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Deadline Extended For Bids On Unique, Historic House

WAMC

  No developer has stepped forward yet with an offer to purchase and restore one of the most unique buildings in western Massachusetts. But late today, the deadline to put in a bid was extended.

   Despite the offer of a $50,000 redevelopment incentive from historic preservationists, the city of Springfield received no proposals to buy the property at 60 Byers Street - an architecturally significant but horribly rundown house up on a hill overlooking the city’s downtown.

  The city issued a request for proposals in late December with a deadline to respond of Tuesday, Feb. 14th at 2 p.m.  The city’s procurement office received no offers for 60 Byers Street by the original deadline. But after consultation between city officials and historic preservationists it was decided to extend the bidding period to April 12, according to Thomas Mathews, a project manager with the city’s Office of Planning and Economic Development.

  " We are always hopeful that we might reach somebody that didn't know about it before or didn't think they had the resources and they'll see it and fall in love with it and want it," said Mathews.

   More than a dozen would-be developers toured the property during a couple of open houses in January. Mathews believes that just as real estate sales typically pick up in the spring, so will interest in the Byers Street house.

"In the winter, people think differently than in the nice spring weather, " said Mathews. " I think the house and the surroundings will show much better in the warmer weather and people will come to like it."

  The two-story house that sits in the middle of a block full of Victorian buildings is a rare International Style. It has curved walls, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired ironwork, and an entire wall of glass.  The house was built in the 1950s on the foundation of a burned-out Victorian by Thurston Munson, an artist and architect who painted murals and designed churches throughout New England.

   At some point, the interior was divided into three apartments. It was abandoned about 15 years ago and the city took it in 2010.

  The house has deteriorated badly.  Michael Broad, a consultant for HAP housing, who toured the property during an open house last month, said the concrete masonry needs to be replaced, the roof is shot, the heating plant doesn’t work and all the copper piping is gone.

  " I think it is a total loss unfortunately," said Broad.  " I think you are talking about millions of  dollars to save it and there is no way to justify that based on what you could get out of it."

  The Byers Street house was the first project selected for assistance by the Springfield Historic Preservation Fund, which is controlled by a board of trustees, whose president is Robert McCarroll.

   " There are a whole bunch of buildings that have been in conditions like this, and caring people have appeared and fixed them, including some that everybody thought would have been torn down," said McCarroll.

   The fund was established last year by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and MGM Springfield to assist in the restoration of historic properties within a half-mile of the downtown casino MGM is building.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.
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