Opportunity of a lifetime: Exeter eyes $1.15M purchase for new rec center

EXETER — Parks and Recreation Director Greg Bisson said the town is being presented with “an opportunity we’ll only get once.”

Bisson came to the Select Board Monday night to inform board members the department entered into a tentative purchase and sale agreement for 10 Hampton Road. The $1.15 million purchase, which would need Town Meeting approval, would be for a 6,000-square-foot building and standalone garage on 1.64 acres of land. Town Manager Russ Dean said, assuming a 10-year bond for $1.25 million, the purchase would cost approximately 6 cents per $1,000 of property evaluation, less savings realized from eliminating future department capital improvement requests.

“Why is this (property) so important for the future of parks and rec? Location, location, location,” Bisson told board members. “One of the things that we know is the (Recreation Park) at 4 Hampton Road is, it’s very challenging. Having an opportunity to purchase a property that is abutted by two commercial properties gives us the ability to expand parking without impacting the area.”

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Bisson said the existing building at 10 Hampton Road would meet the needs of parks and recreation for decades. He said it would allow the department to relocate to that site and vacate the current office at 32 Front St. He said the building features 15 offices, a renovated kitchen, two bathrooms on each floor, two large multipurpose rooms, a lobby and copy room.

Bisson said purchasing the building would require “minimal” renovations in the fiscal-year 2022 budget, which would entail bringing the full building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with a price tag of approximately $100,000. The property abuts the far end of the Recreation Park’s fields, and Bisson said, in the future, the parcel could be built out to add between 60 and 80 parking spaces to provide better access for visitors.

“Future programming can be expanded,” Bisson said. “We can slowly but surely chip away at anything that would need to be upgraded over time… It’s something that can be absorbed in the town budget over time.”

In 2020 and 2018, Exeter voters rejected $10.85 million and $7 million warrant articles, respectively, to expand Recreation Park and build a multigenerational recreation facility to re-house the department.

Bisson said the building at 10 Hampton Road is in “tremendous shape,” having been renovated four times since 1992, including having its roof redone last year. He said the purchase would eliminate the department’s need for several municipal capital improvement requests, which were a $4.5 million field and parking expansion at Recreation Park and a $75,000 accessibility assessment of the offices at 32 Court St.

If ultimately approved by voters at Town Meeting, Bisson said, in the future, the building at 10 Hampton Road would eventually become the multi-generational facility with a small gymnasium and more meeting spaces for programming Bisson had originally sought. He said the cost would drop to $2-3 million from the $6 million figure because there would no longer be a need to construct a new building.

“We could utilize the building in its current state with minimal renovations,” Bisson said. “We want to make sure we’re listening to taxpayers, and we’ll go slow in trying to fix up the building.”

The three Select Board members in attendance Monday were generally in favor of the acquisition. 

Chairman Niko Papakonstantis advised Bisson to have the Budget Recommendations Committee, Facilities Committee and Planning Board vet the proposed purchase and sale agreement for the property before coming back to the board for final approval of it to be placed on the warrant for next year’s Town Meeting.