Marion Town House – Love It or List It?

During the January 13 meeting of the Marion Town House Building Committee, the members once again reviewed construction options, cost comparisons, timelines, and schematic plans in preparation for their January 26 public meeting. That meeting will be held in the Marion Music Hall at 7:00 pm.

After being surprised by a suggestion that another committee be assembled to study the feasibility of building on the recently acquired VFW property, the group focused on the work completed thus far and inclusion of newer plans.

Finance Committee Chairman Alan Minard advised the group before the meeting got fully underway that, due to Community Preservation Act funding not being available, “The new study is stalled.” He said that while private funding had been considered and had, in fact, been offered, such funding “might put us in an awkward position … at town meeting.” Of a separate study, he concluded, “We’re not going forward with that idea.”

Town Administrator Paul Dawson shared that a survey had been mailed out to approximately 2,500 residents last week and that returns so far show a 50-50 split between those respondents in favor of renovating the town house and those wishing to build on the VFW site.

Yet, when it came down to the dollars and cents associated with the four options now in the cue, Town House Committee Chairman Bob Raymond pointed to the bottom lines – they are all within the same range.

Option 1, a complete renovation of the town house, is pegged at $11.9 million, the most costly of the plans.

“Everyone’s in favor of rehabbing the town house until they see the costs,” said Minard. “There is no debate on whether or not to keep the town house, but is it a town house or is it condos?”

Option 2 would be scaled back renovations to the town house and renovations to the Atlantis Drive property to provide office space for those displaced from the Spring Street location. This option comes in around $8.5 million.

Option 3, a renovation of the town house with an addition, scored an estimated cost of $9.8 million.

And Option 4, a new 14,261 square-foot building at the VFW property, is estimated at $10 million.

All cost estimates include 35% in what Raymond deemed were “soft costs.”

Raymond told the assembled that, in reviewing similar municipal building projects and associated costs, Marion’s plans were not excessive. He also pointed to the Town of Sandwich. Sandwich had over the course of several years funded repairs to their historic town hall building through public donations.

A cost analysis spreadsheet that Raymond passed out showed the average square foot costs of building repairs from a variety of locations in the state coming in around $657 per square foot. Marion’s estimates regardless of the option come in around $668. Raymond said, “We’re having trouble getting out of the six hundreds unless we go to a smaller project.”

With a wink to a popular reality TV series, Raymond said, “We may have to ‘love it or list it.’”

The next meeting of the Marion Town House Building Committee is scheduled for Thursday, January 19 at 6:00 pm in either the police station community room or the Marion Town House.

By Marilou Newell

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