Four months after paying $2.7M for NGM building, owners quietly seek $7.5M

KEENE — The former National Grange Mutual headquarters at 55 West St., bought in July by two developers who talked of housing, jobs and keeping the building from sitting empty, is being quietly offered to outside buyers for $7.5 million. That is nearly three times the $2.7 million they paid less than four months ago.

The offering has not been announced publicly, and the building is not on the open market. It is laid out in a broker's email dated November 12 and reviewed by the WTSA Newsroom, along with a four-page flyer and a property package with photos and floor plans.

The email does not name the seller. It says the brokers represent "the current owner," who has several other projects underway and would rather stick to its core development business than take on a conversion.

Jack Franks, chief executive of Walpole-based Avanru Development Group, and Manchester developer Dick Anagnost, a partner in Keene's Revo Casino and Social House, bought the building from NGM Insurance Co. in July. The pair purchased the building thru an limited liability company called 55 WEST STREET LLC.

What the buyers said

Franks was the public face of the purchase, and told local media at the time that the building mattered to Keene, and the partners intended to work out its future with the city.

When the deal closed in July, he told local media outlets there were no firm plans, but that converting it to housing "is certainly a possibility." He cited a citywide shortage of about 1,700 homes and said the partners would work with the city to find the best use.

In August he went further on a radio show with Keene City Councilor Randy Filiault. He said the partners bought the property to control the West Street corridor and to keep a buyer from mothballing the building for years. He floated senior housing, pointing to a waiting list of nearly eight years in Cheshire County, and sketched a larger redevelopment reaching to Gilbo Avenue with hundreds of housing units.

He also estimated the building could not be replaced today for less than $45 million.

"This isn't just about us profiting," Franks said in that interview.

Franks never promised a specific project at 55 West St., and he said repeatedly that plans were not final. But nothing he said publicly suggested the building would be back up for sale before the year was out.

The pitch to buyers

The November 12 off-market listing email was sent from John Maggio of EVO Commercial, who said he is working the sale with Mariana Campos of Serhant and Justin Dragone. A review of State of New Hampshire licensing records appear to show that Mr. Maggio does not, and has never, held a license to conduct real estate transactions in the State. A search of licensing records also failed to show that Mariana Campos and Justin Dragon hold real estate licenses in the State. New Hampshire law requires anyone representing another in buying, selling, leasing, or managing real estate for compensation be licensed in the State.

The sales documents call the property an "off market conversion opportunity." The email says the owner "secured the property through strong local relationships in the City of Keene." It lists the asking price at $7.5 million and says an offer can be contingent on approvals and permits. The email's account of how the owners got the property raises its own question.

The marketing leans on the same points Franks made in public. The email cites an eight-year waiting list for senior housing. The flyer cites the city's housing needs study and the renovation of 100 West St. across the street, one of the three buildings the same partners bought in July, as a sign that investment is returning to the corridor.

The flyer also tells buyers what public help may be available: possible property tax relief under the state's RSA 79-E program, which requires city approval, and possible federal historic tax credits.

The materials describe a 131,338-square-foot, four-story building on about an acre, one block from Central Square, with a working commercial kitchen, dining room, two elevators and an enclosed ambulance bay. They pitch it for assisted living, senior or workforce housing, or a single institutional user.

The numbers

The asking price is $4.8 million more than the purchase price, a markup of about 178 percent in under four months.

The partners paid $700,000 for 100 West St. and $300,000 for 86 West St. in the same transaction, according to City records. At $7.5 million, a sale of 55 West St. alone would return roughly twice what they paid for all three.

An asking price is not a sale price, and the difference is not all profit.