BRUNSWICK — Town staff recommended the demolition of a $1.3 million town-owned building on Industry Road as part of a proposed 2012-13 budget.
In July 2004, town officials agreed to buy the property at 6 Industry Road for $1,275,000 from the previous owners of The Times Record. At the time, the property was valued at $1,347,000, and town officials said they hoped to use the building to house municipal departments.
Municipal officials subsequently determined that the cost to adapt the building for use as a police station would be prohibitive. Proposals to place the local access cable television studio and Town Council chambers in the building also fell by the wayside.
The Times Record moved its printing operations to a new building in the Brunswick Industrial Park in September 2005. After the town took ownership of the Industry Road building, Southern Maine Community College leased space in the building for a composites training program, which has since moved to Brunswick Landing.
“All it’s being used for is a very expensive storage facility,” Town Manager Gary Brown said of the Industry Road building during a presentation of the 2012-13 budget Monday night.
According to town assessor’s records, the building is valued at $1,261,300, with an associated 2.5 acres valued at $89,300.
Brown said this morning that annual heating costs for the building come to around $50,000 and that the town has had the building on the market for years with few interested buyers.
“The time has come for the town of Brunswick to demolish the building so that the land itself can be better utilized,” Brown wrote in an introduction to this year’s budget proposal.
Brown estimated demolition of the building, which currently stores police evidence, town records, and parks and recreation department equipment, would cost around $200,000.
Brown said that a field house on land at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station could fill that storage role for the town.
Prior to an announcement that Brunswick schools would face steep revenue cuts this year, the Brunswick School Department had considered the Industry Road building as a potential bus garage and central office.
That move would have relocated the current bus facilities on the campus of Coffin School and Brunswick Junior High School.
In January, Superintendent of Schools Paul Perzanoski said that a renovation price tag of $2.1 million to upgrade the building was too high.
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