Minutes of
Benton Reuse Committee
Wed., July 22, 2009, 8 am (morning)
in Town Hall, Conf. Room 4
Present: Committee members Richard Cheek, Joe DeStefano, Nancy Forbes, Virginia Jordan, Andy Rojas. Belmont residents Robert Brown, Ray Comeau, Yolanda Liu.
Discussion: The purpose of this meeting is to understand the Board of Selectmen's response
to this committee's recommendations, at the regular Board of Selectmen meeting of June 29, 2009. Our Interim Report recommended the Town develop a Request for Proposals to lease Benton to an acceptable tenant. However, the Board of Selectmen neither accepted nor rejected the recommendation. They postponed a decision until the fall, leaving their intent not at all clear. Andy and Joe have since spoken individually to the Selectmen, to find out exactly what they meant.
Andy reported that the Selectmen now want a real estate analysis of the market value of the building “for all options”, namely, selling the building for any use, and leasing the building for any use, in order to maximize income to the Town. The committeeís general reaction to this was doubt, from a civic point of view, that our purpose should be to sell off historic properties for market value. However, Joe argued that a comparative analysis is needed to weigh the (financial) tradeoffs of selling or leasing.
The Benton buildingís best points are location and architecture; as a residence its negative points are size and lack of a kitchen, plumbing, basement, driveway or garage. It was agreed to ask three brokers for estimates of its “fair residential market value as a SR-C [single residence, type C zoning]”. As commercial space, Joe suggested estimating a sale price based on the projected income at locally prevailing lease rates, and a cap [capitalization] factor.
Example: Suppose a commercial space of size 1000 square feet rents for $1000 per month.
The annual lease rate is calculated as,
( $1000/month / 1000 sq. ft.) x (12 months/year) = $12 per sq. ft.
The estimated market value is calculated as projected annual income multiplied by
a cap factor. For cap =10, an assumed ten-year return factor,
($12 per sq. ft.) x (1000 sq. ft. ) x (10 cap) = $120,000.
At the Selectmenís Jun 29 meeting, Town Administrator Tom Younger pointed out that Benton cannot be sold except through a vote of Town Meeting. While the Selectmen seemed to ask this committee to market the building for them, in fact we (or they) lack basic legal authority to deliver it. The committee also felt that as citizen volunteers, it is not our purpose to market real estate.
Andy suggested proceeding as follows: build awareness of Benton as a building of historical importance and civic value, which is in transition and may be available for appropriate reuse; get comparable market figures for sale and leasing; and again propose Town approval of an RFP process.
Resident input: Yolanda Liu said she and her supporters are starting a certified Montessori school, and she wants to understand if Benton is appropriate for that. Ray Comeau said he would like Benton to stay open as a library, and wants to gather ideas, since money follows good ideas. He introduced Rob Brown, a Belmont resident with expertise in public relations and marketing. Rob advised against a hasty decision without consultation. The committee agreed that Benton ideally should remain a library. Andy said that if the community wants to preserve Benton as a library, they have to compete for it.
The Citizen-Herald will run an article about Benton in tomorrowís July 23 issue.
The next meeting is Aug. 5, 2009, at 8 am (morning).
Respectfully submitted,
Virginia Jordan, Aug. 2, 2009
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