Norwich City Council to consider contribution to save Reid & Hughes building.

Alderwoman says pledge would be ‘last, last, last olive branch’ to developer

Norwich — The City Council will be asked to support committing up to $150,000 of city money to the stabilization phase in the effort to save the Reid & Hughes building on Main Street after the project failed to receive a grant through the city’s downtown revitalization program.

The City Council will consider a resolution Monday that calls for using up to $150,000 from this year’s capital budget for road improvements to complete a package of grants the building’s preferred developer, the Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development, has secured to stabilize the decaying building. The $500,000 stabilization work is designed to give the Women’s Institute time to secure financing for the estimated $6 million renovation of the building into 20 apartments and street-level retail space.

The resolution on Monday’s 7:30 p.m. City Council meeting agenda calls for amending the city’s development agreement with the Women’s Institute, assuring that the city’s portion of the stabilization funding would be used last, and only after initial work provides assurance that the decaying building can be saved. City Manager John Salomone would be asked to negotiate the amendment and present it to the City Council at the April 2 council meeting.

The first-phase stabilization has been delayed since fall, when the Women’s Institute’s own board of directors became hesitant to commit to loans for the work before assuring that the building is salvageable. The council allowed organization Executive Director Betsy Crum an extension through February to secure grants for the project instead of loans.

The Women’s Institute obtained grants totaling $315,000 from four historic preservation groups and a veterans’ housing assistance fund — the project calls for reserving some housing units for homeless veterans. But the Women’s Institute had counted on the $150,000 requested from the city’s downtown revitalization program for code improvements overseen by the Norwich Community Development Corp. That grant was rejected last week by an application review committee.

Republican Mayor Peter Nystrom co-sponsored the new resolution along with Republican Alderwoman Stacy Gould. Nystrom said the city funding makes sense financially. He called it a partnership with the preferred developer to stabilize the building for a renovation project that would put the cityowned building back on the city tax rolls for the first time in over two decades.

“If you look at a cost perspective,” Nystrom said, “the city still has an opportunity to have a partner in stabilizing that building, with condition that those funds not be spent first. That would allow us to give that final determination whether the building can be saved.”

The entire proposed development has been controversial and has been delayed several times over funding issues. The council initially had approved an $800,000 bond to demolish the building. But the state Historic Preservation Council rejected the city’s application, saying the Women’s Institute’s proposal represented an alternative to destroying the historic structure and important element in the Main Street streetscape.

Republican Alderwoman Joanne Philbrick has been an outspoken skeptic of the effort to save the building and against spending city money on the project. But on Thursday, Philbrick said she would hesitantly support Monday’s resolution. Philbrick wants to see the assurances promised in the amended development agreement to be assured the city’s $150,000 wouldn’t be spent if the building can’t be saved.

“I’m very concerned about the language, because I don’t want to end up down the road spending $950,000 if we need to tear it down,” Philbrick said.

She called the pledge of $150,000 the “last, last, last olive branch” to the developer to try to save the building.

Dale Plummer, city historian and president of Norwich Heritage Trust, the local group leading the effort to save the Reid & Hughes, welcomed the city’s active participation in the project.

“These kinds of projects are always public-private partnerships,” he said.