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Board of Selectmen Considers Mislick Drive Sale

The Deep River Board of Selectmen discussed selling a small commercial property in the Plattwood Park Industrial Area at its Aug. 11 meeting, with one idea of using the proceeds to add more business incubator space in the town’s north end.

The property, 100 Mislick Drive, is a three-quarter acre lot off of Commercial Drive.

“I’m thinking now, we’ve had a lot of interest over the years for it, but I think now is a good time to go and actually mark up the property and see what we can get for it,” said First Selectman Angus McDonald.

McDonald indicated that the property is valued at approximately $120,000. If sold, the proceeds would be placed in the town’s capital fund.

“I would like to earmark it toward some capital investment programs that we’ve been thinking about,” said McDonald. “[We’ve been] working with our planners a little about some conceptual ideas about maybe an incubator space on Main Street that would be more of an office, or some other commercial use other than industry.

“We don’t have much more land for incubator space, and I think our Main Street could use that, especially up there in the North end,” he added.

McDonald discussed the State of Connecticut’s Small-Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP), which is a matching grant program to help fund municipal capital improvement projects.

“With $125,000 [in STEAP funds], we can’t do much investing, but maybe with additional funds and, we could try to find some more grant money, we might have enough to get a foothold, try something a little different that way,” he said.

“It’s a double win, you get $120,000 [from the sale of the property], great,” said Selectman Duane Gates. “But then you’re putting something on the tax roll, you’re not taking stuff off the tax roll, we’re putting something on the tax roll.”

Mislick Drive was completed in 2016. The Plattwood Park Industrial Area is part of a plan of the late first selectman Richard Smith, who purchased the land in the early 2000s. He nurtured the idea of business incubator space in town by offering start-ups occupying buildings in this area of town below-market rent.