Committee Hopes Development Plans for Existing Morgan School Will 'Draw Tourists off I-95'

On July 23, Clinton volunteers for the town's Existing Morgan School Building Committee came together to lay out plans for the site. The committee elected leaders, set meeting dates and a timeline for the project, as well as discussed what they were looking for as they begin their search for developers for the property.

First Selectman Willie Fritz was voted in unanimously as the chairman of the committee and Alan Kravitz was appointed Vice Chairman.

Meeting dates were set for every other Tuesday at 5:30 PM in the First Selectman’s Office starting Tuesday, July 30. The July 30 meeting has been designated as the meeting in which the committee will finalize the Request for Qualifications, or RFQs.

The committee also set out the following timeline for the project as follows:

• Step 1: the RFQs (Request for Qualifications), will be prepared and available by August 14, 2013 to developers.
• Step 2: These RFQs will be expected back by the end of September, giving the developers 4-6 weeks to conduct research on the site. The selection process will begin in October. The committee will use a scoring system spreadsheet to determine what proposals they would like to see. 
• Step 3: By the end of October the RFPs (Request for Proposal) will be sent out for the selected developers and these will be expected back by January 6, 2014. A block of time (approximately 1 hour) will be scheduled for presentations to be made by each developer. 
• Step 4: By mid March a recommendation will be made by the committee to the Board of Selectmen.

The committee stated that they will provide potential developers with a wide list of uses they would like to see the site used for, as well as provide them with uses that are excluded from use.

They plan for the RFP that is being considered to be presented at a town meeting. They also plan to pull in several other town departments to get feedback such as the Economic Development Commission, Planning and Zoning, and others. 

"We are looking not just for a neo-colonial concept, but we want something that will preserve and compliment the town's character," said Kravitz. "We want the plans to be a strong, unified concept that is relatively unique. We want to draw tourists off of I-95 to this location. We want it to have a wide reach and appeal, and we need exciting, energetic visionaries to accomplish that."

Fritz stated that the project will be a turnkey operation, meaning that as soon as the developer purchases the property, the town moves out and the property is handed over 'as is.'