An architect hired to look at the feasibility of repurposing the vacant Hallsville School building into a community center estimates the plan would require nearly $5 million in upgrades and $100,000 in annual maintenance costs.
Over the summer, the Aldermanic Committee on Lands and Buildings requested the Parks and Recreation Department provide information on the viability and associated costs of reusing Hallsville School as a community center, with space potentially occupied by Parks and Rec, the city’s Office of Youth Services and community partners.
Mark Gomez, the city’s chief of Parks, Recreation and Cemetery, asked for and was given $5,000 to pay for the services of a licensed professional architect, Fred Matuszewski of Matuszewski Architects in Bedford.
“The proposed reuse would significantly bolster the ability of Parks & Rec, Youth Services, and the local nonprofits with whom we have a working relationship, to accomplish our respective missions and better serve the Manchester community,” Gomez wrote in a memo to aldermen, who are scheduled to review Matuszewski’s report when the Lands and Buildings committee meets Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
Project totals include a construction manager’s general conditions and fee, along with a design fee. The estimates don’t include tenant fit up (furniture, fixtures, equipment.)
Cost estimates are current, if started within the year. No inflationary factors are given, Matuszewski said.
Hallsville School was an elementary school that served the neighborhood from its construction in 1891 to its closing in June 2021.
The three-story structure was originally constructed as an eight-classroom building, four classrooms per floor, with each classroom about 900 square feet in area. The basement contained the boiler room and restrooms.
Two stairways, one on the east side of the building and one on the west side, connected the three stories. The stairways opened onto the center core of the building, measuring about 20 by 27 feet.
In 1908, the building was cut in half, with the eastern half rolled 40 feet to the east and the void infilled with three full stories, creating four additional classrooms to create a 12-classroom structure.
Various updates and renovations were made over the course of the building’s history.
In 1975, aluminum windows replaced the original double-hung units. In 1993, a gymnasium and lobby, along with an elevator made the building accessible. A new asphalt shingle roof was put on the building in 1998.
In 2004, restrooms on the lower level were renovated to their present state, and in 2004-2006, mechanical ventilation improved with the addition of an air handling unit in the Boiler Room. In 2008, repairs were completed to the roof trusses.
The site measures 220 feet along Jewett Street, 250 feet along Merrill Street, 250 feet along Hayward Street, and fully paved with asphalt. The site includes 28 parking spaces on the north side of the parcel, 15 spaces to the west and eight spaces to the east, for a total of 51 off-street parking spaces.
Aldermen hit the reset button on discussions about the future of the former school earlier this year after plans to convert the vacant building into a mixed-use community center were scrapped.
A proposal from Southern New Hampshire Services and Granite State Children’s Alliance was withdrawn because of inadequate funding.
Plans included 20 units of affordable housing for seniors, an early childhood classroom and a Child Advocacy Center, operated by Granite State Children’s Alliance, which would have offered services to children who have experienced trauma.
Plans for the Jewett Street site included 54 parking spaces for senior housing and daily commercial office use, with appropriate handicapped parking.
Matuszewski estimates repurposing the building for a community center would require $3,529,000 in construction costs, including:
• $1,075,000 in upgrades to the building’s envelope, including replacing the roof, masonry cleaning, window replacement and exterior painting;
• $1,495,000 in building system upgrades;
• $959,000 in total building interior finish costs.
Add in $722,000 in construction manager costs and $353,000 in architectural fees and the total estimated cost for the project comes in at $4,604,000.
The estimates are provided for information purposes only to help aldermen determine the best course of action regarding the future of the former school.
The final bell rang at Hallsville in June 2021, 130 years after it opened. In the 2022 fiscal year budget, former Superintendent John Goldhardt recommended that the school be closed.
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