Hearing On FFH Veterinary Hospital Is Jan. 20

A public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, January 20, at 7 pm, in the Senior Center, 14 Riverside Road, to consider the proposal of the Town of Newtown to lease Woodbury Hall at Fairfield Hills to tenant Glen Mountain Holding LLC, a multispecialty veterinary hospital as permitted under zoning regulations at the town-owned Fairfield Hills campus.

The lease terms are for a 30-year lump-sum rent of $760,000, which will be placed in a special revenue fund. Money will be used for infrastructure and other work and expenses on the parklike, roughly 80-year-old campus, explained Fairfield Hills Authority Chairman Bob Geckle.

The upcoming hearing to be held by the Board of Selectmen is intended to inform the public of a town property poised for sale or lease. The evening is not open for vote. Residents may comment on the sale or lease, in this case. The lease agreement, a 44-page document available in the first selectman’s office on the first floor of the Edmond Town Hall, includes a specific mortgage contingency: “Tenant’s obligations are contingent upon the tenant obtaining mortgage financing … In the event that [the] tenant is unable to get a written, noncontingent commitment for the financing … on or before March 31, 2009, then absent a mutually agreeable extension of the contingency date, tenant shall give notice to the landlord of its inability to obtain financing and all obligations of both parties shall terminate.”

What does that mean? Robert Geckle explained, “If they don’t get the mortgage they have the right not to enter the lease; we have the right to walk away too.” He also said that both parties also can seek other funding sources.

Woodbury Hall currently sits empty along the recently renamed street within the former state hospital campus at 54 Keating Farm Road. Per terms of the lease, the property is to be taken as is; the tenant is responsible for building renovation, all utilities and maintenance and repairs of any nature. Newtown, which is the landlord, will provide electric and gas service and required parking.

The tenant is responsible for renovations to the building, and paying common area charges, and property taxes.

Funds go toward infrastructure and other expenses. Money will be in a special revenue fund.