Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to clarify that Warrior Trading itself is not interested in buying the firehouse. Warrior owner Ross Cameron is interested in purchasing the building, not Warrior Trading.
Great Barrington — The mystery of what will become of the old Castle Street fire station deepened this week when a lawyer for an unnamed potential buyer made a request of the selectboard.
Kate McCormick, who represents 20 Castle Street LLC and its principal, Tom Borshoff, approached the board Monday night and asked it to approve a motion transferring the town’s environmental liability if a new party wanted to buy the decrepit firehouse.
After two years of tortuous negotiations during the tenure of former town manager Kevin O’Donnell, Borshoff purchased the property for $50,000 in 2014 as part of 20 Castle LLC, a partnership he formed with McCormick’s father, the since-retired Great Barrington attorney and former longtime town moderator Ed McCormick, and Housatonic Water Works owner Jim Mercer.
Under the agreement, the town is responsible for the cost of environmental remediation, mostly asbestos, of up to $270,000, with 20 Castle paying $80,000 of that. 20 Castle would also contribute $3,000 for the town’s environmental consultant.
Until late last year, the town was paying $2,500 per month to rent part of the building back from Borshoff to house its building and health inspector offices for lack of room in Town Hall. With the exception of a retaining wall Borshoff had built two years ago, the building has sat idle since the sale.
McCormick would not identify the possible buyer of the property because a purchase-and-sales agreement had not yet been signed. But she made it clear that the buyer wanted to ensure that the $270,000 for remediation was still on the table regardless of who the owner was.
“So we’re seeking clarification that it would run with the building and it’s not specific to the LLC,” McCormick said of the $270,000, which had been appropriated at the annual town meeting in 2014.
Town manager Mark Pruhenski told the board, “The request for you tonight is to allow you to transfer that to the property rather than the LLC.”
Selectboard Chair Steve Bannon, who was on the board when the purchase-and-sales agreement was negotiated in 2012, said town counsel told him the town’s obligation was to provide cleanup at that site no matter who owned it.
“That was our obligation and all this is doing is clarifying it to help the sale go through, as opposed to trying to figure out whose obligation it is,” Bannon explained.
Click here to read the motion. It passed unanimously. As was mentioned earlier, McCormick declined to identify the buyer, but added, “There are discussions happening at the moment,” and that uncertainty around the town’s environmental obligations has “always been a stumbling block” in closing a deal on the firehouse.
So who exactly might the buyer be? Two years ago, when he was interviewed by The Edge on the 47 Railroad Street mixed-use project, 47 Railroad principal Sam Nickerson said he had been in discussions with Borshoff about acquiring the firehouse but that they could not agree on a deal. 47 Railroad did rent out the garage bays of the adjacent firehouse for use as a staging area during construction. Reached earlier this week, Nickerson declined to comment.
Jeffrey N. Cohen, a member of the board of directors of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, told The Edge the Mahaiwe has long been interested in acquiring the firehouse.
“The Mahaiwe had serious discussions until recently about the possible purchase and thought we had an understanding on price and terms,” Cohen said in an interview. Then Borshoff stopped communicating.
Cohen declined to be more specific but indicated that the Mahaiwe board was considering multiple uses for the 110-year-old building “given its proximity next door to the theatre.” He did add that the worst-case scenario would be to tear it down and use the space for parking.
One of 47 Railroad’s ground-floor tenants is Warrior Trading, which is a tech company founded in 2014 that educates people who want to learn the science of day trading and investing. The company occupies the two storefronts that face the alleyway connecting Railroad Street with the old fire station.
Warrior owner Ross Cameron confirmed his interest in the firehouse but declined to say if he was the interested party McCormick spoke of while addressing the selectmen.
“I’ve had several conversations with the current owner about my interest in purchasing the building,” Ross said in an email. “If I purchase the building, it will be part of a new project, separate from Warrior Trading Inc.”
Ross said Warrior has a five-year lease and “is neither in need of that type of additional space nor is it in the business of commercial real estate/historic restoration.”
“I see the firehouse as a beautiful historic building that has served the town well in it’s 100+ year life, but it is in need of restoration and improvement in order to give the town another 100+ years,” Cameron wrote.
“If I’m able to purchase the building, I’d like to begin a project of restoring the exterior to stabilize the masonry and roof systems while I review the possibilities of residential vs. commercial use of the interior.”
The firehouse became vacant when the Great Barrington Fire Department relocated to a new $9.1 million facility on State Road in 2010.
