Municipal officials last week approved an agreement with a Norwalk-based company to manage an Elm Street building recently purchased by the town.
The Board of Selectmen voted 2-0 to pay WFL Real Estate Services, LLC $12,500 per month to manage the property at 220 Elm St., acquired as the future offices of New Canaan Board of Education.
The town has “a property manager group who’s going to be managing that property and with that there are common fees that cover all the expenses,” according to New Canaan Buildings Superintendent Bill Oestmann.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectman Kathleen Corbet voted 2-0 in favor of the agreement during the Board’s March 8 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. Selectman Nick Williams was absent.
The town has sold part of the buildings for condominiums. According to a Declaration of Condominiums that’s on file in the Town Clerk’s office, there are three units on the property. In January, the Town Clerk recorded the town’s sale of one unit for $2,497,500 to Frank Zimbaro, and the sale of another unit for $1.7 million to a limited liability company for which Zimbaro serves managing principal.
The agreement with the property manager will run through the end of this fiscal year, Oestmann said, at which point the town would approve a 12-month extension on an amount of money that “will be adjusted slightly up or down.”
“It’s up to the board over there to adjust it when they feel it needs to be adjusted,” Oestmann said, referring to the newly formed condominium association board.
He added, “We are going through some learning curves over there.”
Asked by Corbet what he meant, Oestmann said, “Because it is partially unoccupied and we’ll be fitting it out for the Board of Education, so there’ll be some changes going on, but we will keep you aware of what is going on.”
Corbet asked whether the Board of Ed would pick up the association fees in the future as part of the school district’s budget.
Oestmann said yes, though it’s unclear now whether the Board of Ed would pay the fees directly or through the Department of Public Works.
According to Moynihan, the Board of Ed’s current rental rate “more than covers the debt service and this operating expense for the 50% of the building that we occupy.”
Moynihan said, “WFL is the manager who had been managing the property for Banwell,” its former owner.