New RFP issued to solicit buyers for University of Maine Hutchinson Center

Proposals will be due by 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 1 and must maintain internet infrastructure where it is currently located in the main building so the University of Maine System can continue providing connectivity in the midcoast

ORONO, Maine - A new competitive request for proposals (RFP) to buy the University of Maine (UMaine) Hutchinson Center in Belfast has been issued.

Respondents will be required to lease the space currently housing Networkmaine infrastructure back to the University of Maine System (UMS) for at least five years so it can maintain internet connectivity for public schools, libraries and other institutions in the midcoast.

The objective evaluation criteria and scoring formula is detailed in the RFP and based on the proposed purchase price in relation to the property's appraised value of $2.52 million (85 of 100 total points available), various contingencies typical with real estate transactions (10 points) and the cost of the Networkmaine-related lease (5 points).

The new RFP and related documents including the appraisal of the property, which includes a 30,515-square-foot main building, 1,963-square-foot barn and 11.6 acres, is available on the Strategic Procurement website and will be open through 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 1.

All interested parties - including the three Waldo County organizations who responded to a prior RFP - have the same equal opportunity to submit offers responsive to the new solicitation by that deadline.

As part of a continued commitment to transparency, UMS/UMaine will hold a bidders' conference this month and also provide interested parties the opportunity to submit written questions, which will be answered two weeks before proposals are due with the responses publicly available online.

UMaine hopes to announce the top-scoring respondent in November, at which point it would begin negotiations to finalize the sale.

As is standard with System solicitations, at any point during the process, the university has the right to terminate the RFP or negotiations if they are proceeding in a manner that is not in the best interest of the public institution.

Hutchinson Center history

In January, UMS/UMaine had issued an RFP seeking purchase, lease and creative alternative use offers for the Hutchinson Center. The solicitation was open for eight months and generated three responses. Last month, UMS rescinded an award to negotiate with the top-scoring respondent after determining during the second stage of a formal appeal process that there had been a deficiency in the RFP's evaluation criteria, specifically as it related to considering the financial impacts associated with the Networkmaine lease.

The decision to sell the Hutchinson Center followed two decades of UMaine delivering education there and then two years of stakeholder engagement when a decline in student enrollment and escalating operating costs made it clear it would no longer be viable for the public university to sustain the facility. No degree-seeking students have taken classes in-person at the center since 2020.

The sale is consistent with a commitment in the System's strategic plan to achieve fiscal and energy efficiencies through the sale or lease of unused or underutilized buildings and land. Property transfers generate savings necessary to maintain affordable UMS education and allow the System's limited financial resources - which come through taxpayer and tuition dollars - to be focused on improving infrastructure essential to the current and future needs of Maine and its students.

The Bank of America donated the Hutchinson Center to UMaine in 2007 as a gift with no conditions. Since then, the university has invested more than $14 million in capital improvements. That includes funding three-quarters of a large expansion project completed in 2009, for which UMaine still owes $885,000.

About the University of Maine System

The University of Maine System (UMS) is the state's largest driver of educational attainment and economic development and its seven public universities and law school are the most affordable in New England. Over the past two decades, UMS has awarded 106,362 degrees and spurred and strengthened thousands of small Maine businesses through its world-class research and development activities. For more information, visit www.maine.edu.

Media Contact:

Samantha Warren
Director of External Affairs, University of Maine System
207-632-0389 / [email protected]

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