While sale closings in real estate transactions typically are carried out with little fanfare, in order to note its municipal significance, the sale closing on the abutting South Main Street/Pecks Lane properties, which comprise the site for the planned new police station, was held before an audience in the Council Chambers at Newtown Municipal Center on November 30.

First Selectman Dan Rosenthal and Town Clerk Debbie Aurelia Halstead, on behalf of the town, were represented by Town Attorney David Grogins in the town’s purchase of the real estate.

Sue Roman, on behalf of the Roman family, who were doing business as 191 South Main Street LLC and as Peck & Main LLC, was represented by attorney Larry Pereira.

After the contracts were signed and the transaction was completed, the buyer presented the seller with a check for $1.6 million, and the seller then presented the buyer with a symbolic key.

Before the transaction occurred, Mr Rosenthal welcomed audience members to the event. The project involved much effort by many people, and thus the sale’s closing was an event that warranted the presence of witnesses, he said.

Mr Rosenthal said the town has a good relationship with the local Roman family, which has sold an existing commercial building to the town for conversion and expansion into a new police station. The Taunton Press, a publishing firm, formerly used that 1981 structure as an office building.

The town proposal to acquire the two abutting properties received strong support from voters at a referendum on November 6, drawing 62 percent support from those voting.

The ballot question asked: “Shall the $14,800,000 appropriation and bond authorization for the construction and development of a new police station, including the acquisition of buildings and land at 191 South Main Street and 61 Peck’s Lane, be approved?”

The referendum authorized the bonding of $14.8 million to acquire the land and buildings at 191 South Main Street and 61 Peck’s Lane, design and renovate the existing approximately 21,200-square-foot commercial building, and construct approximately 4,700 square feet of new space in the form of a building addition. The land at 61 Pecks Lane holds a vacant house.

In April 2017, by a two-to-one margin, voters at a referendum approved $300,000 in municipal spending for a preliminary architectural study on the police station project.

Remarking on the high voter turnout at the November 6 elections, Mr Rosenthal commented, “The support was overwhelming.”

Ms Roman commented that the Roman family is “very pleased” about the sale of the properties to the town for police station use, noting that the transaction amounts to “a great fit.”

Mr Rosenthal said the town hopes to break ground for construction in August. Construction is projected to last about 11 months, he said. If the town had needed to construct a whole new building, rather than convert and expand an existing building for police station use, it typically would take about 18 months to do so, he added.

Mr Rosenthal said that police occupancy of the new station is expected by the summer of 2020.

For the past 15 years, Police Commission members have intermittently discussed the need for a new police station to replace their outdated facilities at 3 Main Street. The current police station had been a farm equipment dealership and was converted into a police station about 40 years ago.

Architectural firm Kaestle Boos Associates Inc of New Britain evaluated the potential of several local sites for use as a new police station. The architects found that the 191 South Main Street site, which holds the vacant office building, was a practical location in terms of cost considerations.

Last summer, the Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) revised the zoning regulations to allow municipal buildings as a permitted land use in an M-1 (Industrial) zone, which is the zoning designation of both properties. The 191 South Main Street parcel is on the northern corner of South Main Street and Ethan Allen Road. The site is 2.7 miles south of the existing police station at 3 Main Street.