Management, and Financial Feasibility of Town-Owned Property Located at 50 East Street, New Milford, CT Request for Qualifications (RFQ)

The Town of New Milford (Town) is soliciting qualifications from qualified and experienced operators/developers/architects (“Respondents”) for a long-term land lease for the Town-Owned Property located at 50 East Street (“Property”), which contains a 31,044 square-foot Colonial Revival-style building (“Building”) on 4.63 acres of land. The development site is on public water and sewer.

The Town is seeking to preserve the Property and Building located at 50 East Street, New Milford, CT to provide the most benefit to the community, taking into consideration the present and future needs of the Town, historical import and anticipated social, cultural, and economic impacts.

Catherine Lillis Building

Located on Route 202 (East Street), a major transportation corridor, the three-story, 31,044 square-foot Colonial Revival-style building was built in 1931 as a public high school. It lies on a 4.63-acre parcel, is currently zoned R-20 and is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places as part of the New Milford Center Historic District.

In addition, major artworks created by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1936 are a significant component of the interior. The WPA works include a monumental multi-pane stained-glass window by Len R. Howard at the north staircase depicting literary and historical touchstones, and a continuous series of frieze murals in the hallways showing the progress of American civilization.

The Building continued to function as a high school until 1964, when it was renovated and converted into an elementary school. The elementary school was relocated in the late 1970’s, at which point the Town began using the building for administrative offices.

In 2019, Pirie Associates was retained by the Town to complete a building conditions assessment, use study, market need and revenue generation analysis, and projected renovation budget to adaptively re-use the East Street School and adjacent property. The results of this effort were three options ranging from the Town retaining ownership of the property for arts and culture and/or municipal uses to the sale of the property to private developers for workforce and market-rate housing. At that time, the building was in the possession of the New Milford School Board.

In 2023, the School Board vacated the building and turned it over to the Town.

Silver Petrucelli & Associates, Inc. (SPA) was retained in the late summer of 2023 by the Town to perform a comprehensive inspection/report reviewing the building. The analysis included site conditions, parking lots, sidewalks, entry drives, exterior building envelope, interior building conditions, code analysis along with mechanical, plumbing, fire protection and electrical components. It included visual observations from the ground (both outside the facility & inside the facility), visual observations from the roof and review of all existing documents made available to SPA.

SPA found the site components and Building to be in generally fair/poor condition. While the structure is solid along with the exterior masonry and windows, many of the other building elements need significant work due to deferred maintenance over the years or code compliance violations. The mechanical, electrical and plumbing components are also past their useful life expectancy and will require significant renovations/restoration work.

SPA recommended that the building be renovated to correct existing deficiencies including parking lot re-paving, sidewalk restoration, code compliance building and site issues, building envelope restoration, reconstruction of the cupola, new slate roof, new finishes, doors, toilets, masonry repairs, etc. They also recommended a full removal and installation of new mechanical, plumbing, fire protection and electrical systems throughout the three-story facility.

In addition, the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the treatment of Historic Buildings and Properties must be met.

The Town’s Cultural District Committee will facilitate a community outreach initiative to determine programming needs for the Cultural/Performance Center, which in turn will determine space needs within the project. Developers will be expected to participate in this process.

The property is the subject of a current application to the CT DECD Office of Brownfields for a Hazardous Materials Assessment grant.

Abutting properties:

West boundary:

• Route 202 (East Street) Approximate Frontage: 215 feet

North boundary:

• A number of small properties, zoned B-1
• Elm Street Extension Approximate Frontage: 415 feet

East boundary:

• A steep slope leading to Great Brook, a four-mile stream that feeds into the Housatonic River. Properties along the east boundary of the Brook are zoned R-20 and R-8.

South boundary:

• A restaurant, zoned B-1
• Theatreworks New Milford Inc., a local non-Equity theater company. Built in 1902 as a Black Adventist Church, it was disbanded in the 1960s. In 1973 it was purchased and managed by The Creative Arts Center of New Milford, Inc. Renamed Theatreworks in 1992, the theatre presents approximately 40 evenings of programming a year, plus is home to a summer camp for children. Theatreworks does not have available parking on its site for its attendees, performers and technical staff. It has relied on the Town’s permission to use the East Street parking lot. The 104-seat theater uses approximately 80 spaces per production.