This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Town of Madison Issues RFQ for Academy School

After numerous fruitless attempts to find a new use for the former Academy School, the town is now asking qualified developers to speak up. On Sept. 7, the Town of Madison officially issued a request for qualifications (RFQ), asking interested parties to come forward and prove they have the desire and the means to do something with Academy.

Once the plan to have the Shoreline Arts Alliance (SAA) transform the school into a cultural arts center fell apart in summer 2016, the town ramped up investigations into a new use for the school. The Board of Selectman (BOS) hired an outside consulting firm, Fitzgerald & Halliday, Inc. (FHI), to conduct an online survey, stakeholder meetings, and public meetings to get a better sense of what residents want to see happen to the building and what possibilities are feasible.

After the first workshop meeting in March, the board moved forward in June and hired Colliers International to serve as the town’s project manager/owner’s representation support to guide the town through the request for proposals (RFP) process and beyond. Now, after gathering public input, the town is moving forward with first an RFQ, to gather interested and capable parties, and will then move to an RFP to solicit actual proposals.

Director of Planning & Economic Development Dave Anderson said the town wants to determine if there is interest in Academy school from a development perspective without immediately defining what that development might be.

“We are trying to keep options open so that we get a lot of creative ideas, but give developers or establishments an idea of what the community has said so far,” he said. “If we just release an RFP, we might get a lot of proposals that people might not be able to pull off because they don’t have the background or the history or the financial means to do so. The RFQ is to help us guide and say, ‘OK, if you are going to come in with a proposal, we want to know that you have a track record of doing similar projects or the financial means to pull this off.’”

Anderson said the RFQ is fairly open, meaning that the town outlined some information including the size of the parcel, interest in a long-term lease or acquisition arrangement, and concerns brought up by the public (including a desire to see a mixed-use for the building, preservation of some open space, and preservation of the front of the building), but places few restrictions on what could or could not be done to the building.

First Selectman Tom Banisch said in the RFQ process, developers or interested parties don’t have to submit a project proposal, just prove that they could take on this kind of building through credit rating checks and development history. Banisch said while he has heard from numerous developers pitching some form of residential project, the town is open to a wide range of interested parties and ideas.

“People who are going to do this project have got to be able to make money and they have got to create something that is going to be meaningful to the town,” he said. “I am hoping that someone comes in and says, ‘Here is something that you never even thought of’ and we look at it and say, ‘Wow, that would be perfect for Madison.’ That is the other thing that this has to be—it has to be perfect for Madison. That is my biggest criteria.”

Once all of the RFQs are in and reviewed, the town will issue RFPs to qualified parties. Once the RFPs are in, Anderson said the town is going to bring the public in to review the proposals.

“Then we can have a discussion about how the proposals may or may not meet our goals or interests for the property,” he said. “That is going to be a big public process, because ultimately it’s going to be the town residents and the voters who get to decide which of these projects is going to move forward.”

Banisch said in the end the decision of what is to be done with Academy School will likely end up before the voters in a referendum in an effort to allow all residents to have a say.

“We have tried to do this whole thing in the open with the public participating,” he said. “What we have done is shine the light on this and let people be a part of the process. Moving forward we intend to continue that.”

Anderson said the town is going into this process with an open mind and reminded residents that this is just the start of the process.

“We are just soliciting ideas so we have a full spectrum of choices,” he said.

The RFQ is due Friday, Sept. 22 at noon. The RFQ is available on the town website: www.madisonct.org/bids.aspx?bidID=14.