Two members of the Board of Selectmen voted this week to solicit offers from potential purchasers of a town-owned, ca. 1860-built Victorian gothic revival building downtown.
The turreted, yellow Vine Cottage next to Town Hall on Main Street currently is used for the offices of the New Canaan Health Department.
The historic building had been put out for RFP four years ago and the town has not accepted any offers, including one made in December 2021. Shortly thereafter, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan suggested that the town may seek to retain the space for the Health Department.
On Tuesday, Selectman Nick Williams raised the prospect of reissuing an RFP to solicit offers again.
“I did not go out and look for a buyer for Vine Cottage, but it came to my attention that we have a very credible potential buyer for Vine Cottage,” Williams said during the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
He continued: “As many of you know, Vine Cottage was on the market previously. Kevin, I think you had said to me that we can’t sell Vine Cottage because we need it for COVID, which was unusual. I actually went back and looked at the RFP the first time we put it on the market and it was dated September 2021. I think COVID was going on then. I may be wrong. Nonetheless, what I would suggest is since we do have a very credible buyer and I think a potentially good price for the town—unlike the first time we shopped Vine Cottage and really got no material bids, I think, I won’t get into the details, but I think people can find that out. I would suggest that this Board of Selectmen, which will not be around when a decision is to be made to sell or not sell Vine Cottage, three different individuals [will be] sitting here, but I was suggesting in the best interest of the town that we move this process forward for now by having [Public Works Director] Tiger [Mann] and his folks issue an RFP as we did in September 2021.”
The RFP would be similar to the one issued in the past, Williams said, in that it would “condition any purchase on maintaining the integrity of the historic nature of the building.”
The comments came following a section of the selectmen meeting devoted to general matters before the town. Williams and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet voted 2-0 in favor of a motion to reissue the RFP “as soon as possible,” subject to any updates needed since some time has passed since the request for proposals was written. Moynihan abstained from that vote, as he had abstained from an earlier vote to add Vine Cottage to the meeting agenda.
In early 2017, a proposal to renovate the building for $550,000 was rejected by the Town Council. Some in town suggested that the true cost of maintaining it might be as low as $220,000. In the summer of 2018, Moynihan said that the building would likely be sold, and though then-Selectman Kit Devereaux pushed back on the move, the selectmen voted 2-1 in June 2019 to approve the RFP. A field of four interested parties was narrowed down to two contenders, Robert Cuda and Arnold Karp, Moynihan has said. Cuda died in December 2019, and the negotiations with Karp—owner of the former Red Cross building next door—slowed amid the pandemic, town officials said.
Williams described the building as “a PPE dump site,” referring to personal protective equipment.
“If you go upstairs, there are rooms filled with surgical masks and gloves and things like that,” Williams said. “And Jenn Eielson, our wonderful health director, can certainly attest to that fact. It can’t be used. It’s similar to the issue we have at Irwin. It’s not ADA-compliant. We have to put in an elevator there. I don’t think anybody in their right mind would consider putting, at town expense, an elevator in Vine Cottage. So my belief is that we should have that RFP issued. We’ll see what comes about. Will that bidder stay? I think he/she will, but we have to follow the process. I believe in process and the RFP would be just a starting point to that process.”
No one identified the prospective bidder at the meeting.
That individual “understands it takes the Board of Selectmen to approve” any offer, Williams said.
“It takes Town Council,” he continued. “I don’t think it takes the Board of Finance because we would be disposing of property, not paying for something new to buy. And the reason I’m bringing this forward now and not waiting until a new Board of Selectmen is [in place], is because this bidder has said to me, ‘I would like this process to begin sooner rather than later.’ ”
When disposing of municipally owned property, state law also calls for a town to receive a referral from the local Planning & Zoning Commission.
Williams referred multiple times to the “new” Board of Selectmen. Both Corbet and Williams announced earlier this year that they will not seek re-election. Moynihan lost badly at the Republican Caucus in July.
Corbet said during this week’s meeting that Vine Cottage was never “on the market,” strictly speaking.
“I think we were inquiring … whether there was a level of interest,” she said.
Williams noted that a selectmen-appointed Committee in December 2017—a group co-chaired by Town Councilman Penny Young and Board of Finance member Amy Murphy Carroll—had studied and made recommendations regarding the future use of all town-owned buildings in New Canaan.
“They went through every building and I think the executive summary is: We have a lot of buildings, we need to try and dispose of some buildings and there’s certain buildings we can’t really sell,” Williams said. “We can’t sell Irwin House because it’s in a park. And there are other buildings that we can’t sell, Town Hall—presumably we’re not going to do that. But seriously, I think this makes sense. We’re not making a decision to keep it, [or] to sell it. We’re just moving the process forward for the next Board of Selectmen who will make that decision.”
Corbet said she agreed.
At the time the Committee issued its report, the 2,334-square-foot Vine Cottage was occupied by the Department of Human Services, and the Committee recommended deferring a decision on its renovation until the future home of the Board of Education is determined. The Committee noted that the town’s decision on using other publicly owned spaces would help inform a decision about the future home of Human Services. Since then, the department has moved into the former Outback Teen Center building, and the Board of Ed at the start of this academic year moved into its new home on Elm Street.
