A 60-space-parking lot slated to be built behind the old Grand Army of the Republic veterans Hall on Grove Street in Peterborough is in limbo after town officials recently put the project out to bid, but received no responses.
In 2015, Peterborough Town Meeting voters approved an approximately $1.143 million bond to cover the costs of the project, which included construction of a parking lot, road access, pedestrian bridge, and land acquisition, according to the 2015 town report. Voters also approved extending the Greater Downtown Tax Increment Finance District, which was set to end, to pay for the annual bond payments for the parking-lot project. The district was extended until June 2035.
Nicole MacStay, Peterborough’s deputy town administrator, said after the 2015 vote, the select board partnered with the MacDowell Colony and Stan Fry, a downtown real-estate holder, to accept proposals from the colony’s alumni for a competition to design the landscaping of the space where the parking lot is slated to be built. MacStay said seven responses were received, and three finalists were put before the parks committee and the select board. Silvia Benedito was selected and announced as the winner of the competition in February 2016, and the town worked with her from 2016 to 2017 to realize landscaping concepts within th e voter-approved budget.
MacStay said it became clear early this spring that the town would not be able to bring forward the project as proposed within its budget, so the relationship with Benedito ended. Benedito was compensated for her time, “however I d o not have details of the scope of the work she was paid for, nor how much she was paid,” MacStay said in an email on Wednesday.
This spring, the town returned to the original parking-lot proposal and put it out to bid. An advertisement was posted on March 27, and bids were due on April 26, although none were received by the town. MacStay said Town Administrator Rodney Bartlett, who is out on vacation this week, and a representative from the town’s engineering firm reached out to local contractors in an effort to understand why no companies had submitted a bid. MacStay said the town learned through the process that local contractors have already filled their schedules for this contract season.
“Everybody is so busy right now. We’re ready to go,” Barbara Miller, a select board member, said. “We’re frustrated to say the least.”
Miller said town officials want to start and finish the project this year.
“It definitely will be built before the Main Street Bridge goes down,” Miller said. “We want it done this summer.”
Miller said the parking lot project will benefit the downtown economy by ensuring those traveling to Peterborough to eat or shop downtown have a place to park.
“People are coming into town now, we have to service them. They have to have a good experience. If they bring their money in we want to give them a good experience and parking is part of that,” Miller said.
The parking-lot project has raised concerns from some in the past, who have said in the past that the project is too expensive and benefits businesses in the historic district and not the ones on Grove Street.
MacStay said the site was “chosen as a result of an extensive analysis of parking in the downtown area conducted between Fall 2013, culminating with the Town Meeting vote in 2015.”
Miller said despite setbacks to the project, town officials plan to stay within the original projected costs of the project.
“We have no intention of going back to the town for more money,” Miller said.
MacStay said one contractor was persuaded to submit a bid, although the bid exceeded the budget.
MacStay said Bartlett is actively negotiating with local contractors “for a scope of work that is within budget.” If Bartlett is unsuccessful, she said, the project will be rebid soon.
An article published in the Ledger-Transcript in 2014 reported businessmen Cy Gregg and Stan Fry planned to buy the building for $170,000 with the intention of renovating it into a function hall. The sale was contingent on the town building a parking lot behind the building and constructing a footbridge over the Nubanusit River as a link to the Depot Square area, where Gregg and Fry own several businesses. MacStay said there was a purchase and sales agreement between the town and ForPetesSake, LLC, represented by Stan Fry as Manager, although it lapsed in July of 2015.
The hall was sold directly to GAR Hall Holding, LLC in May 2017 for $100,000, according to a commercial property record card.
Erika Rosenfeld, who bought hall and is working to open a business called Post & Beam Brewing in the space, said the property was purchased under the assumption that the parking lot behind the building would be completed.
“We were assured that it would be ready,” Rosenfeld said about the parking lot.
MacStay also said the hall was sold with the understanding that the parking lot would be constructed on the site behind the hall.
Rosenfeld said they are hoping to start brewing beer in the next few weeks and hope to have enough to open the brewery’s doors by the end of June, although that could change depending on when brewing starts. She said they can open the brewery before the parking lot goes in, although it will likely be inconvenient.
“Technically the street parking is all we need to open,” Rosenfeld said, although she added later that she won’t know where to tell people to park once the business opens.
Rosenfeld said she can fit three vehicles on the piece of property, which will include one space for an employee and two handicap accessible spaces.
“I don’t know where to tell employees to park,” Rosenfeld said.
MacStay said the business slated to go into the hall can open before the parking lot is put in, adding that there is “plenty of available public parking in the downtown area to support their business as proposed.”
Digital Audience Editor Meghan Pierce also contributed to this article.