City goes back to drawing board on Hallsville School property redevelopment

Story updated Aug. 7, 2o23

MANCHESTER, NH – The city will go back to the drawing board on plans for the vacant Hallsville School after an $8 million-plus plan for a multi-use center that would include a regional Child Advocacy Center, apartments, and more, didn’t get approval for $4 million in state money earlier this month.

The Committee on Lands and Buildings Monday agreed to look into what must be done immediately for maintenance and safety at the 133-year-old school building, which has been vacant for two years, and work on allowing youth groups to continue to use the gymnasium, which is under the oversight of the Parks and Recreation Department.

The tougher long-term options for the three-story brick school building at 275 Jewett St. come with some baggage. The city struggled for most of last year to come up with a solution that is all right with residents of the tightly packed neighborhood near Elliot Hospital, while also finding a use that meets housing and other challenges the city faces. There were only two bidders after a request for proposals, with the one chosen by the city the mixed-use development by Southern New Hampshire Services and Granite State Children’s Alliance.

The committee, after a 10-minute discussion, agreed to revisit the topic once they could gather more information, either next month or in October.

Options briefly and informally discussed by the committee Monday included offering the property to last fall’s second-place bidder, issuing a new RFP, listing it for sale to the private sector or looking into city uses.

Officials from SNHS and GSCA notified the city in early July that the redevelopment plan for the property had to be scuttled after $4 million in requested state American Rescue Plan Act funding wasn’t approved.

The RFP issued last year required that any developer allow the city to maintain use of the gymnasium, one of several restrictions.

Alderman Joe Kelly Lavasseur Monday said that the best option would be to put the property back on the market and remove the gymnasium and other restrictions, a point he’d also made last year when the RFP was issued.

“That property already could’ve been bought and made into housing,” he said. “We could’ve already had this done and now you guys are going to delay another two months, come back with something else, it’s never going to be on the tax rolls. At the very minimum it should be sent out for an RFP without restrictions just to at least see what’s out there and see if there’s anyone out there.”

He added, “I don’t think we can keep locking ourselves into nonprofits, because the money is not out there like it was when interest rates were really low.”

Committee members Monday said that the city Parks and Recreation Department, Office of Youth Services, and other groups still wanted to use the gym, and the neighborhood supported that use. Much of the initial discussion at Monday’s meeting focused on gym use by community groups, rather than the larger use of the three-story brick building and the rest of the property.

“There are a lot of calls out there for groups looking for a community center, and currently we don’t have anything that fits the bill,” said Alderman-at-Large June Trisciani.

She said it might be time to revisit that option. “Is this a community center and do we bring in some other groups that are looking for space to share the building? I think it’s the best use for this property and I think the neighborhood is looking for that as well,” she said. “There is some money out there to build community centers and I think it would be a win for the building. We have to move fairly quickly on this because unfortunately it’s been left empty and vacant for too long.”

Committee Chair Alderman Pat Long, Ward 3, agreed that there’s a need to move quickly, but questioned whether groups looking for that type of use could raise the money that’s needed to renovate the deteriorating school building.

“That’s going to be expensive,” Long said. “And I know the community centers I’ve spoken to, they didn’t have the wherewithal to come up with [the amount of money needed].”

He also said the neighborhood wouldn’t support a project with significantly more housing than what the recently scrapped mixed-use plan called for.

Trisciani said that another option may be to ask second-place bidder Studio 550 Art Center if they’re still interested. That plan was also a mixed-use development that included housing.

Aside from the gymnasium requirement, the city’s RFP also said that a proposal that included affordable housing for families or seniors was strongly encouraged, and that the plan should “support the character of the residential neighborhood, provide community resources and not place a significant burden on the traffic patterns in the area.”

The SNHS/GSCA plan would have included 20 units of affordable housing, a model regional child advocacy center, statewide administrative offices for the Granite State Children’s Alliance and a Head Start program. The Hillsborough County Committee in June approved $4 million in funding for the development project.

The Community Finance Development Authority in June approved a $750,000 grant for the proposal in June, which would have meant $600,000 for the project. And U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen had also included $3 million for the project in the 2024 federal Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill.

But when the state didn’t include the project in its ARPA appropriations, it put the SNHS and GSCA project in a tight spot with deadlines to use the other approved funded. Officials from those organizations had set an Aug. 31 deadline to have all funding in place.

“When we began in 2021 the estimate was $8 million. Since that time, the current environment for this kind of work requires we add a minimum of 15% to that number,” Donnalee Lozeau, SNHS CEO and Joy Barrett, GSCA CEO, said in a July 10 letter to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

The letter points out that the $3 million in federal money isn’t certain, “And if by chance it is, we have learned the timeline for receipt is well over 18 months once a decision is made.”

With only roughly half of the necessary funding in place, the nonprofits bowed out.

The development plan for the vacant school was first proposed to the city by the nonprofits in spring 2022, with a request that the city donate the property. The Committee on Lands and Buildings filed the proposal without taking action, instead issuing the RFP. SNHS and GSCA submitted a bid, and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen chose it over the Studio 550 Art Center proposal.

The city decommissioned the school in November so that the plan could proceed.

The Studio 550 proposal was also for a mixed-use development that would include a community art center, a small business incubator for the arts, and 25 to 30 units of studio, one- and two-unit affordable apartments. The proposal said that the building would maintain its historic exterior appearance, including the clock tower.

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