Reid & Hughes in hands of developer

Norwich transfers ownership to group planning apartments

Norwich — The city no longer owns the Reid & Hughes building on Main Street.

City officials and the preferred developer, the Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development, executed closing documents to transfer ownership to Women’s Institute Realty of Connecticut Inc. of Hartford, and the deed was recorded Monday in the city clerk’s office.

The transaction was moved up, because two funding sources the Women’s Institute is using for the initial $500,000 stabilization work now underway requested collateral for their investment, Women’s Institute Development Manager Christine Rogers said Monday.

Also filed Monday was a construction mortgage for $150,000 by the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation to the Women’s Institute and a second construction mortgage for $150,000 covering the city’s contribution to the initial $500,000 stabilization work underway.

The Women’s Institute already has started seeking financing for a proposed $6 million renovation to convert the former 19th-century department store into 20 apartments, with several units reserved for veterans. Rogers said applications for federal and state historic tax credit programs were submitted in May. The Women’s Institute will file applications this week with Chelsea Groton Bank for its affordable housing grant program, Rogers said, and the group is working on applications for financing through the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority and the state Department of Housing.

The initial stabilization work, required in the Women’s Institute’s development agreement with the city to prevent further deterioration, is about 80 percent complete, Rogers said. That work should be done by early September and includes shoring up sagging walls and floors and patching a partially

collapsed roof.

“We’re proud of the progress that’s being made,” Rogers said.

“I was in there three weeks ago, and they’re progressing nicely,” Mayor Peter Nystrom said. “It’s an important step.”

The city has owned the long vacant building at 193-201 Main St. since 1993 and had tried several times over the years to find a developer to take on the project. In October 2016, the City Council voted to bond $800,000 to demolish the building, a move that was met with stiff opposition. The state Historic Preservation Council in December 2016 voted unanimously against the city’s request to tear down the building, prompting a new request for proposals process.

The Women’s Institute was the only developer to respond to the RFP, but it nearly backed out after expressing concerns over taking out loans for the stabilization work before being assured the building could be saved. The city helped assuage those fears with its last-minute contribution of $150,000 in April, allowing the stabilization work to begin in late May.

“There’s always things you don’t expect,” Rogers said of the stabilization work. “We did some additional demolition work to make it safe for workers. A section of ceiling was coming down.”

Rogers said the stabilization work is on schedule to be completed in early September, and the building will be in the same condition it was in prior to the decay caused by the failed roof and sagging wall. The repaired roof will abut the adjacent Shannon Building, where the Reid & Hughes wall had pulled away, causing concern from the Shannon’s owner, Jason Ziegler.