Fairfield Hills Panel Poised To Recommend Town Purchase

By Steve Bigham

Michael Floros has always believed the town of Newtown should purchase Fairfield Hills, and he now has the evidence to back up that belief. So does the rest of the Fairfield Hills advisory committee, which is expected to recommend a town purchase of the 186-acre parcel by Christmas.

Last week’s release of a draft of the Harrall-Michalowski Associates, Inc (HMA) economic report went a long way toward convincing town officials that Newtown must buy the land. In short, the study indicated that none of the three developers’ proposed plans provided significant tax benefits to the town. It also indicated that buying and cleaning the property would not put Newtown in the “red,” costing little more than a mill. As Mr Floros points out, the speculation is over.

“The small gap between the cost to own the property vs having it bought by an outside developer helped convince me that the town needs to buy Fairfield Hills. I was always for buying it, but to me, that information made it a lot easier to go to public with a final analysis,” said Mr Floros, chairman of the advisory committee.

According to the HMA report, none of the three proposed developments would have significant impacts on the town’s tax rate. Becker and Becker’s plan would provide the town a savings of just 0.24 mill, Spectrum Skanska would save the town 1.016 mills, and the plan submitted by Wilder Balter would cost the town 1.61 mills.

“For what will equate to a slight increase in the mill rate we would get control of the last piece of property in the heart of the town,” Mr Floros said.

At a meeting of the advisory board last week, environmental consultant RW Bartley & Associates of Tolland also provided vital data on Fairfield Hills. His report indicated that while there are certainly a number of exterior and interior environmental concerns, such as the need for asbestos abatement and some outside remediation, the cost to clean Fairfield Hills may not be as significant as once thought.

“When we first started it was $20 million to clean, $12 million to buy. Now it’s more like $12-13 million in total,” Mr Floros said.

Mr Floros’ board was charged six months ago with weighing the pros and cons of a town purchase versus purchase by an outside development firm. With hard economic numbers now in hand – like the total of $13-15 million to buy Fairfield Hills – the town can now start coming to conclusions.

“Right now, the majority of the people feel the town should purchase the property,” Mr Floros said. “It’s just a matter of what should the town do with it and how do we manage the property?”

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal agreed, but warned the public that there are still some unanswered questions in terms of environmental testing. Both the town and the state are still awaiting the results of the state’s Phase II environmental study.

The HMA economic report also stated the importance of using Fairfield Hills for economic development. Should the town buy the land, it would pay about $70,000 per acre. Both Mr Rosenthal and Mr Floros say using Fairfield Hills solely for ball fields is a bad idea.

“To buy it for fields, to me, it doesn’t make sense. But that’s not to say there couldn’t be fields there,” Mr Floros said. “The big thing now is what would we do with it if we were to buy it.”

Bruce Becker Responds

The Becker and Becker proposal has been the front runner among the three development proposals due to the partnership it offers with the town. Sensing that town officials may be leaning toward a town purchase of Fairfield Hills, B&B President Bruce Becker sent out a reminder this week that acquisition and clean-up would be the smallest cost the town would face.

“We are proposing a $160 million program. If the town is interested in doing a plan like ours, it must look at acquisition, remediation and development costs,” he said. “If there’s not a definite plan, it would be a mistake to conclude that the town’s only cost would be to acquire and clean the property.”

As part of Mr Becker’s proposal, acquisition and remediation costs amount to just seven percent of the overall investment. So, he said, if town is going to take on the role of developer, it must figure out where the other 93 percent of the funding will come from.

Mr Becker questioned some of the HMA numbers, particularly the property tax projections. Left out, he said, was the significant savings in bonding costs to the town by having Becker and Becker build a school and municipal building. He believes his firm would save Newtown $10-11 million in debt service or about $500,000 per year. Mr Becker said his company’s proposal would give the town those buildings through a condominium ownership structure.