Mystic — The Stonington Economic Development Commission is urging the Planning and Zoning Commission to take steps to ensure that the soon-to-be vacant Monsanto research facility on Maritime Drive is sold and reused for high-end research or office space.

EDC Chairman Blunt White said he toured the 90,000-square-foot building where seed research is done on Wednesday with another commission member and new Director of Planning Jason Vincent. 

“The building is really spectacular. It’s a premier, world-class office and research building,” he said.

Monsanto announced last fall that is plans to close the building later this year and move the operation to Missouri, where the company is consolidating operations. White said about 45 employees remain.

White said the PZC needs to make it easier to obtain a change of use or other approvals in order to help attract a buyer.

This is important as the commission has said a buyer may likely not have use for the 33,000 square feet of greenhouse space in the building.

“We want to reduce or eliminate the approval risk if we have a good company that wants to go in there,” he said.

At its Wednesday meeting, the EDC voted to send a letter to the PZC that encourages the commission to consider more flexible zoning regulations than the current M-1 zoning to encourage “a high value added transaction to occur.”

It also asks the PZC to consider pre-approving a two-story office research building where the facility’s greenhouses presently are sited, and add the development of planning strategies and new zoning tools for the M-1 zones and the site at 62 Maritime Drive to its formal initiatives.

White said Monsanto currently pays $116,000 a year in local and fire district taxes but the EDC’s vision is to increase that to $200,000.

“It’s a real problem if that building stays vacant,”’ he said.

Dan Barber of Northeast Properties in New London, who is handling the sale for Monsanto, said Thursday that the company currently is establishing the value of the property.

He added that although the property has not formally been listed for sale yet, he has taken interested parties on tours of the building.

He said the town has an opportunity to attract a world-class research firm to the site and that the building would have a global appeal to any firm looking for high-tech laboratory space that it can move into and quickly begin operations.

j.wojtas@theday.com

Twitter: @joewojtas