Norwich — City and state officials met behind closed doors for 90 minutes Friday morning with the developers who are trying to persuade the city to reverse its decision to tear down the historical Reid & Hughes Building and accept their plan to renovate the building into 20 apartments and retail space.

Representatives from the city and the Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development said afterward that the meeting was “a good discussion” and the parties will meet again, tentatively on Jan. 27.

The meeting was arranged by Todd Levine, historic architecture historian for the state Historic Preservation Office, in an effort to persuade city officials to work with the prospective developer and avoid potential state legal action against planned demolition of the Reid & Hughes.

The Norwich City Council voted in October to bond up to $800,000 to tear down the building.

“We had a good discussion of the issues,” Norwich City Manager John Salomone said, declining to discuss specifics of the meeting.

Betsy Crum, executive director of the Women’s Institute, said her group will present a written plan to city officials at the next meeting of its $6 million proposal to renovate the decaying split-level structure into 20 affordable and market rate apartments, some reserved for formerly homeless veterans.

Crum said the proposal would include timeframes and a detailed report from project engineer Jim Grant on the work that would be needed to stabilize the building to allow time for the Women’s Institute to obtain financing and historic preservation tax credits for the project.

New London developer Bill Morse has offered to invest $200,000 into the stabilization work to free the city of that obligation, with another $100,000 anticipated from the city’s downtown revitalization program being administered by the Norwich Community Development Corp.

During a Dec. 7 public hearing before the state Historic Preservation Council, city officials and contracted engineers for the city and representatives Crum’s development team offered greatly conflicting testimony on the condition of the building and whether it can be saved.

City officials have argued that the building has decayed beyond salvaging, but Crum’s group countered that they successfully have renovated historical buildings of similar size that were in worse condition.

The state Historic Preservation Council voted unanimously following the hearing to reject the city’s request for permission to tear down the building, and asked the state Attorney General’s Office to intervene and possibly seek a court injunction to stop the demolition, if necessary.

Dale Plummer, president of the Norwich Heritage Trust, the group leading the local effort to save the building, said it was encouraging to have the parties at the table, with state officials pressing their position that the building should be saved, renovated and returned to the tax rolls.

“The basic issue now is to convince the (city) council to reverse its decision and to see this building as essential to downtown,” Plummer said. “And it is essential.”

c.bessette@theday.com