Main St Property For Sale

On Thursday the voters of the Town of East Lyme will vote at referendum on whether the Town should purchase a key piece of property for downtown Niantic at 224 Main Street, Niantic Mobil.

As First Selectman, I feel it is my responsibility to explore and present options and opportunities that are made available to the Town. This opportunity came as I was looking through the classified section of The Day and saw an ad identifying this parcel as being for sale.

I would like to clarify some of the facts regarding this purchase. Although this parcel is not in the approved Capitol Plan, it has been mentioned in other plans as a significant parcel that the Town should acquire for the future development of Niantic.

We have included the cost to purchase in our calculations on debt service and we can keep the operating budget line item flat even when this purchase is added to all of the items in the Capitol Plan, should they all be approved. This is an affordable long-term investment for the Town.

The $740,000.00 that is being voted on Thursday contains NO money for cleanup should the site be contaminated. The purchase price is $675,000.00; the additional $65,000.00 will pay for a Phase 1 and Phase 2 environmental test and the money to remove the existing tanks should the tests come back clean.

As with any real estate sale, the buyer pays for testing. The option contract that we have with the seller allows us to test for any hazardous substance. Should the site be contaminated, we would simply not exercise our option or negotiate any next steps.

There are many possible uses for this site but removing the current use makes a lot of green sense in addition the visual improvement to both the water and the site. It would also continue the extensive streetscape upgrade to the Village.
I once read a book called "Nothing happens unless something moves." I forget the author now but the gist of the book was that results in any endeavor are dependant on taking action. I have tried throughout my stewardship of this office to plan wisely and to act wisely to implement our plans. I believe this investment to be in our long-term best interest.

Paul M Formica

East Lyme First Selectman

860-691-4106