South Orange Rejects Proposal to Buy Village Hall

Last month, the Board of Trustees received a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) for Village Hall.  On Monday, the trustees unanimously rejected the proposal.  The proposal called for a company called Echelon Resources to buy Village Hall for $1 and then fund the renovation.  The proposal would have allowed Echelon to build a restaurant in Village Hall, while also leasing back space to the Village for administrative use.

Among the reasons given to the rejection was the bad risk towards the Village in terms of their credit.  The deal proposed Echelon borrowing money while using the Village’s good credit.  In addition, the space concerns and renovation projections were inadequate towards the Village.

“I was insulted (by the proposal),” said Trustee Deborah Davis Ford.  “It’s like somebody is trying to take advantage of us because we are in a , for lack of a better word, desperate situation.  It’s a horrible proposal.  All the liability is on us.  I would not support that type of proposal.  It would be irresponsible.”

Trustee Howard Levison felt the whole proposal was “filled with holes about how this would be put together.”  The proposal would’ve moved the town’s employees to the basement, which Levison felt was useless and only a common space for the building.  In addition, the proposal called for a $100,000 repair to the roof, which Levison said would not even cover the cost of the slates.

Trustee Mark Rosner was unhappy with the process of the RFEI.  He felt that the company hired did not submit all the information that was asked for. 

“What I find most amazing about the whole RFP process for the building is that we asked them to give us the market study of the building and what was the value of the building with the renovations, and what was the value of the building without the renovations and those two numbers were never given to us,” said Rosner.  We were left to assume the building was no value if we don’t renovate it and we were never given a value if we did renovate it.”

The company in charge of market analysis was BBP & Associates, LLC.  Rosner claims the original price for the analysis was $35,000, but that the village paid close to $50,000.

“If we didn’t pay for this yet, I wish we would withhold payment, that’s for sure,” quipped Rosner.

Trustee Janine Bauer was in favor of raising additional grant money to keep ownership of the building.  She mentioned that the space was beneficial in case other municipal entities were to move into the building, such as the Municipal Court.

Currently, the town has a grant from the for the exterior restoration of Village Hall.  The grant would be lost if the building was sold to a private owner.

Trustee Michael Goldberg felt the village still had not finished finding someone accountable for the “Fire House fiasco.”  He wanted to make sure that the village did not repeat the mistakes made earlier.

Most of the other trustees quickly shot down that notion, with Levison “strongly recommending” that the village hires a project manager for the renovation.  Davis Ford explained that different trustees and personnel are in place than were there during the fire house renovation. 

Village President Alex Torpey brought up a binder of “lessons learned” in terms of the fire house.  He also questioned whether more retail space was needed, mentioning the empty store fronts around town. 

Bauer questioned whether the village was reluctant to give up ownership of the building due to emotional reasons.  Rosner brought up that the village hasn’t been great owners and hoped that the building would be better taken care of for now on.  Bauer agreed, bringing up the village's "horrible track record with maintaining historic buildings."  She brought up that it might be worth doing a sale for the building so someone else can be in charge of maintenance while the village rents it.

The trustees have called a special meeting on Monday, November 21 at 6 p.m. with the Village Hall Renovation listed as the key topic of discussion.  It is expected that a resolution approving the grant will be on the agenda.