1998 (1)
- The City of Somerville purchased the Homans building for $1.2 million several years ago during the Capuano administration for use as a community/youth center (2).
- At the time, the first floor was being used for storage of surplus furniture and equipment; the second and third floors were lying empty (2).
- The Gay administration proposed that the building be rehabilitated into office space for city and school departments currently housed in the city-owned City Hall Annex, and in rented space at the Tufts Administration Building (TAB) on Holland Street (the former Western Junior High School) and the Boys and Girls Club on Washington Street (the former Pope School) (2).
- The Gay administration proposed that the building be rehabilitated into office space for city and school departments currently housed in the city-owned City Hall Annex, and in rented space at the Tufts Administration Building (TAB) on Holland Street (the former Western Junior High School) and the Boys and Girls Club on Washington Street (the former Pope School) (2).
- The City, with approval from the Board of Aldermen, designed a proposal to tear down several later additions to the building, mostly enclosed loading docks, and rehabilitate the original structure, which comprises approximately 43,000 square feet of space (2).
- The Council on Aging and Health Department was to be moved to the ground floor, and put on the second floor the other city departments presently housed at the City Hall Annex on Evergreen Avenue. The School Department would like to move its administrative offices to the third floor. It is claimed that the demolition of the additions to the building would yield enough open space to create 110 parking spaces (2).
- As the estimated cost of the project rose from $5 million to $9 million, the Board of Aldermen voted to authorize the issuance of bonds to raise for the approximately $7.5 million needed for the renovation project. The Board of Aldermen's analysis showed that the plan was financially feasible if it proceeded along a tight time schedule (2).
- While some design work was done, the project was not otherwise commenced during the Gay administration (2). The Curtatone committee agreed with the goal of consolidating scattered municipal offices into a single location but found the actual Homans building insufficient to deliver fully on this promise (1).
- The project failed to meet its timeline in the months after the Board of Aldermen voted conditionally to approve the bond authorization for the project (2).
- One of the Board's conditions was the creation of a Municipal Property Review Committee to craft a long-term facilities plan for the city which, ironically, recommended that the Homans project be abandoned, and that the municipal departments be instead re-located into the Powderhouse School (2).
- According to the committee, the Powder House School has more than double the usable square footage of the Homans Building, would be less expensive to renovate, is more conveniently located, and is already equipped with needed communications infrastructure. Construction costs were estimated to be approximately $63 per square foot in the Powder House, as opposed to $185 for the Homans project (1).
- The committee estimated the city would save more than $12 million over 20 years if it moved city offices into the school, as opposed to the $4.9 million savings projected by renovating the Homans building (1).
Sources:
(1) City of Somerville. 2004. “Curtatone Committee Puts Homans Renovation on Hold.” March 29, 2004 Press Release. Available online at: http://www.somervillema.gov/newsDetail.cfm?instance_id=171. Accessed February 15, 2009.
(2) Provost, D. 2006. “City of Somerville as a Developer: Homans Building.” What is Happening in Somerville? Available online at: <http://www.provost-citywide.org/what.html. Accessed February 15>, 2009. PERSONAL WEBPAGE - NOT A RELIABLE SOURCE.
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