Deal for Wright-Locke Farm May be Off

After extending the closing date and giving Abbott Real Estate Development LLC every opportunity to finalize their purchase of Wright-Locke Farm, the deal may be off.

While the closing date was pushed back to Sep. 30, there were certain benchmarks that Abbott needed to hit along the way. One of those required the real estate group to make a payment of $89, 085.50 within seven days of their July 27 agreement with the Board of Selectmen.

As of August 16, the payment has yet to be made.

"Maybe it's because of the state of the economy, I can't really get behind the reasons why they were unable to come up with the money," said Selectman Brian O'Connor. "We gave them every opportunity to succeed, and it just didn't happen."

O'Connor believed there was a good chance that the deal would go through, but Abbott just never made the payments to the town.

"Part of the agreement was for them to meet certain requirements on specific dates," said Selectman Forrest Fontana. "The closing was set for September, but there were other commitments that were made; other documents and requirements that they failed to meet. We weren't going to wait until September to see what happens."

The Board has informed Abbott of its right to terminate the agreement.

However, that does not mean Abbott is out of the running for the purchase of the farm.

According to Fontana, the town has a couple of options they must consider. If Abbott reaches out to the board, they can possibly be put on some type of payment plan and work out a new payment schedule. If that does not work and either the board or Abbott decide to separate from the agreement, then the board will need to look elsewhere to sell the property.

"Over the next couple of days or weeks we are going to sit down and review our options," Fontana said. "We're going to consider options A, B, and C and look at what's in front of us, and then we'll do what's in the best interest of the town."

As of now, the board is going to step back and take a look at the situation. While they are in no rush to get a new deal done, a decision on what's to be done with the sale of the farm will be made over the next few weeks.

"We're going to go back to work and look at what we can do," O'Connor said. "We have many ways we can go forward with this property. We've received a lot of feedback over the last two years. We're going to analyze where we were then, we are now and where we want to go, then make a decision."