University of Maine to restart Hutchinson Center sale process

The University of Maine System found scoring criteria should have been developed to consider the full value of the proposals received and not just the purchase price

ORONO, Maine - The University of Maine System (UMS) has rescinded an award to sell the Hutchinson Center in Belfast to a local organization that was the highest scorer in a competitive request for proposals (RFP) process.

The Hutchinson Center RFP was highly unique. University properties are typically sold through a commercial broker or by soliciting purchase offers through a competitive RFP. However, in direct response to community feedback, the University of Maine (UMaine) opted instead to issue an innovative RFP that allowed offers to purchase, lease or propose creative alternatives for the Hutchinson Center.

In a final review of two formal appeals, the System's Vice Chancellor for Finance & Administration found that the RFP process was conducted fairly by UMaine with integrity and full transparency and was entirely consistent with long-standing public procurement policies.

However, the Vice Chancellor agreed with the assertion from the Future of the Hutchinson Center Steering Committee/Waterfall Arts (Future/WA) that the evaluation criteria did not adequately allow for the full financial impacts of proposals to be considered.

UMS houses a Networkmaine internet hub inside the Hutchinson Center that the RFP noted would need to be relocated in the event of a sale, ideally into a to-be-constructed outbuilding on the property. The hub provides critical connectivity for midcoast institutions, including public schools and libraries. While other respondents proposed favorable property lease arrangements and access as solicited in the RFP, Future/WA suggested that the hub could permanently remain within the existing building.

Because only the purchase price and not the longer-term financial benefit of that proposal could be considered based on the scoring criteria set at the start of the RFP process, the System concluded the criteria for evaluating so-called "alternative creative real property offers" was materially deficient.

The Future/WA was the only alternative creative proposal submitted. The two top-scoring proposals were submitted as purchase offers.

"As Vice Chancellor for Finance & Administration, I uniquely appreciate that the avoidance of hundreds of thousands of dollars in relocation expenses presents clear financial and operational benefits that are decidedly in the best interests of the System and thus should have been valued in the criteria by which all proposals were scored," wrote Vice Chancellor Ryan Low, who also serves as the System's treasurer, in his response to the Future/WA appeal. "Please know that my final decision is specific to a single deficiency of the evaluation criteria and is not a reflection on the merits of the proposals submitted by any respondent or any other aspect of the university's process."

The overturning of the award is a final decision that is not subject to further challenge by any party, per System procurement rules.

The university expects to announce by Sept. 26 how new offers for the sale or transfer of the Hutchinson Center will be solicited. This could include issuing a new RFP, which would take into account both the real and potential value of all aspects of the proposals including those that relate to Networkmaine, or listing with a pre-qualified commercial broker.

To safeguard that future process, the System and UMaine will not comment further on the RFP that has just concluded.

Hutchinson Center history

The decision to sell the Hutchinson Center followed two decades of UMaine delivering education there and then two years of stakeholder engagement when a drop-off of in-person student enrollment and escalating operating costs made it clear it would no longer be viable for the public university to sustain the facility. No degree-seeking students have taken classes in-person there since 2020, and rentals for conferences and events never rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.

The sale is consistent with a commitment in the System's strategic plan to achieve fiscal and energy efficiencies through the sale or lease of unused or underutilized buildings and land. Property transfers generate savings necessary to maintain affordable UMS education and allow the System's limited financial resources - which come through taxpayer and tuition dollars - to be appropriately focused on improving infrastructure essential to the current and future needs of Maine and its students.

The Bank of America donated the Hutchinson Center to UMaine in 2007 as a gift with no conditions. Since then, the university has invested more than $14 million in capital improvements. That includes funding three-quarters of a large expansion project completed in 2009, for which UMaine still owes $885,000.

The 30,515-square-foot main building, 1,963-square-foot barn and 11.6 acres was appraised at $2.52 million in 2023.

About the University of Maine System

The University of Maine System (UMS) is the state's largest driver of educational attainment and economic development and its seven public universities and law school are the most affordable in New England. Over the past two decades, UMS has awarded 106,362 degrees and spurred and strengthened thousands of small Maine businesses through its world-class research and development activities. For more information, visit www.maine.edu.

Media Contact:

Samantha Warren
Director of External Affairs, University of Maine System
207-632-0389 / [email protected]

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