Leaders in North Adams, Massachusetts are deliberating the proposed sale of a former school building. Contemporary art museum MASS MoCA – a core economic pillar for the post-industrial city – is interested in buying the shuttered Sullivan School property at 151 Kemp Avenue to develop it into affordable artists housing and classroom space for music education. The $50,000 offer on the table is far below the building’s assessed value of around $2.6 million. While Mayor Jennifer Macksey is eager to seal the deal, the city council opted Tuesday to send it to the finance committee rather than taking a vote on the sale. It’s expected to return to the full council again on March 25th. Council President Bryan Sapienza spoke with WAMC about why the body wants more time to weigh the proposal.
SAPIENZA: It was an elementary school- Actually, I when I first started school, I actually attended school there. It's a multi-level building, it's got lots of levels, lots of different little rooms, and it's kind of a unique design. It would be, I think, for the purpose that MASS MoCA intends with it, I think it would be perfect for the for the use.
WAMC: Let's get into that- What is the proposal that's put before North Adams about what this potential new use for the building could be?
Well, the use is going to be for artist residences, possibly artist workshops, mainly a space for a creative space. I understand they're going to do music lessons and part of the building in the lower classrooms, they're going to open up a community living room, which is going to offer local residents a chance to go in and work with artists or create art of some type, and so it's going to be open and inclusive to the community.
Now, I know there was some conversation about the sale price for the building- Can you explain that to the listing audience? There's a bit of a discrepancy between what it's assessed at and what the sale price is being promoted as.
Well, the assessed value is much larger than what the actual sale price is. In a lot of cases, when public property is deemed surplus, sometimes municipalities want to sell it, and it doesn't really matter what we get for it- It's the fact that we don't have to maintain it once it is owned by somebody else, and the new owner takes care of all the responsibilities. As it is right now, the city does have to keep some basic services going at the building, like electricity or whatever, make sure the building is secure. We have had issues. We've had a small fire in there at one point. So, if somebody else is doing something with it, if there's activity there- It's safer for the neighborhood, is what I'm trying to say. But yeah, there is definitely a difference in the assessed value and what the sale value is, and that's typical of any municipal property.
Bring us up to speed on where the council came down on this after Tuesday night's meeting- What was the decision made by the North Adams city council about this proposal?
The proposal was to send it to the finance committee, and the finance committee was going to vet it, and then there was going to come back to the full council. It's scheduled to come back at the next meeting. I hope it does come back to the next meeting, because I, myself, I'm in favor of this sale.
What was the temperature in the room? Were you hearing arguments on either side of the issue?
Not really. I think it was almost unanimous vote. I believe I even voted for it. Being that it was going to come back at the next meeting, I didn't want to see it delayed much longer, but I think it was a fairly mild temperature of the room. There wasn't any heated discussion or anything.
If you had to sell this to folks in the North Adams community, why is this the right step forward for the former Sullivan School building?
Well, for one thing, I think it's- The type of building it is, it was an educational facility. We've already set a precedent in the city, not so much with buildings we own, but we used to own, like former schools, are now being turned into apartment buildings where people can rent market rate apartments. MoCA intends to bring artists in there as residences and also have been given working spaces, so if you have somebody that's got some type of an exhibit at the main museum, they can go there, they can develop their concepts, develop their ideas, and they're also opening to the community some of the programs so that the local community can get more involved with MoCA. And that's one thing I've noticed with the new leadership of MoCA over the last couple years- They're lot more interested in working with the community. I think it's just a good fit.
