Hoping to soon see a new use for the former Academy School, the town initiated the next step in the process on Oct. 23. At the Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting, Planning & Economic Development Director Dave Anderson informed the board that a request for proposals (RFP) had been issued to qualified parties.

The town recently received 11 request for qualifications (RFQ) on the building. The town began the process in early September with and RFQ, allowing parties to express interest in the building and pass tests such as a credit check and development history, before moving on to the RFP, where RFQ-approved parties can now submit specific project proposals. All 11 parties who responded to the RFQ have been invited to submit and RFP.

“We had 11 responses and there were a few local respondents, but there were respondents from New York, from Boston, [and] from Rhode Island that have done work literally all over the world so there are world-class developers that are interested in Academy which is good news for us because I think we are going to get a lot of interesting proposals that we can share with the public,” said Anderson.

In the past year, the town ramped up the investigations into a new use for Academy School. The BOS hired an outside consulting firm, Fitzgerald & Halliday, Inc. (FHI), to conduct an online survey, stakeholder meetings, and public meetings to get a better sense of what residents want to see happen to the building and what possibilities are feasible.

More than 1,000 people filled out the online survey, answering questions concerning people’s individual connections to the school, concerns about the building, and desires for its future use. In addition, at the first workshop meeting on March 28, residents answered additional questions and engaged in group discussions. Anderson said the town, specifically a subcommittee helping to steer the process, used the public input to help shape the RFP.

“Some of the parameters we asked them to adhere to were that a playground as well as some level of open space should remain post-development on or very near the site; a mixed use building would be preferred; maintain the shell of the original 1921 building and provide a more attractive pedestrian connection between the Academy School property and the core of Madison to the east,” he said.

Anderson said the RFP is fairly open so that the town can get a wide range of ideas on what the building could become.

“Responses are due on Dec. 18 and there is a lot of financial information that is being requested from the respondents...I think that is really going to cut some of the proposals out right away,” he said. “If they don’t meet the financial qualifications, they are not going to advance on to be shared with the public because we don’t want to have happen here what just happened in Clinton where there was a development that got approved, the public got behind it, and it went belly up.”

Clinton recently had a preferred developer pull out of a redevelopment contract for the former Morgan School site off of I-95.

Looking ahead, Anderson said once the town receives the RFPs, the subcommittee will sort through them and then the proposals will move to the public.

“We are working with Colliers [International] to help us identify who might make the cut from a financial perspective and these will all be shared with the BOS and you guys will have an opportunity to review all of the proposals,” he said. “The subcommittee is going to be making a recommendation on which proposals to share with the general public. We will have a robust series of public workshops and surveys to get input and ultimately this body, the BOS, will be making a recommendation for one proposal to ultimately advance to a referendum.”