A City Council subcommittee last night tweaked bid specifications for two proposals to lease, renovate and reuse the former Banks and Hardy schools for senior housing.
Ward 5 Councilor Gary Marchese, a member of the ad hoc Real Estate and Request for Proposal Committee, said he wanted a requirement in the request for proposal for Banks that the developer awarded the bid have a proven "track record" for not only building such projects, but maintaining them.
Assistant City Solicitor Patricia Azadi told the committee that language should be included in the bid specifications for Banks that states that only enough market-rate units should be included to make the project economically "viable."
According to the bid specifications for both schools, at least 25 percent of the units would have to be considered affordable under state income guidelines.
Azadi suggested the council include language that requires the successful bidder on the Banks project to minimize noise and maintain security of the site during construction.
Marchese said the city could wait to include those requirements in the lease agreement.
Ward 2 Councilor Ed Tarallo said he is concerned about sending out a request for proposal for the Hardy school building. Tarallo said the original plan for the property was for the city to build and maintain the housing there.
He said the process to get housing into the Hardy School could be "extremely slow" by switching to sending out a request for proposal.
He said the request for proposal for Hardy that was proposed by the mayor and approved by the Affordable Housing Trust Fund had not been reviewed as extensively as the proposal for Banks.
Nevertheless, Tarallo said the committee would "follow the track" the Affordable Housing Trust and the mayor has requested.
Tarallo said included in the request for proposal for the Hardy school, he wanted a requirement that there would be no additions or extensions to the building.
''I don't want them to add on to the building," Tarallo said.
The committee voted to send both requests for proposals to the Law Department, where the suggested changes would be added.
Richard Conn can be contacted at 781-398-8004 or rconn@cnc.com.
