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Date: 7/25/2023
GRANBY — The West Street Building Review Committee has recommended the town renovate and reuse the old school building to serve different town needs during the Selectboard’s July 17 meeting.
The committee was started within the last eight months and tasked with researching and putting together a plan for the building after residents urged the town to find a purpose for the site at a Selectboard meeting last summer.
At that meeting, it was brought up by residents that following the closure of the school in 2018 a study was done on the status of the building that recommended razing the building and building in two phases, a new official town office, and a new building space for the Council on Aging. The initial steps were previously approved for this project by the then serving Selectboard but due to the coronavirus pandemic, plans were never fully acted on to move past the study.
Residents also brought up at the time that there was urgency for the town putting the space to use as taxpayers have covered approximately $23,000 in insurance yearly since the building was vacated. Since the meeting, efforts shifted and a West Street Building Review Committee was established by the end of the calendar year.
Lynn Mercier of the committee spoke directly with the Selectboard during its most recent meeting about where things stood after the last six months of work and offered a new recommendation. To cover areas of focus in her report of their work, she referenced the four charges the Selectboard tasked them with when beginning their work on the committee.
The first charge was space requirements for town offices, so the committee got in contact with each department head to find out what they each needed for space. The total came out to approximately 16,000 square feet. According to Mercier, this total space would fit into the kindergarten and first grade wing of the existing building’s structure.
She added the old study was accurate in bringing in multiple spaces into the building as she confirmed with the cafeteria and other remaining space there was enough for the Senior Center to establish their space in the building as well.
The second charge the committee has been working on was focused on reviewing the previous study done on the building in 2018.
“When we reviewed that report we just wanted to point out, the recommendation was to build new because it turned out to be cheaper than renovation,” Mercier said. “However, looking through that report, there was a study done by one of the engineers basically said regardless of what portion of the building they were looking at, the foundation had no failures The foundation was in good condition.”
She added while there are still areas of renovation needed in the building, the condition was good enough to renovate the space at potentially a cheaper price now 5 years after the study.
The committee’s third charge was walking through the space themselves along with several town personnel, independent experts and dignitaries and all were impressed with the structure of the building given its age according to the committee member.
The last charge was identifying options and costs moving forward. The committee looked at potentially building a new building and contacted the same architects used in 2018 for an updated price estimate.
“In 2018 to build new, it was approximately $3.4 million, and that was to raise and build the two new buildings, which are total approximately 11,000 square feet between the two buildings,” Mercier said.
She added the architect told the committee it was safe to assume that the costs from 2018 should be increased by 60-65%, however that percentage was exclusive of the soft costs of designing, engineering, printing etc. To make up for that, the committee estimated a 70% increase in total, which brought the estimated project to approximately $7.6 million to build new.
“That was a good $4 million more just over five years time,” she added.
When looking at raising and abatement costs, the committee contacted associated building workers who gave an estimated cost of $450,000 for asbestos abatement, and an additional $550,000 for demolition. The number for the same projects in 2018 was $890,000 total.
Lastly, the committee looked at renovation. When reviewing renovation in 2018 the cost estimated to be $12,300,000 and that was given by the same architects as the complete tear down and new building proposal.
“As our committee looked at renovating the building, it became evident that we believe the number they had was a complete gut of the building as opposed to when we looked at the building and did the walkthroughs and worked with these different experts. We realized that such an extensive renovation really wasn’t required because the structure itself was sound.”
Mercier added the roof was relatively new and the existing spaces in the school building are more than adequate for what the town would need. The committee then began looking at what they termed “soft renovations” for the existing building.
The committee has been contacting different firms now for renovation estimates on different portions of the building. Mercier added that they had already contacted a group for the reactivation of septic and water to the building. They have already been notified there were four existing tanks that all needed to be replaced or reconfigured for the building and are awaiting cost estimates.
Other areas that need to be addressed for the building is its safety system and a indoor air quality program representative from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health had already visited the site and found no evidence of mold. He did note however that there are issues related to moisture and had several suggestions for combating that which included replacing some of the existing HVAC systems for the expected new occupancy of the building.
The committee has received a handful of estimates from different groups and has welcomed different experts to assess the building for feedback on the next steps.
“Adding up all those numbers up for those experts for the soft renovation, that number came to $2,689,866 but then if you add in a 20% contingency costs or addition [for any estimates they are yet to receive], that brings that total renovation up another half a million to $3.2 million for renovation,” Mercier said.
The committee did discuss the possibility of renovating the building in phases to save costs, however each architect group in contact with the committee said there was not a cost benefit to doing it that way.
“So, it’s our recommendation as a committee based on the above costs that the town move forward with the renovation of West Street building, which with it’s approximate 40,000 square feet has more than enough room for our municipal offices, for our senior center, and then has plenty of room for other options like a youth center, or community center,” Mercier said.
She added a final comment that these estimates are just that and they could see more detailed cost estimates as commitment to a project moves forward.
“It sounds like it makes sense to renovate the building, just by costs. Even if you’re off by a million dollars, it’s still much cheaper and less expensive to renovate, and to get what we’re looking for in that building at the same time,” said Selectboard Chair Glenn Sexton.
Selectboard member Richard Beaulieu said he was “pleasantly surprised” to read the good news that the roof structure was already sound for the existing building.
Sexton did add finding enough funding would be an area of focus moving forward to fit the over $3 million estimated bill. Any finalized and approved plan will have to go through a future Town Meeting vote.
Remaining discussions ranged on potential options for the projects to having consistent outreach to the community through presentations of the goals and proposals for the building. This meeting and discussion served as another step in the long and ongoing process of making use of the old West Street School Building.