Reid & Hughes advocates hope city officials consider '11th hour' development project
Norwich — More than 25 people, including several current and former city officials, heard a proposal by the nonprofit Women's Institute for Housing and Economic Development for an “11th hour” last chance effort to save the former Reid & Hughes Building on Main Street.
Women's Institute Executive Director Betsy Crum said the $5 million to $6 million proposal would include 20 apartments and small commercial spaces.
About half the construction costs could be covered by federal and state historic preservation tax credits, project architect William Crosskey said.
The Norwich Heritage Trust, headed by City Historian Dale Plummer, hosted Thursday's meeting in an effort to gain public support for saving the building on the eve of City Manager John Salomone's report to be issued Tuesday on the condition and future options for the long-vacant 1880 former retail store.
Plummer led the effort in the early 2000s to save the much larger Wauregan Hotel, also at the 11th hour as city officials sought state approval to demolish it.
Standing at the front of the restored Wauregan Ballroom, Plummer reminded attendees that the Wauregan was in as bad a shape as Reid & Hughes.
The city has owned the vacant Reid & Hughes since 1993, and several efforts to secure development plans have fallen through over the years.
Crum said it would be crucial for the city to become a partner in the project. She said the city would have to shore up the decaying building while the institute compiles financing through affordable housing grants and loans. She said a tax abatement and parking assistance would be needed from the city.
But Crum said the project would pay property taxes once the tax abatement expired.
Crum said the Women's Institute was founded to create housing for battered women but now develops affordable housing of all types. Recently, the firm worked with the American Legion in Jewett City to build a housing complex for formerly homeless veterans.
Former Mayor Arthur Lathrop speculated that the city would need to put in about $500,000 in “hard money” into the project, and perhaps another $300,000 to shore it up.
Lathrop, who was mayor during the controversial Wauregan renovation, said the Reid & Hughes project would be a good investment to the alternative of demolition with no future development.
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