Business & Tech

School District Awaiting Garden Street Appraisal

Officials from the Brewster Central School District expect to receive an appraisal of the former Garden Street School sometime in the very near future.

Deputy Superintendent Timothy Conway hopes to receive "at least a draft" sometime next week, he said at an Envision Brewster meeting Thursday (Aug. 1). The district has hired Larchmont-based Lane Appraisals to determine Garden Street's value.

The plan, according to Conway, is to sell the property. Garden Street was built in 1925. The district closed the school's doors in June 2012 because of enrollment declines and repairs that would have costed millions of dollars.

"Our lawyers have been working to iron-out the deeds/deed restrictions to make the property sale-ready," Board of Education President Stephen Jambor said in a recent email to the online group Brewster10509.

Conway addressed the deed restrictions at Thursday's meeting. He said there was no update but that he believes "there's nothing there that's going to be insurmountable."

Once the appraisal is in, school officials will discuss the results with realtors. Garden Street could be on the market sometime this fall, according to Conway.

Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress recently released a report that details a slew of recommendations for future use. They include affordable senior housing; assisted living; an educational center; a film production studio; a satellite campus of a four-year college; and a site for the performing arts.

"The location of the Garden Street School is ideal for creating an anchor project that can be a catalyst for the revitalization of the Main Street, connection to the train/mass transit system and enhancing the possibilities of building a walkable community," the report states. It was written by the non-profit's 2013 class of fellows.

Garden Street is located in a residential zone. Patch readers weighed in here on what should become of the building.


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