Williams noted that he himself wasn’t driving any move to sell Vine Cottage.
“I’m being responsive to this one particular bidder who just wants to see the process start,” he said.
Corbet said she wanted “to involve the next Board of Selectmen just to comment” on the RFP before it goes out. Williams agreed.
Town Council Chair Steve Karl, a Republican, is running unopposed for the position of selectman. Murphy Carroll, a Democrat, and Dionna Carlson, a Republican, are squaring off in a contested race for first selectman. Whoever finishes second in that race will serve as a regular selectman on the Board.
If Arnold Karp gets his hands on that property the town is guaranteed to have an ugly, so-called affordable housing monstrosity go up. He’ll get his wish to destroy our beautiful town!
What are the selectmen doing??? I can’t think anything but who’s getting a cut!!
Please use it as is for the town!
Wow. I guess even next to town hall you don’t think affordable housing is needed. Shocking revelation
Nobody here wants affordable housing the way you do it, with more than twice the number of market-rate rentals attached so you can enrich yourself on a particularly bad piece of legislation. That, I’d imagine, is where the “so-called” comes from. Show us something that’s not greed masked as saviorism clad in Home Depot’s latest, and we might feel otherwise.
Perfectly described – thank you Laura.
Laura—I know their are numerous people in town actually who want diverse housing options. That good doesn’t always openly voice their opinions
Basic economics and town requirements means that if you are providing 1/3 of the housing at below market rents (1,200 for a one bedroom) you need 2/3 of the units to be at market rate. Trust me the economics that you believe are so “enriching” truly are not. If it’s such a good investment I suggest others build and invest —like people did in the movie theater Remember if the town builds its own housing—the tax payers pay 100 percent of the tab. For 40 years— longer than I will be on earth 30% of the units have a negative return. However I believe people deserve decent housing. Do you not think beginning teachers, library employees and bank employees should live in town?
You should take a walk thru my various other projects before you comment on quality. In new Canaan we have built the only 100% ADA accessible housing
True the towns that work with developers do get a better projects something our town bodies are unwilling to do.
As far as the state law being a bad piece of legislation— it was put in place 30+ years ago—so towns would create different types of housing. Something most fairfield county towns have been unwilling to do
I have said it before and will say it again – have you ever thought that your approach is actually part of the problem, and part of the reason we are where we are? We all want diversity of housing, and to get there we have a POCD. Democracy works best in the open and laws work best when they are applicable to all and not just the well connected or the top 0.1%.
For a person who has his name on our high school walls, and at the Y entrance – two major community institutions I can hardly remember hearing a positive word uttered by you or your associates about this community or its residents in the close to 5 years that I have lived here.
When the election is over, and hopefully the affordable housing committee is formed, we as a community of residents can have a good, open and frank discussion on how we want to tackle the overall issue of housing affordability, with solid tangible projects that town residents can support in line with the existing and new POCD.
In that process our representatives to Hartford, and frankly the Governor, are going to need to provide some assurances that the investments the town and its residents make are actually credited to us – not this nonsense about the Canaan Parish and housing credits as it now stands as now interpreted by the CT State Housing Commissioner which directly benefit you and other developers at the expense of the rest of us.
The density is needed to make the numbers work. So, to say that nobody wants it the “way you do it” is really to say that you don’t want affordable housing. Ad hominem attacks on those attempting to provide a broader housing stock is not constructive to something everyone ought to be on board with. We could debate where AH ought to go, yet a core issue is that opposition invariably uses the “just not there” excuse. New Canaan sometimes pats itself on its back about the AH that has been built yet conveniently ignores that a fundamental reason that has happened is due to the existence of that “particularly bad piece of legislation”.
It’s worth noting that those who resort to accusations of greed are themselves likely not 100% philanthropic in their work or chosen profession. It would not be going out on a limb to guess that they themselves provide some good or service for profit. That’s called work or business and is perfectly fine. And yet when others, looking to do something not to their taste, do the same – that’s somehow greedy or evil.
I’ve heard the “so-called AH” argument before too, but I would think that the real-life actual people putting their heads down on a pillow at night in a real-life actual living unit would not call it that.
So much misinformation swirls around this topic and news posts aren’t always the ideal format for an open dialogue. We could grab a cup at Dunkin and discuss. No illusions that you would become a proponent, but we could learn from each other
Oh PLEASE do NOT NOT NOT sell it to Karp or any other developer!
It’s not Arnold Karp.
Fanny — you should buy it and donate it back to a nonprofit in town. There are many good nonprofits who might be interested
Vine Cottage is a strategic property for the Town of New Canaan and the property, if not the structure, should be retained for future Town use. For example, after the Police Station is renovated, there will be calls to renovate the Fire House. A new Fire House could be constructed on the Vine Cottage property. There may we other Town uses in the future where having a contiguous property would be extremely useful.
As New Canaan continues to grow we should retain the Vine Cottage property for future expansion of our town government campus. Once it is sold to a private developer it is gone forever. I made this point to the Town Council at my last meeting as co-chair and I still believe it the right thing to do.
The out going selectmen committee should have “no say” in what should be done with the Vine cottage. Thank you for your service but this property should be left alone until many other decisions have been made.
The Town shouldn’t sell it, I’m sure they could use it for something… they always did before…