The University of Maine System is selling the Hutchinson Center, a hub in Belfast that once held in-person classes and community events. But the university system has faced criticism from the community since it identified the buyer as an evangelical church.

The sale is now being challenged through the university’s appeal process and state legislation.

“I don’t know how the university does these things, but they were never a big fan of the Hutchinson Center,” former Belfast mayor Mike Hurley said. “It was like this gift they couldn’t say no to. Then with COVID and going to school from home, it just very quickly became an expendable.”

The center stopped hosting in-person classes in 2020 and the number of community organizations that rented the center never returned to pre-pandemic levels, said Samantha Warren, the director of external affairs for the University of Maine System.

The building, which has been sitting empty since it ceased all programming in August 2023, was appraised at $2.5 million and could have been listed with a commercial broker to be sold to the highest bidder, Warren said. But the university decided to solicit purchase offers to have that “once vibrant hub in the community utilized again,” she said.

That process required interested groups to submit proposals for the 32,500-square-foot space, which could either be purchase offers, lease offers or other creative ideas for the space. Each proposal was evaluated through a scoring system.

After UMaine announced last Thursday that Calvary Chapel of Belfast received the highest score, the two other applicants said they appealed the decision.

The church is part of an international association of Calvary Chapels. According to the proposal posted to its website, the Belfast church wants to use the space to expand its congregation, host its homeschool co-op and support addiction recovery efforts. The church’s leadership did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.

“At this point, transferring (the Hutchinson Center) from public access and gifting it to a religious organization, any religious organization, seems completely inappropriate,” Sen. Chip Curry, D-Belfast, said in March when the Legislature was considering a bill to transfer the center’s ownership to the city. The bill ultimtately did not pass.

The university system said at the time that it has a long-standing policy to divest buildings and land, and that using the request-for-proposal process would ensure “the best ideas for Belfast can come forward so the best interests of both the community and our public universities will be advanced.”

THE BIDDING PROCESS

The two other bidders fighting the sale are local community groups: Waldo Community Action Partners and Future of Hutchinson Center Committee.

Waldo CAP President and CEO Donna M. Kelley said she hoped the space could house the nonprofit, because it currently operates in a leased space that is too tight for its various care programs, transportation, community activities and large staff. She believes the nonprofit put together a solid proposal that upheld the local, community-oriented space.

Kelley said that Waldo CAP offered $1 million in cash and wasn’t sure why the scoring favored the church.

The Future of Hutchinson Center Committee’s proposal suggested preserving the center as an educational, cultural and civic resource, and establishing it as a host for nonprofit organizations in the community, managed by Waterfall Arts.

Shane Flynn, the committee’s spokesperson, said his group submitted a creative proposal to buy the center for $500,000 and still allow the university full access to the center’s internet distribution network that he said provides internet access to major Maine higher education and K-12 systems and public libraries. He argued their bid was valued around $1.9 million because of this access and past community contributions to build a second wing.

It’s not clear how much the church offered. Kelley said it was $1 million, with some financing contingency, but Warren wouldn’t confirm the details of the offers, saying they would become available after the appeal process ends and everyone is notified of the decision.

Flynn said his committee’s appeal was already denied Tuesday night. and called the process “unclear.”

“There are no objective players there that are making decisions and it is an opaque process, which is extremely offensive to us given that it’s a public university,” he said.

There is an option to appeal to the university’s chief facilities officer, which he said the committee may do.

Warren said the university is thorough and thoughtful with its competitive requests for proposal, and that selling properties that are “unused or underutilized” keeps the cost of tuition down for students.

“Many of these organizations don’t do a lot of transactions like this, so throughout this process and other procurement processes, we do a lot of education,” she said.

‘IT MEANT THE WORLD TO PEOPLE’

The Hutchinson Center has almost 25 years of history in Belfast. It was dreamt up by the CEO of MBNA, a Delaware-based bank holding company that “changed everything” in Belfast, which started as a “chicken-processing, shoe-making, sardine-cutting, potato-cooking” town with a “broken-down” downtown, said Hurley, who was the city’s mayor from 2000 to 2008 and served on the City Council for 13 years.

The MBNA campus in Belfast in 2005. The complex was leased to the University of Maine system. Press Herald file

MBNA built the property in 2000 and leased it to the UMaine system for $1, Hurley said.

“The beneficiary was not meant to be the University of Maine, the beneficiary was meant to be the people of Belfast, the Midcoast area, and that’s who utilized it,” he said.

Hurley said the Hutchinson Center “meant the world” to Belfast residents, letting them pursue their degrees without needing to drive to Orono to attend classes in person. The large auditorium allowed for films, business conferences, art, meetings and senior classes. There’s nothing left to replace it, he said.

Curry, the state senator, said Waldo County has no other community space like it after the Wentworth Event Center burned down about a year ago.

Warren said the UMaine system still maintains its physical footprint in Waldo County with its 4H Camp and Learning Center in Lincolnville, and that no students have been at the Belfast campus for years.

“There are no degree-seeking students in-person at the Hutchinson Center since 2020, and I want to be really clear that it is not for the university’s lack of trying,” she said.

UMaine offered associate degree and certificate programs at the Hutchinson Center in 2021 that were “uniquely relevant to the workforce of the region” and no one enrolled, Warren said. But that same year, 600 people enrolled in programs online.