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

[Dennis De Witt]

Diane

There is such a law as you describe.  It is not new.  I suspect that throughout the state there may be other town building on leases or other arrangement that have just been allowed to extend from year to year.  In one Brookline case the only “lease” was found to be a reference in select board minutes dating back many decades.

Dennis De Witt

> On Aug 13, 2025, at 10:50 AM, Diane Gilbert via MassHistPres <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu> wrote:
> 
> 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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