At a Town Council meeting on March 20, Interim Town Manager Richard Brown said that an agreement has been signed to allow the potential developers of the Pierson School to access the property, eventually clearing the way for a purchase and sale agreement as well as a town meeting to approve the sale.

At a meeting on Feb. 7, the council granted permission for the potential developers of the Pierson School to access the property to do their due diligence ahead of a possible sale.

Brown announced on March 20 that the agreement had been signed by all parties, and now that it was official, people may see some activity on the property.

The developers needed permission from the council since the property is still under town control. Former Town Manager Karl Kilduff said in February that the developers would be doing a survey and a hazardous materials assessment. Kilduff said the agreement would be for the developers to do their work over 120 days.

The agreement being signed moves the potential development of the property along and paves the way for citizens to approve the sale but Brown cautioned that the process was a “deliberative and time consuming” one.

Once the due diligence phase is complete, the town and developers would need to write a sales agreement that would need to be reviewed by the town attorney. Once complete, the potential sale would need to be approved by citizens at a town meeting.

Executive Assistant Mary Schettino told the Harbor News the town expects the town meeting to be scheduled this year.

Even if the potential sale is approved at a town meeting, additional hurdles will still need to be cleared before the site is developed.

For one, the developers will need to secure the financing for the project from the state, which is a time-consuming process on its own.

Anther issue is settling the deed of the property. When the Morgan Fund Trustees sold the property to the town in 1953, a deed on the property from the sale stated that the premises must always be used for the education interests of the residents.

Since 2019, the town has pursued ongoing legal action, officially called a cy pres, which would lift the deed restriction. Town officials learned about the deed restriction after the decision to close the school was made in 2018.

In March of 2022, the Town Council unanimously agreed to a resolution that would pay the Morgan Trust $75,670 to help remove the deed restriction. The Connecticut Attorney General’s Office needs to approve the payment, but since both the town and the trust agree with the exchange, it’s hopeful the state won’t object.

Last year, Kilduff said undoing the deed restriction is an ongoing process. “The deed restriction still needs to be addressed, and this was disclosed to potential developers as part of the request for proposal process,” Kilduff said at the time. As of press time, there has been no update on the deed.

The Plan

In December 2023, the Town Council unanimously voted to recommend the former Pierson School property be sold to developers HOPE Partnership Inc. and Xenolith Partners LLC for $500,000.

The developers are proposing to turn the former school into affordable housing aimed toward senior citizens as well as space for senior programming needs.

Per state law, the Town Council needed to refer the matter to the PZC for a report on whether the possible real estate action complied with the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development. At a meeting in early 2024, the PZC unanimously voted that the potential sale did comply.

Though the proposal calls for the building to be sold, the façade of the building, the lawn, the statues, and the gazebo would be preserved for town use.