ORONO, Maine — Acting through the University of Maine System (UMS), next week the University of Maine (UMaine) will publicly issue a new competitive request for proposals (RFP) to purchase the Hutchinson Center in Belfast.
Earlier this month, UMS rescinded an award to negotiate after determining during a formal appeal process that there had been a deficiency in the original RFP’s evaluation criteria. At the time, UMaine committed to announcing by today how new offers would be solicited.
The new RFP will be posted at maine.edu/strategic-procurement/upcoming-bids/ by noon on Friday, Oct. 4. and close at 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 1.
All interested parties – including the three Waldo County organizations who responded to the initial RFP – will have the same equal opportunity to submit offers responsive to the new solicitation by that deadline.
Hutchinson Center history
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 / samantha.warren@maine.edu