After 9 years of no development, city to take back former Davol Elementary School

FALL RIVER — About a decade ago, the city administration and the City Council were engaged in a whirlwind of selling former city schools after a building boom of new educational institutions with the hope of positive redevelopment of the aging buildings.

Not all proposed projects that resulted in small money sales met goals that were pitched and now the Coogan administration is looking at taking those former schools back.

Mayor Paul Coogan has notified the Flint Neighborhood Association, a nonprofit organization, that the city intends to exercise a reverter clause in the purchase and sales agreement regarding the former Davol Elementary School at 112 Flint St.

The neighborhood association purchased the former school in January 2014 for $5,121 with the promise it would redevelop the property into a community center.

Now more than nine years after the sale, there’s been no development of a community center, although the neighborhood association has rented out parking spaces for $40 a month to individual vehicle owners in the area.

School could be redeveloped for housing

“We are taking back the Davol School to redevelop the property which was what we were told when the Flint Neighborhood Association bought the property,” said Coogan. “Our goal is to work with a developer or Massachusetts housing to put some affordable units in there and redevelop the whole property and make it a showplace for the neighborhood.”

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Coogan acknowledged that the neighborhood association has been struggling to raise money “for a capital project that big.”

In the original purchase and sales agreement signed by former Mayor Will Flanagan, the neighborhood association was to have started construction no later than 36 months after the 2014 purchase date and have completed the project within five years.

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Corporation Counsel Alan Rumsey delivered a letter to Flint Neighborhood Association President Carlos Cesar that indicated the organization had five days as of June 2 to correct the alleged breach of contract.

“Failure to do so will result in having the property revert back to the City of Fall River,” wrote Rumsey.

Flint Neighborhood Association: 'the best of intentions’

Flint Neighborhood Association Vice President Joseph Carvalho said he and Cesar met with the administration on June 2 to discuss the city's intention to take back the former school.

“The Flint Neighborhood Association entered into purchasing the school with all the best of intentions,” said Carvalho. “Circumstances that occurred had us in a place where we weren’t able to fulfill the tenets of the agreement with the city. We’ll continue to not only work with people in the Flint neighborhood, but the entire city of Fall River.”

There is an effort underway to revitalize the Flint neighborhood.

The city, through the Fall River Redevelopment Authority and the Community Development Agency, has been moving ahead with a study on the improvement of the business district on Pleasant Street in the Flint, that includes a storefront program.

Sen. Michael Rodrigues earmarked $1 million towards the effort.

Carvalho said he believes there needs to be more investment in redeveloping the Flint neighborhood and with more local input.

Former Silvia School in the administration’s sights

Coogan confirmed that he instructed Rumsey on Monday to send out a similar notice to the owner, David Hebert, of the former Silvia School on Hartwell Street.

In 2016, Hebert was approved by the City Council Committee on Real Estate to purchase both the Silvia and Lincoln schools for $5,000 and $10,000, respectively.

Hebert had successfully pitched a promise to redevelop the Hartwell Street property into a boutique hotel and restaurant and other mixed-uses.

The administration has since brokered a sale between Somerset developer Kenneth Mollicone and Hebert for the sale of the Lincoln School into a housing development, but the decaying Silvia School remains a hazardous eyesore.

The purchase and sales agreement signed by former mayor Jasiel Correia II, also has a reverter clause included in the contract.

Hebert was one of three convicted co-defendants in the fraud and corruption conviction of Correia who is now serving a six-year sentence in federal prison.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: After 9 years city to take back former Davol Elementary School