For several years now, the town has prioritized streamlining its real estate holdings, selling what could be sold (and returning those properties to the tax roll) and repurposing those that cannot. With the number of former school buildings in town, each with a unique set of circumstances and for some, deed restrictions, it can involve a lot of moving parts, but it is ultimately going to save money, time, and maintenance expenses. “The purpose of town government is to provide essential services,” said Town Administrator Steve Contente. “We’re not in the rental business.”

In recent years the town has sold a home, 10 Naomi Street, as well as the Court Street building that once housed the planning and building departments (and is now a medical practice). Likewise, the Oliver School was sold and is currently being redeveloped into residences.

Another model, for properties the town cannot dispose of but for which it doesn’t want to finance expensive repairs, is the one the town entered into with Harborside Holdings Corporation for the former Gladding Tin Shop and store at 205 and 211 Thames Street. Harborside made the necessary repairs to the dilapidated structures nearly a decade ago. In exchange they hold a long term lease at a modest price and give the town a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT). Now there are two beautifully restored buildings where there once was blight (and one is housing the long-awaited East Landing restaurant, scheduled to open this Friday, July 25.)

Since 10 Naomi Street was added to the tax roll in 2022, the town has received approximately $28,130 in tax revenue. The PILOT on the former Gladding buildings is in its 7th years and has generated $47,154 through the current tax year. The Oliver School hit the tax roll in 2024; total revenue through the 2026 tax year will be $28,090 for the 3 years it has been taxable. Together, just these three properties alone have generated about $103,383 in revenue.

School for lease

It is the leasing model that the town hopes to enter into with the Byfield School, which is deed restricted due to its location on the Town Common. “We could sell the building, just not the land under it,” said Contente. Byfield cannot be used for residences — much like Walley, which is being renovated and repurposed as a community center — Byfield must remain a public building. To do so it needs to be made ADA-compliant, which won’t be an inexpensive task.

Across High Street, the Reynolds School can be sold and redeveloped as residences. It's a likely future for the former school that served as a short-lived headquarters for the Bristol Warren schools administrative offices, as well as Bristol’s planning and building departments, which barely had time to unpack before the decommissioning of the Guiteras School birthed the plan for a town hall in that location. Saddled with a deed restriction that would require the town to return the building (and its substantial endowment) to the Guiteras family if it were not to be reused as a public building, a Town Hall in that location will consolidate all the offices under one roof for the first time in many years, as well as enable the sale or repurposing of the current town hall on Court Street.