As State School sale drags, city gets restless

LACONIA — The state will announce a closing date for the sale of the former Laconia State School property at the end of this month, representing further delay to a process that began nearly a year ago.

Amid the drawing out of this process, Mayor Andrew Hosmer said this week he felt communication from the developer is fizzling, and he’s growing anxious and concerned.

“I know there are a couple of loose ends that the state was looking to resolve. Those are taking a lot longer than one would anticipate,” Hosmer said. “We’re at the finish line to close on this deal and we’re all just standing around waiting.”

The $21.5 million sale of the 220-acre property from the state to Robynne Alexander’s Legacy at Laconia had originally been scheduled to go through in September. The state pushed it off, citing unresolved easements, specifically one involving a snowmobile trail on the property. At the time, Department of Administrative Services Commissioner Charlie Arlinghaus targeted November as the new closing date. 

In an interview, Arlinghaus said they are still working to finalize details for closing documents, but that the state and Legacy, as the proposed buyer, are in agreement about all of said details. 

“It's a very complicated thing with an enormous number of details to be worked out and they've all progressed really well. I think we've worked really well with the buyer's team,” Arlinghaus said. 

While he could not say whether he expected the sale to close before the end of the year, Arlinghaus emphasized that “there are no obstacles to close.”

At the most recent meeting of the Executive Council, Arlinghaus reported that the period to cure title would end on Nov. 10 and that he will announce a closing date during the next council meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 29.

Hosmer’s concerns were compounded by what he called a “drop off” in communication from the developer. 

The city had been meeting regularly with the developer and her team since the Executive Council chose their proposal at the end of last year. 

But communication directly with Alexander has been “nonexistent” since a September meeting, Hosmer said. The Legacy team also had been a no-show to the most recently scheduled video conference meeting with the city and didn’t provide an explanation, he continued.

Scott Tranchemontagne, spokesperson for the project, wrote in an email to The Daily Sun that there had been a “miscommunication.”

“[Alexander] was away during the time of the last scheduled meeting with the city. It was a long-planned multi-week trip abroad,” Tranchemontagne wrote. “She believes she communicated that to the City Manager, but perhaps it wasn’t clear or something fell through the cracks.”

Because focus was on resolving title issues with the state, Tranchemontagne wrote, "perhaps there hasn’t been as much need to be communicating directly with the city planning office as there was before."

"Our goal is to resolve any remaining issues with the state soon and get back to the local review process."

Hosmer said that, though he had reservations early on, he set them aside because of the professionalism of the team surrounding Alexander and the steadiness of communication from the Legacy team.

“We felt that there was some real momentum behind this development,” Hosmer said. Now, “the drop off in communication and the postponement of the closing raises a lot of questions.” 

Hosmer repeated his excitement for the proposed project and his eagerness for it to get started.

“Maybe it’s the natural ebb and flow of a deal ... we’re crossing our fingers.”