By Adam Swift
Town Council President Jim Letterie is planning to present a Request for Proposals (RFP) at next Tuesday’s council meeting for a public-private partnership for a sports complex at the old Winthrop Middle School site.
Since first announcing the plans last week for a potential public-private partnership for the old middle school, which has been vacant for nearly eight years, Letterie said he has received some very positive feedback.
“This RFP would be very specific for what we would like,” said Letterie. “We would like to partner with a private company where we own the land and they are building the facility. They will also build out the infrastructure below the facility and do other improvements to the area as we suggest.”
Letterie said the sports complex would include a sheet of ice and a large, expansive field house.
“(The field house) would be able to transform itself depending on the activity being done into different sporting venues,” said Letterie. “Potentially, 18 pickleball courts, or 12 tennis courts or four volleyball courts or four basketball courts. There would be an additional sheet of ice, which would leave us with two full sheets of ice (in town).”
The complex would include an expansive lobby area with a second floor which would be able to house the town’s parks and recreation department.
“They have been moved so many times throughout the course of the last 20 years that it will be fantastic for them to have a permanent place,” said Letterie.
The second floor of the lobby area would also enable the town to display youth hockey awards and trophies, view sporting events, and be available for other uses.
The partnership piece would come from the town’s ground lease with the potential partner where Winthrop would have specific dates, times, and cost structures for its town entities such as high school boys and girls hockey, youth hockey, Winthrop Figure Skating, and private hours for residents and any organizations that have been skating in the town for the past 40 years, Letterie said.
With the field house, Letterie said there would be the opportunity for students from the high school to use the facility at certain times that have been agreed upon to practice for different activities. There is also the potential for an indoor track that the high school indoor track team, which currently doesn’t have a facility, could use. In addition, there would be the opportunity for residents to use the indoor track and facility at specific times.
“The partnership, why they would want to build a facility for us, is that they would have the ability through organizations to run tournaments,” said Letterie.
Those tournaments could range from hockey, basketball, and volleyball to pickleball and cornhole, he said.
“This would bring a group of people to Winthrop who have never seen Winthrop, and I think you could easily make a case that it would increase property values,” said Letterie. “It would absolutely be an economic stimulus for all businesses in Winthrop, and that’s a major plus.”
The other revenue stream for the town is that the town would still own the property and the private entity would rent it from Winthrop.
“That rent could be anywhere from $125,000 to $150,000 per year,” said Letterie. “The economic stimulus right now is immeasurable, but I think the potential is incredible.”
In addition, Letterie said the town has also talked about selling off three or four townhouse lots at the top of Waldemar Avenue that would finish off the neighborhood and create a natural border to the sports complex.
Letterie said the town is working to secure grant money to help pay for the demolition and remediation of the existing middle school, along with its auditorium and gymnasium.
“We are getting closer to realizing that goal, and there will be more information soon,” said Letterie. “The goal would be to deliver a clean site to any potential partner.”
The potential cost of the demolition and abatement is around $1.4 to $1.5 million, Letterie said.
The council president said the public-private sports complex proposal meets the goals of providing economic stimulus for local businesses and providing a revenue stream for Winthrop which does not put a heavy strain on town services, as would be the case with a larger-scale residential development.
“If you look at this project, it would not have any negative impact to our schools in terms of financial obligations,” said Letterie. “We are very cognizant of all town departments in the proposal I want to bring forward.”
Letterie encouraged anyone who has questions about the sports complex proposal or wants further clarification to attend a Coffee with a Councilor event he is hosting at the Harvey Hearing Room at Town Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 20 at 6 p.m.