NAUGATUCK — The borough has received an offer from a developer interested in buying and renovating the vacant former Prospect Street Elementary School.
The offer has recently come before the Naugatuck Economic Development Corp., NEDC, said its president and CEO Ronald Pugliese.
As of Tuesday, though, he did not want to make the name of the developer public, nor details about the proposal, as the plan is being reviewed by borough attorney Edward “Ned” Fitzpatrick.
The 41,000-square-foot building that was built in 1953 is appraised at $2.2 million. The borough at one point had it listed at $900,000 but has dropped that price to $600,000. Commercial real estate broker Tom Hill III has the listing.
Pugliese said the developer, who is from Southington, has an agreement with a local fitness center owner to move the facility into about 13,000 square feet at Prospect Street School, which has a basketball court. Pugliese would also not name the fitness center at this point.
“We are anticipating being able to give more details in the not-too-distant future,” he said.
Naugatuck stopped using the building as an educational facility five years ago. The building has sat vacant since and has been on the market for about four years. Two proposals have fallen through in that time.
The latest was an offer from Vic Buselli, a developer and downtown Waterbury business owner who lives in Southbury, to buy it for $300,000. He originally wanted to put upscale apartments in the building, but the NEDC board did not want housing in that area.
He was going to revamp the plan but it never came to fruition.
The previous offer came from a nonprofit organization, ICES, which offers support services for people with autism and mental disorders. ICES, which would not have paid taxes on the building, said it wanted to buy the building for $800,000 before pulling out of the deal.
