Council Tables $10.5M Offer for Former Laconia State School

Executive Councilor Joe Kenney, R-Wakefield, is pictured in the foreground with Gov. Chris Sununu and councilors at the Town Hall and Opera House in Sanbornville for Friday’s meeting. PAULA TRACY photo

WAKEFIELD – A $10.5 million offer by the developers of Woodmont Commons in Londonderry to acquire the former Laconia State School in Laconia was tabled by the state’s Executive Council on Friday at their meeting at the Town Hall and Opera House in Sanbornville.

Executive Councilors Cinde Warmington, D-Concord, and Janet Stevens, R-Rye, recused themselves from the vote to table.

The state received five offers for the 217-acre tract that once housed the state’s developmentally disabled.

Michael Kettenbach put in the offer to develop the property and it was not the highest offer, said Charlie Arlinghaus, commissioner of the state Department of Administrative Services. Kettenbach is the principal owner of Pillsbury Realty Development in Londonderry.

Arlinghaus said before the meeting that the bid to develop the land similarly to Woodmont Commons https://woodmontcommonsnh.com/ was not the favored offer of the governor.

This is the second round of requests for offers.

Arlinghaus said it is a contingent offer rather than a cash offer.

Above, former Laconia State School.

The first was a deal for $21.5 million which was offered by developer Robynne Alexander, but after a number of extensions, she was not able to close.

Alexander had an ambitious plan for housing, retail and commercial use. Questions were raised early on about whether she could raise the money. See story here: https://indepthnh.org/2022/12/14/questions-swirl-over-vetting-financial-backers-in-former-laconia-state-school-property-sale/

The sale has stirred controversy since Sununu gained control of the sale in 2021 with the goal of quickly selling it. The Lakeshore Redevelopment Planning Commission had been working for five years to prepare the property for sale.

On Dec. 21, 2022, the Executive Council voted 3-2 to enter a purchase and sales agreement to sell it to Alexander’s Legacy at Laconia LLC for $21.5 million. Voting to oppose the sale were Councilors Ted Gatsas, R-Manchester, and David Wheeler, R-Milford.

The property has been off the tax rolls for a century.

The state’s “put up or shut up date” to sell the property for $21.5 million came in April.

George Bald, who chaired the former Lakeshore Redevelopment Planning Commission for the state to look at the best uses for the property beginning in 2018, said in April that he was disappointed the sale fell through, but not surprised given the fact that the property had about $20 million worth of demolition and removal work that had been identified along with water and sewer connections needed before any new development could move forward.

The buildings on the property, Bald said, have a lot of asbestos which will need to be removed but at least they know that there are no underground chemical issues to deal with.

“The biggest disappointment I have is that the city has been an excellent partner through this whole process. I know they did everything they could to see the sale through,” which would have finally returned the land to the city’s tax rolls, he said.

Below, some members of the audience at Friday’s Governor and Executive Council meeting wore historical

garb to celebrate Wakefield’s 250th anniversary. Every summer, meetings are held around the state in each of the five executive councilor’s hometown. Friday was the day to celebrate Joe Kenney’s town which coincided with its big celebration. Paula Tracy photo