Laconia State School Closing Delayed Again

[Riviera]

Originally Posted by John Mercier

The housing was condensed... multiple units per acre for the apartments.
Sort of like how they will attempt to build at the Weirs traffic circle.

No one wonders why less than 30,000 OHRV adding $2 per registration to a land purchase fund could afford to buy a $2 million dollar property in less than 5 years? You don't think the State knew how I did it?

And there is land going for over $100,000 an acre here in Belmont; but you can only build one unit per acre on that... no apartments.

From Dolan's perspective, paying $21 million for the land, and having to fork out another $21 million to meet the OZ requirements... regardless of how great a hotel/resort could be built... isn't really worth the effort. Especially since that group doesn't care about any housing. So they aren't going to back her play to close by the 22nd would be my guess.

Now, if they could acquire the property for half... and only be into the hotel/resort for $21... that may interest them. The OZ tax credits would just be icing on the cake.

The State will do what it must... the homeless are going to shift... and leaving that property open makes the risk greater that they will shift in that direction.

Well, you seem to think you understand it pretty well, and the value is there, so I’ll bite:

1. Apartments: There is plenty of land in Laconia zoned for multifamily, that can be acquired for far less than $100,000 per acre. How about the 231 acres available on Endicott Street North, at an asking price of $5,000,000, which equates to just over $20,000 per acre. Multifamily is a permitted use, along with hotel and single family residential. It’s been on the MLS for nearly 4 years. Why isn’t that a better deal at about 1/4 the price per acre, and why hasn’t that property been gobbled up, given its apparent undervaluation?

2. Opportunity Zone: Explain to us how the “other $21M” works in an Opportunity Zone, or maybe the general benefit to buying OZ property. You mentioned tax credits from the OZ. What are those credits, and how can they be used? Assuming the developer were going to build and sell homes, what benefit will they receive from the OZ, and when will they receive that benefit? I can tell you that there is NO benefit to a land developer in an OZ unless that developer were to build out the assets, and hold those assets for at least 10 years before selling. Anything related to OZ by this developer is a smokescreen because most people don’t understand the OZ benefits, nor requirements.

3. Belmont: Please name any bulk (say 25+ acres) raw land sale in Belmont NH that has sold at a price anywhere close to $100,000 per acre. Heck, I’ll take any town north of Concord, as long as you exclude properties that are on a major retail thoroughfare.

4. Hotel: Please provide us with a hotel land sale comp anywhere in NH where the developer paid over $5,000,000 for raw land. And what makes this particular site attractive to a hotel developer, as compared to any site in closer proximity to restaurants, attractions, or other businesses? Can you provide us any comparable hotel development in which Mr. Dolan is a principal majority owner of the development? You seem to know his financial position, so you must have similar ownership comps at the tip of your tongue. They were proposing a hotel with a conference center. When was the last time one of those was built in NH without public subsidies?

5. Please explain how the $2 OHRV fee is in any way applicable to the land valuation for this property. Regardless of the applicability, whatever “you” did would probably be interesting to hear about, so go for it.

Thanks.