[MassHistPres] State Law for Renewals of Leases for Municipally-owned Historic Properties

[Diane Gilbert]

The non-profit Dartmouth Heritage Preservation Trust, Inc. (DHPT) is in the
process of working with the town of Dartmouth to renew our lease to the
1762 Akin House, a town-owned property, and a witness site to the
Revolution.  Our multifaceted role is to operate as the property's
stewards. DHPT has leased this historic property from the Town since 2008.
For those of you who don't know about DHPT, here's the link to our website.
https://dhpt.org/

Maybe I'm suffering from a memory lapse but I have no recollection of
ever having to respond to a RFP to renew our lease which we last executed
in 2021 for only three years which struck us as too short-term to be able
to do what we do.

I was informed by the Town that it needs to issue a RFP to collect
competitive bids, including ours, before we can go to the next step of
executing a lease. I was told this is a State law. Maybe it's a new law.
This is a renewal not a new arrangement with the Town.

For those of you who lease historic municipal properties is this the
process that you're familiar with?

Sincerely,
Diane Gilbert
President, DHPT
(508) 965-7265
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