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10/23/2018 12:00 AMOver the past several months, a committee has been compiling information on future uses of the former Academy School building, both private and community uses, to put before residents in a poll in late November. Up until this point, the private development options were significantly more detailed than the more conceptual community options. A few residents recently decided to change that.
The private development options for the building, mainly residential, are in large part building-only variations of the proposals residents saw over the course of two presentations in February 2018. Those options have a lot of detail because they come from private firms with the resources to build models and renderings of what the building could be.
The community options under debate by the Ad-Hoc Academy Building Guidance Committee range from moving town offices to Academy to turning the building into a community center. Those ideas don’t carry any less weight with the committee than the private options, but the community options have less detail at the moment. Believing the community would have a hard time supporting a community option in the upcoming poll if they can’t visualize the option, some residents took it upon themselves to flesh out what an Academy Community Center might look like.
Residents Catherine Ferrante and Richard Passero gave a presentation to the Academy Committee that outlined the cost for a community center, what activities could be held in the building, and even went as far as building a 3D model showing what activities could be held in each room of the building.
Ferrante said there is a need for a community center in Madison as it’s one of the only towns in the area without one and that Academy would be the perfect location.
“It’s within walking distance of the downtown, within Madison’s Historic District, close to public transportation, restaurants, overnight accommodations, and adequate parking,” she said. “In short, it’s already in the heart of the Madison cultural town center. The community center will both enhance and complement the downtown and the historic district.”
Additionally, because Academy was built to be a school, the current configuration of the building lends itself to a community center use, according to Ferrante. The current layout of the classrooms, hallways, gym, and auditorium wouldn’t need to be moved if it was turned into a community center, which would keep the current appearance of the building and eliminate the major construction costs tied to internal structural changes like moving hallways or support beams.
“There are 16 large classrooms, many of which have beautiful, 10-foot windows; a versatile gymnasium that can hold 500 people; a small auditorium in front that can seat 100; a full kitchen and cafeteria; and large areas for art and music—so typical school configuration,” she said. “What is great about that typical school configuration is that the things we learn and do in school translate perfectly to what we are interested in as adults as well.”
Ferrante said she and Passero had already reached out to numerous community groups that would welcome the space opportunities a community center would offer. In their model, the building includes space for the town Beach & Recreation Department, office space, arts space, adult education classes, space for dance and yoga, and meeting and study rooms. It also keeps the kitchen for cooking classes or groups, keeps the gym as a gym that could also be used for large events like school dances, and keeps the small, 100-seat auditorium at the front of the building for concerts or plays.
Using numbers put forward by the committee and town consultant Colliers International, Ferrante said the minimum renovation cost to get the building suitable for municipal use is about $13 million. Considering a median home value of $400,000, $13 million over a 20-year bond would mean an increase of roughly $85.25 a year to a homeowner’s taxes. However, Ferrante said the $13 million figure is what the construction would cost without any grants or fundraising dollars.
“Madison could look at historic tax credits, federal and state grants and tax credits, private and philanthropic donations, public and capital campaign, and fundraisers and crowd funding,” she said.
In the model, the community center would be run by the town, so annual operating costs would also have to be factored in. Passero said based on his conversations with other towns, the cost to operate a community center annually—between power, personnel, and maintenance—is roughly $400,000, a number that could be offset by generated revenue.
“The other thing is community centers like Guilford’s take in over $100,000 in annual revenue, so that would also offset part of this,” he said. “We can assume that over time, the income from our community center could be built up to the same thing.”
The Academy Committee asked a lot of questions after the presentation. Passero and Ferrante plan to bring the model and information regarding the community center option to the Academy public information sessions scheduled for mid-November.
Passero, who was been working on this option since August, said he realizes $13 million is a lot of money, but a community center option would save the building and enhance the downtown, bringing more people in to existing shops and restaurants and possibly increasing property values.
“It’s the money that makes the difference, but when you look at the private development proposals, there isn’t much money in there for the town,” he said. “The town doesn’t get that much in taxes and there is very little up front…I know this is asking a lot of the community, but it is preserving this building for the future. It’s an asset and we are not giving it away. The town would have this forever and if you turn it into condos, it could go away.”