WESTBOROUGH – Three bids for the Westborough-owned former Regal Cinemas have been submitted and opened.
Confidential Administrative Assistant Cela Dorr said the bids were opened last Monday.
“Now begins a period of review of the [request for proposals],” she said.
The former movie theater, which is located at 231 Turnpike Road, was built in 1997. It abruptly closed over four years ago.
After a search for the property’s owner, the town acquired the site by foreclosure earlier this year. This March, Town Meeting voted to transfer the property to the Select Board for its disposal.
The Select Board approved the RFP for the sale of the property this spring.
The approximately 49,000-square-foot building sits on a 29.34-acre site off Route 9. It’s made up of 12 individual theaters.
In public meetings and in the RFP itself, town staff members have noted damage and vandalism at the former theater, including the destruction of bathroom fixtures, walls, drop ceilings and glass along with water damage due to burst pipes.
The town has noted in the RFP that proposers should be aware that they may not be able to use the building without extensive renovations.
Police Chief Jeffrey Lourie detailed some of the damage done at the theater as well as ongoing problems on the theater site outside of the building itself during Town Meeting.
“From a public safety standpoint, the sooner we get rid of that property, the better,” Lourie said at the time.
In June, the town held a walkthrough of the theater before the proposals were due last week.
During a June 28 meeting, Assistant Town Manager Kim Foster told the Select Board that 37 entities had requested copies of the RFP for the property. However, she noted that the town knew it wouldn’t get all of those requests back in terms of actual submissions.
Dorr told the Community Advocate that the Select Board will be the selection committee.
As of July 28, the timeline for awarding the RFP was still under discussion.
The Select Board was expected to discuss the former theater during an executive session on Tuesday.
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