Latest News

Proposal is for the city to sell a piece of park land in order for the center to be
built.

By Jonathan Phelps
New Hampshire Union Leader

The Aldermanic Committee on Lands and Buildings agreed to consider a piece of
park land on the West Side as surplus in order to sell it to a group committed to
building a $17 million community center.

The decision made last week in a 4-1 vote to sell the 4.15-acre property for
$600,000 will need to be approved by the full board of mayor and aldermen. The
land is near Gossler Park Elementary School and Parkside Middle School.

The building — to be named the Mark Stebbins Community Center — will house
multiple organizations, with the “anchor agencies” being the Boys & Girls Club
of Manchester and Amoskeag Health. The two-story building is expected to be
about 40,000 square feet.

Jeanine Tousignant, project facilitator, said other agencies will likely have space
in the building but have not been identified.

The community center is being established as its own nonprofit. Lawyers for the
project agreed to work with the city on deed restriction and right of first refusal if
the nonprofit were to sell down the road.

A market analysis showed the land value in today’s market in the range of
$600,000 to $750,000, according to the material submitted.
The group said “a generous donor” committed to the $600,000 purchase price.

Mayor Joyce Craig called the underutilized site perfect for such a project, saying
it’s “an extension of Parks and Rec.”

“The mission of this community is consistent with Parks and Recs. They are
serving the youth and families of the West Side,” she said. “Then to take it a step
further, they are investing $17 million into this property and we all know that we
would never be able to do that.”

Ward 5 Alderman Anthony Sapienza suggested he’d have trouble letting go of
the land.

“I completely agree with the mission, but I think that we can find a way to do it
without selling the land, so that 25, 50, 100 years from now we are not regretting
it,” he said. “It is park land and to me selling parkland is not something that I can
do.”

He ended up voting to bring the proposal before the full board. At-large
Alderman Joe Kelly Levasseur voted against, saying he wanted more input from
neighbors.

The nonprofit will work with Manchester Grows to make sure a community
garden remains on the parcel.

https://manchesterunionleader-nh-app.newsmemory.com/?publink=266d010dc_13484f7