A Barre group has hit its fundraising target of $800,000 to buy a long-vacant building on Main Street in the hopes of tearing down what some call the city’s “biggest eyesore.”
The former Newbury five-and-dime at 143 North Main St. has sat vacant since 2010. The Barre Area Development Corporation launched a campaign earlier this year to buy the building for $1.1 million and received a $400,000 contribution from the city of Barre in December 2024.
Ultimately, owners Jeff Jacobs and Steve Lewinstein agreed to lower their asking price to $775,000 and extended the deadline for the offer, according to Steve Mackenzie, the president of the development group.
That’s still well above the assessed value of $325,800. Mackenzie has previously said the sale price was clearly an “excessive amount” but that the development group believes it’s worth the investment to improve downtown’s appearance and support local businesses.
“The property has sat vacant for 15 years, and I think that’s the frustration within the community, is that nothing has happened and the building has just gone downhill,” he said on Monday.
Mackenzie said the two parties were still working on the purchase and sale agreement. The final transfer may be months away. The property needs to be inspected and the development group is seeking liability protection prior to taking over the building. A code inspection in December found that the property had rotting wood, patches of collapsed floor and standing water, according to inspection documents.
Mackenzie said that the development group was taking things one step at a time. But his long-term vision for the site is to tear down the current building and redevelop the property into commercial space similar to Barre’s nearby City Place building. He noted that the process for that project took five years, suggesting that the timeline for the new building could be similar.
