UMaine will start taking new offers for Belfast center next week

After the University of Maine System rescinded its offer to sell the Hutchinson Center in Belfast to a local church, it now plans to issue a new request for proposals next week.

On Thursday, the system announced that it will begin accepting the new proposals on Oct. 5 and continue doing so until Nov. 1. It will post the full details of its request for proposals online by noon Friday.

Any interested parties will be able to submit proposals, including the three Waldo County groups that already made bids to buy the facility in response to the first request.

Earlier this month, the system reversed its original decision to sell the Hutchinson Center to Calvary Chapel Belfast, citing a deficiency in the evaluation criteria on the original request for proposals. That original request “did not adequately allow for the full financial impacts of proposals to be considered,” the system said.

The two other groups that made proposals to buy the Belfast center, Waldo Community Action Partners, and a partnership between Waterfall Arts and the Committee for the Future of the Hutchinson Center, both filed two rounds of appeals of the award of the sale to the church.

Many people in the Belfast area also reached out to the UMaine System to express frustration about the sale of the center to the church. Meanwhile, representatives of Calvary Chapel Belfast have criticized the system for rescinding the original offer.

The new request for proposals will be available at maine.edu/strategic-procurement/upcoming-bids/ .