Groton — The Town Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to authorize the sale of the 15-acre former William Seely School property to Kincora Development LLC, the developer of Waterford Commons.

The council authorized Town Manager Mark Oefinger to sign the purchase and agreement for $300,000 for the school property on Walker Hill Road, a portion of which abuts Route 12.

Mark Mancuso, a partner with the Waltham, Mass.-based developer, said it would take about six months to evaluate the property, zoning regulations and market to determine what would work best there. 

The developer would need 18 to 24 months to obtain the needed permits, Mancuso said.

The developer hopes to create a commercial area that provides "a combination of tax revenues, job opportunities and, hopefully, some good opportunities for people to come and do commerce," Mancuso said. 

"It has pretty excellent infrastructure around it," he said, adding, "You've heard the old adage, 'location, location, location.' It is clearly underutilized."

Waterford Commons includes the anchors Dick's Sporting Goods and Raymour & Flanigan. Another Kincora project is Milford Marketplace, a shopping center anchored by Whole Foods Market.

"If they're able to pull something together, this would be a good thing, and could put a new face on Route 12," Oefinger said.

The sale also would spare the town the expense of eventually demolishing the school, which was built in the late 1940s and 1950s, has asbestos and could cost about $1 million to raze, he said.

The Seely School property is adjacent to a 5-acre property owned by Gretchen Chipperini, Mancuso said. In the future, the development could be expanded to include those five acres, but at this time the sale deals with the school property only, he said. 

The Seely School houses many Groton Town recreation programs, including gymnastics, which would have to be relocated.

Oefinger said the programs temporarily could be moved to the former Fitch Middle School's D wing, the mostly single-story section of the school that runs parallel to Depot Road.

During the last year, Groton officials have renewed their focus on economic development, trying to determine where the town fits into the regional market and to streamline zoning regulations.

Areas like the Seely School property, industrially zoned land north of the Mystic Marriott and the intersection of routes 117 and 184 have been considered prime sites for development in the past.

d.straszheim@theday.com

Twitter:@DStraszheim