Connie Bean Sold for $1.5 Million to Exeter Firm

In less than 25 minutes, the Connie Bean Recreation Center was sold for $1.5 million to Steven Wilson, owner of Hampshire Development Corp. in Exeter, during a live auction at the Daniel Street facility on Thursday afternoon.

, to purchase the 1916 building, gymnasium and lot.

"It's just a great building, great heritage," said Wilson following the live auction that was conducted at the former Connie Bean center by Paul McInnis Real Estate Auctions of Portsmouth.

Wilson said he is "so excited" that he was able to purchase it after he submitted an initial bid of $1,250,000 on Wednesday. He would not comment on how he would like to redevelop the property and deferred further questions about his future plans until a later date. According to HDC's web site, the Exeter company has a great deal of experience in developing condominiums, commercial office space and industrial manufacturing space since it was founded in 1987.

"I think I paid a fair price for it and I think the city set a reasonable limit for it," Wilson said.

At the outset of the live auction, it didn't appear that any purchase was going to take place. McInnis asked for a bid higher than the $1,250,000 bid that Wilson had submitted, but was met with dead silence. "You had the entire night to sleep on this," McInnis said.

Following a brief recess where McInnis conferred with City Manager John Bohenko and City Attorney Robert Sullivan, McInnis explained that the city wanted to sell the former Connie Bean center for no less than $1.5 million.

It was that moment that Wilson increased his bid by $250,000 to $1.5 million. McInnis then gave the other bidders a final chance to make another bid, but none of them did.

Bohenko later explained that under the conditions governing the sale by the Attorney General's New Hampshire Charitable Trust division, the former Connie Bean center could not be sold for less than its appraised value, which was $1.45 million without restrictions. Overall, the city manager said he was pleased with the outcome.

"I think we have somebody who is going to do a nice job with the building," Bohenko said. "I am very pleased that we got a bid that was over the appraised value."