Government

Moynihan: If Covia Building Is Not Buyable, Renovate Police HQ To Move In Board of Ed

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New Canaan’s highest elected official said Thursday that if a downtown building he’d been eyeing as a possible future home for police and school district administrators is no longer available, as rumored, then the town should move forward with plans to renovate the police headquarters on South Avenue and move the Board of Education in there. Asked whether the Covia building at Elm and Grove Streets was under contract, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during a media briefing, “That’s my understanding.” Covia could not be reached for comment. 

Asked what the town would do if Covia is off the table, Moynihan said, “The thought now for South Avenue would be to knock down the rear of the building and build a whole new addition at the rear, with three floors, so the Board of Education would have all the space they need on the top floor.”

The town pays about $300,000 in annual rent for the New Canaan Public Schools’ administrative headquarters at the corner of Forest Street and Locust Avenue. A town committee in December 2017 recommended that Waveny or Irwin should be considered as alternatives. Moynihan initially said the Board of Ed should move into unused space at the Police Department, then targeted the Covia (formerly ‘Unimin’) building at 258 Elm St. as a possibility.

Covia

First Selectman: ‘Serious Interest’ in Developing Police Department Building as Senior Housing

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The value of the New Canaan Police Department building—a town-owned structure that could be sold, under one proposal—is increasing, according to New Canaan’s highest elected official, as at least one developer has shown “serious interest” in converting it to senior housing. Though the town hasn’t put the South Avenue building up for sale and multiple approvals from various municipal bodies would be needed before doing so, the prospect of selling the structure while purchasing an office building downtown to house not only the police but also the Board of Education remains one possible route for New Canaan. It isn’t clear yet just what the “Covia” building at Grove and Elm Streets ultimately will fetch in this market—its owners and the town were about $1.5 million apart on a price as of a few months ago—and it’s also not clear how much New Canaan would need to invest in capital work in order to “right-size” it for both the police and school district offices, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. 

Yet  “there is a lot of interest in senior housing, including the South Avenue building, the Police Department, so the value of that South Avenue property is going up and the value of the Covia building looks like it’s going down,” Moynihan said during a Feb. 26 meeting of the Board of Selectmen. 

“We are waiting to see what will happen with the Covia building,” Moynihan said during the meeting, held at Town Hall. “It is not being sold.

Board of Education

First Selectman: Town, Covia $1.5 Million Apart on Price of Building

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Though an available commercial building at Elm and Grove Streets may emerge as the best long-term option to house two large municipal agencies, it’s unclear just what New Canaan would need to spend to acquire the property and ensure it meets local needs, according to the town’s highest elected official. Because the ‘Covia’ building at 258 Elm St. isn’t large enough to accommodate both the New Canaan Police Department and Board of Education, an expansion of some kind already is needed, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. 

As of now, the town and owners of the building also are about $1.5 million apart on a selling price, he said. “Their appraisal was $9 million, our appraisal was $7.45 million,” Moynihan told members of the press Thursday during a media briefing in his Town Hall office. “That’s a gap that just represents what the market is.

Government

‘We Have To Figure Out an Answer’: Need To Expand ‘Covia’ Building Complicates First Selectman’s Proposal for Combined Board of Ed-NCPD Home

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The commercial building at the corner of Grove and Elm Streets downtown—a structure that New Canaan’s highest elected official has eyed as a possible future home for both the Police Department and Board of Education—isn’t big enough, as it is, to accommodate both agencies. An addition would need to be put on the ‘Covia’ building at 258 Elm St. to house them, and that may involve acquiring two properties to the south that are owned by Stamford Hospital, or else building east into the Lumberyard Lot, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. In any case, finding a way to make the 28,000-square-foot Covia building (which is for sale) work for both agencies is preferable to renovating the existing Police Department on South Avenue or building a new one while continuing to pay about $300,000 in annual rent for the New Canaan Public Schools’ administrative headquarters. 

“It’s kind of complicated,” Moynihan said Thursday during a press briefing in his office. “This [the Covia building] is my preference, it’s a modern building.

Government

First Selectman: Police, Board of Ed Doing ‘Walkthroughs’ at Elm Street Office Building

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New Canaan Police on Monday walked through the Elm Street office building that’s the town’s highest elected official has said could serve as a future department headquarters, and the Board of Education is slated to do its own walkthrough there during the first week of September, officials said Tuesday. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan has developed and championed the idea of New Canaan purchasing the 28,000-square-foot “Covia” building at the corner of Elm and Grove Streets as a future home for both the police and school district’s administrative offices—a move that would be financially feasible, he has said, if the current NCPD building on South Avenue could be sold to a developer who would preserve the historic structure, possibly for conversion to senior housing. “We are going to evaluate,” Moynihan said of the town’s hard look at the Covia building during a regular meeting of the Board fo Selectmen. “Assuming the conclusion is it works for the police and that the Board fo Ed believes it works for them, we would then during September do the financial analysis as to whether we want to recommend that choice as opposed to renovating [the current police headquarters],” Moynihan said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “A lot of that will depend on what we can do with the South Avenue building, because the net cost would be substantially less than renovating the police building for that purpose.