143 North Main Street Initiative Q&A

• The property is assessed at less than the current asking price. Why does $1.1 million need to be raised for a purchase? The current owners rejected a previous offer by the City of $400,000 in 2022. The reported asking price for the property has been as much as $1.2 to $1.4 million. To obtain the owners’ interest in selling the property, a credible offer needed to be made, recognizing the value in terms of development potential – hence the $1 million offer. An additional $100,000 is an allowance for the purchase closing costs, property taxes, and related holding costs. 

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• Barre has many needs related to flooding, housing, and infrastructure. Wouldn't city funds be better used in those ways? The City of Barre faces numerous needs related to the issues mentioned, and we recognize the importance of addressing these challenges. However, it's crucial to balance immediate demands with long-term investment opportunities. The reality is that $400,000, by itself, would do little to advance any of those multi-million-dollar needs, but would significantly advance the vitality of our community. Allocating $400,000 of non-local tax dollars to downtown revitalization will leverage an additional $700,000 to that objective (almost a 2-to-1 return on investment). Furthermore, this allocation will advance an initiative to rid the downtown of a 15-year-old impediment to continued downtown revitalization, thereby benefiting the city as a whole.

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• Why can't the city just claim eminent domain? The city has considered eminent domain in the past but determined it was not the best course of action. Pursuing eminent domain would be a very costly, time-consuming process with no guaranteed outcome. The current property owners have significant financial resources, enabling them to contest such legal action for an extended period. This would likely result in legal costs for the City far exceeding the $400,000 allocation currently designated for the initiative.

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• Opponents of the City allocation have expressed concerns about a perceived lack of a plan or questioned the objectives of BADC’s 143 Main Street Initiative. While the public may not have been fully aware of the plan details at the time of the City of Barre’s approved allocation, the BADC explored various options that presented a way forward to best serve our community, its residents, and its businesses. (For more details, please refer to the accompanying Case Statement for this initiative, noting that details of the final site development plan will occur once a developer is under contract.) It’s important to note that the approach to achieving this property redevelopment initiative follows the same proven process successfully used to acquire and clear the former Whelan’s/Brooks Drug Store site. This effort paved the way for the construction of the five-story, mixed-use City Place office building—a project that catalyzed the impressive redevelopment over the past 10 years.​

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• Will I get a tax receipt for my donation?  As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, contributions to the BADC are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law. Given that the success of this project hinges on raising the full $1.1 million, all contributions will be held in a designated BADC bank account, with tax receipts issued to donors once the fundraising goal is met and a purchase agreement has been executed. This process is expected to occur within the 2025 tax year. If the BADC does not successfully raise the necessary funds and the property purchase does not proceed, all contributions will be returned to donors, and no tax receipts will be issued.