Frederick Hutchinson Center in Belfast, a building formerly used by the University of Maine for classes for a mix of undergraduate and nontraditional students. (Courtesy of Samantha Warren/UMaine System)
The University of Maine will not sell a former unused Midcoast education center to a church as previously planned.
The system’s decision to sell the Frederick Hutchinson Center in Belfast to Calvary Chapel Belfast, part of a national association of evangelical churches, drew criticism from other community organizations that had bid for the center. Those groups appealed the decision to Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Ryan Low. After reviewing one of those appeals, the system concluded that the evaluation criteria for the sale should have considered the full value of the proposals, not just the purchase price.
That means the center’s sales process will start over. Whether the system will request a new round of proposals, or list the center with a commercial real estate agent, remains to be seen. The group behind the successful appeal, a joint collaboration between the According to Samantha Warren, spokesperson for the system, Future of Hutchinson Center Steering Committee and Waterfall Arts will not automatically receive the contract.
The Hutchinson Center once served thousands of traditional and non-traditional students in the midcoast region, and also provided conference and meeting space for the community. The center also houses a connectivity hub, providing network connectivity for numerous public schools and libraries in the Belfast, Camden and Rockland area.
The UMaine System had initially expected to relocate the internet hub as part of the sale, according to the university’s request for innovative proposals issued last year. However, the proposal from the Future of Hutchinson Center group would allow the hub to remain downtown, which Low said was an added benefit the system had not originally considered when reviewing the proposals.
“As Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, I uniquely appreciate that avoiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in relocation costs has clear financial and operational benefits that are absolutely in the best interests of the System,” Low said in his response to the group’s appeal. “And so it should have been valued in the criteria by which all proposals were evaluated.”
Shane Flynn, spokesman for Future of Hutchinson Center, said the group is still interested in purchasing the center and continuing to use it for educational programs in partnership with local organizations. There is also an added interest in arts education, as evidenced by its partnership with Waterfall Arts.
Still, the university’s decision not to sell the building to the church was the right one, Flynn said.
“We feel the process was not fair, and it seems he agrees with that,” he said. “Those who care so much about the Hutchinson Center will feel like someone at the university finally listened, and we are very hopeful about that.”
Several groups raised issues about the way the university system determined and evaluated the sale criteria before it originally announced the sale to Calvary Chapel. Low, however, said that while “the university’s process was fully transparent and honorable and adhered to long-standing government procurement policies,” the evaluation criteria did not allow the system to consider the value of retaining the network hub.
“Do you know that my final decision is specific to a single deficiency in the evaluation? criteria and is not a reflection of the merits of the proposals submitted by any party. defendant or any other aspect of the university’s process,” he said in his response to the appeal.
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