Photo / Courtesy University of Maine
The Hutchinson Center was donated to the University of Maine in 2007.
Updated: August 23, 2024
Despite protests, UMaine sticks to plan of selling Hutchinson Center to Belfast church
Photo / Courtesy of University of Maine System
The Hutchinson Center is located at 80 Belmont Ave. in Belfast.
Despite protests from thwarted bidders, the University of Maine says it will negotiate a final agreement to sell its Hutchinson Center in Belfast to a local church.
Of three offers submitted in a public request for proposals, Cavalry Chapel Belfast's was selected because it “had the top-scoring response,” the Orono school said last week.
The Hutchinson Center, once a hub for university education and community events, stopped hosting in-person classes during the pandemic, when the demand for online learning increased. In fact, no degree-seeking students have taken classes at the center since 2020.
In addition to Cavalry Chapel Belfast, proposals to buy the building at 80 Belmont Ave. were submitted by Waldo County Community Action Partners and by the Friends of the Hutchinson Center/Waterfall Arts. Within five days of last week's decision, both of those groups exercised their right to file a protest.
On Thursday, the University of Maine said the groups did not present evidence warranting a change in the original result, and listed some factors that distinguished the highest-scoring proposal.
Both Cavalry Chapel Belfast and WCAP submitted $1 million purchase offers, although with different terms.
While Cavalry Chapel offered a $1 annual lease agreement in perpetuity for a carve-out of space so the UMaine System can continue using for internet connectivity, WCAP offered to lease the space back to the system for $2 per square foot annually. The space concerned measures 231 square feet.
UMaine said the church group's proposal was more favorable.
In addition, the church group waived the right to inspect the property before the sale, despite a public disclosure by the seller about water damage due to burst pipes in February. Belfast Cavalry Church also offered $225,000 in earnest money, five times the offer of the second-highest bidder, UMaine said in Thursday’s announcement.
None of the proposals would have resulted in the property — last appraised in 2023 at $2.52 million — being added to local tax rolls, UMaine said in Thursday's news release.
Since the award's announcement last week, at least 135 citizen comments have been submitted about the pending sale.
UMaine declined to comment beyond Thursday's statement on the longstanding public procurement policy and a process "intentionally designed to protect against bias and ensure the integrity of public entities in their stewardship of public resources and trust.
"Every organization and individual had the same opportunity to submit a proposal in response to the Hutchinson Center RFP, and all proposals received were scored by the same objective standards, which have been publicly available for eight months,” the statement continued.
“The university cannot discriminate, including on the basis of religion. Doing so would be against the law and inconsistent with the university’s commitment to inclusion.”
The Hutchinson Center was built in 2000 by MBNA Corp., a credit card company acquired by Bank of America Corp. in 2006. In 2007, Bank of America donated the building to UMaine.
Since then, the university has invested more than $14 million in capital improvements. The amount includes funding for three-quarters of an expansion project completed in 2009, for which UMaine still owes $885,000.
While UMaine had originally planned to list the property for sale with a commercial broker, the school opted instead to issue an RFP to allow more time for purchase, lease and other types of offers to be developed and considered fairly, the school said.
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