Officials Eye Hampton Road Property For Southampton School District Office

The Southampton School District is interested in purchasing a building on Hampton Road in the village to house its district office.

At a School Board meeting Tuesday night, Superintendent Dr. Scott Farina said that after considering several buildings for sale in the community—including the former post office, the former library and some warehouses near the train station—district officials have narrowed their choice to 300 Hampton Road, because of the building’s good condition and its proximity to the campus. There is an entrance and exit to its parking lot on Leland Lane across from the intermediate school.

“We can walk in there tomorrow and start using that space. It’s in great shape. It’s ready to go,” Dr. Farina said, adding that the current district office on the intermediate school property—which would be torn down and replaced with a green space—is in disrepair. “Many of those that we looked at, along with them not having sufficient parking or space, would need major renovations,” he said.

Owned by 300 Hampton Road Associates, the building, along with the adjacent parking lot, is on the market for $7.6 million. The district would pay for it from a capital reserve fund that currently has a balance of $8.2 million. Taxpayers approved setting up the fund in the 2009-10 school year for renovations to the bus garage, as well as a new district office. The bus garage project has already been completed.

Dr. Farina said that to help offset the cost of purchasing 300 Hampton Road, the officials are considering selling the former preschool building the district owns on Majors Path, which is now used for storage. He estimated that it would sell for about $700,000.

Because the Hampton Road building is occupied by several tenants, the district could also generate an estimated $330,000 in lease revenue in the first year it owns the building, bringing the total net cost of purchasing it to $6.5 million. The insurance agency Cook Maran & Associates, the office of architect Jason Thomas and offices for the Peconic Land Trust are currently located in the building, and Dr. Farina said many of them could remain there because the district would not need to use all of the space.

Dr. Farina and School Board members stressed that because the district already has the money, purchasing the building would not increase taxes. Voters would simply have to approve the district’s request to tap into the reserve fund.

“I cannot highlight enough that there are no new taxes in this proposal,” Dr. Farina said. “Everything would be contingent on the voter approval in May.”

The superintendent added that the building would not only house the district office, but an overall resource center that could also serve as a community hub for meetings and student tutoring, among other things. “We’re looking for it to be something bigger than just holding district office administrators,” Dr. Farina said.