NA Finance Advises More Information on Sullivan Proposal

The Berkshire Eagle  reports the North Adams Finance Committee is sending a proposal to create a manufacturing training center back to the City Council with a recommendation to get more information from the mayor.

The council put the sale of Sullivan School to the newly organized Berkshire Advanced Manufacturing Training and Education Center, or BAMTEC, on pause last week even as it approved the sale of two other city properties. 

Councilors expressed concern over the purchase offer of $1 as well as the proposed $14 million in financing for the project and zoning, since the proposal referred to future maker spaces and business incubators in the residential neighborhood.

The training center proposal was selected by Mayor Thomas Bernard over a second bid of $50,000 submitted by artist and real estate developer Eric Rudd, who proposed to turn the school into artists studios. Rudd attended the meeting but did not speak.

The group could not get into too much detail on how they would fund the center. Their proposal estimates $11 million investment in the 50-year-old school building and another $3 million in equipment. Neathawk said they were just getting off the ground a couple months ago when the city posted its request for proposals for Sullivan School. Had it occurred next spring, they would have been better prepared, she said.