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06/07/2016 12:00 AMAs the July 1 expiration date for the letter of intent with the Shoreline Arts Alliance (SAA) draws closer, lease negotiations with the town are heating up as local officials, interested parties, and residents all weigh in on the future of Academy School—again.
The Academy School has been a hot button topic in town since the school was vacated more than a decade ago. Over the past three years, the town has been working with SAA to explore the idea of building a cultural arts center and the two parties signed a letter of intent designed to facilitate further investigation to that end.
The SAA and the Board of Selectmen had been discussing terms for the lease and how to divide financial responsibility for the project. Previous conversations had suggested the town would pay to bring the building back online and the SAA would pay to transform the building into a cultural arts center, but First Selectman Tom Banisch had proposed a new lease agreement, one he said would better suit the town.
Banisch previously suggested SAA take immediate possession and responsibility for the building, assume all costs going forward, and sign a 25-year lease with the first three years rent free and, beginning in year four, rent would be charged on a square foot basis by the percentage of the building being used.
Banisch referred to his proposal “as a way to get the issue in front of the voters without the town spending any more money on studies or repairs,” in a previous statement.
At a June 2 special Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting, the BOS met with the SAA to discuss the lease. SAA board member and legal advisor Kathryn Hunter said the current proposed lease isn’t a constructive starting point.
“While we remain committed to this cultural arts center project and we are very willing to review and provide comments and negotiate a lease for the school, it must be a lease that incorporates the deal terms that are set out in the letter of intent,” she said. “It must be a lease that is tailored to this deal that we have been discussing for over two years now. With all due respect, the lease [proposed by Banisch] is a boilerplate lease.”
An attorney with Madison’s town counsel, Brian Lema of Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C., said he does not believe the current lease is a boilerplate.
“The letter of intent which was referenced on a few occasions—that was also really a blue print, it was a non-binding document,” he said. “We are happy to continue the discussion, but I think to fall back on a [letter of intent] and say, ‘This is the terms of agreement,’ I just don’t think that is going to move this process forward.”
Despite current struggles with the lease, SAA representatives have stated that they are committed to the project. At the BOS meeting, SAA Executive Director and CEO Eric Dillner presented to the board plans for the building and possible financial benefits of turning the building into a cultural arts center.
According to figures in the Arts & Economic Prosperity Report provided by SAA, nonprofit arts and culture are a $653 million industry in the state, generating $59.1 million in local and state government revenue.
“The arts mean business,” Dillner said.
Moving forward, Dillner said he is willing to sit down with anyone to talk about the benefits and complexities of the project.
“The bottom line is we need a partnership to make this happen,” he said. “It is all about working together. We need positive thinking.”
Selectman Joan Walker said she is committed to seeing this project brought to town vote.
“In order to do that, we need to get and negotiate a contract” based on the letter of intent, she said. “Now we may modify pieces of that, but we have to at least start with the basis that was the letter of intent that we worked so hard over the last two years to come to.”
Banisch said the town will continue to work with SAA on the terms of the lease.
“My only concern is that the town is treated fairly and that we do what is best for the town,” he said.
A Long History: Academy School
While much of the discussion has focused on the future of the aging school building, its long history has been a key player in many of the current discussions.
Philanthropist Daniel Hand built a school on the site in 1884 under the condition that an academy always be kept there, according to the Madison Historical Society website www.madisoncthistorical.org, which notes that Hand stated “if the building is ever not to be used as an educational institution, it is to be sold and the money is to be used for the education of [African Americans] in the South.” The current school was built in 1921 and added onto in 1935. It was in use until its close in 2004 and turned over to the town in 2011.
In 2012, an ad hoc Academy Investigation Committee was established to try and determine the best use for the building going forward. At the time, several third parties expressed interest, including SAA and local developer William Plunkett, who proposed creating 40 to 50 units of housing in the space.
Committee member David Kadamus said that, despite the commercial interest in the property, the committee determined the building would be best for town or community use.
“The committee had a nice mix of people that represented a lot of different interests in town and we did several town meetings that were extremely well attended. In general the feedback was that they wanted that facility, because it’s so close in proximity to the Green and the historical nature of Memorial Town Hall, there was a real feel that that whole area of Madison needed to be preserved for its historical nature,” he said.
The suggestion was passed onto the BOS, which approved the suggestion. Former first selectman Fillmore McPherson said the BOS was unanimous in its opinion.
“We thought that having an arts center would be very good for the town, it would make good use of the iconic old building, and that it would be a draw for people to our downtown area,” he said. “People would come for lessons and studios and all of the things that go along with the arts center.”
McPherson said the use of the building for housing has been a long-running suggestion, but isn’t the best option for the building.
“People were advocating that we need more non-standard housing, condos, etc., but in truth there are about 1,000 of these non-traditional condos and apartment units in Madison, many of them in the greater downtown area,” he said. “An extra 12 or 15 units was not going to move the needle. That was not the best use for the town.”
McPherson said certain types of housing would not have been a financially viable option for the building.
“Some people were looking for affordable housing, but there is no way to make condos in that place affordable,” he said.