By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
LACONIA – A meeting is planned for this Thursday by a committee that will review five proposals offered to the state for acquisition of the former Laconia State School.
Republican Executive Councilor Joe Kenney of Wakefield, who has been named to the advisory committee along with Laconia City Manager Kirk Beattie and a number of other officials, said they will go over the proposals which will be ranked but the final decision will be made at the Executive Council table.
Charles M. Arlinghaus, commissioner of the state Department of Administrative Services, said when the deadline closed July 19 he was holding five proposals.
He said the state will “begin the process of evaluating them immediately,” but declined to say who the proposals are from, how much they offered and what their proposed plans for the property are.
“I’m afraid that under the state’s confidential rules…the only thing I can release at this point is the number of bids.”
But the next steps include a “best and final” process locking in the offers (I use “offer” purposefully as these are not ‘bids’ where all is equal except the price as in an auction, for example).
“An advisory committee will advise the governor and the governor will present a proposed purchase and sales agreement to the Executive Council. I suggested at a prior meeting that it was our goal to have a proposed Purchase and Sales on a Council agenda in perhaps August,” Arlinghaus said in an email.
The meeting, Kenney said, is set for 1 p.m. on Thursday at the Administrative Services Offices in Concord.
For much of the past century, the Laconia land at the corner of Parade Road and Meredith Center Road has been used for the state’s developmentally disabled people.
In the 1990s it became a medium security prison and now it only houses a communications center for E-911 and the Lakes Region Mutual Fire Dispatch.
The previous attempt to sell the property failed with the potential buyer failing to secure funding.
Kenney noted that in that situation, there were four bids and in 2022, Manchester developer Robynne Alexander offered $21.5 million with ambitious plans to build residential and commercial real estate on the property.
After asking and receiving three extensions to close, the state gave her a deadline of April 22 to come in with the money and she defaulted and $200,000 in an escrow deposit was surrendered.
On April 23, the state announced the 217 acres “in the Beautiful Lakes Region of New Hampshire” were back on the market.
“The opportunity to redevelop the Laconia State School property into a vibrant economic and community center is immense,” said Gov. Chris Sununu in announcing it was back on the market.
“The hard work has already been done to prepare the property for sale. I remain optimistic that another buyer will see the opportunity, and when they come knocking, we stand ready to move quickly,” he said.
