Positioning Surplus Public Property for Successful Redevelopment

Thursday, April 24, 2025

9:00 AM - 9:45 AM CT

Location: Channel 3

CM: .75

Moderator and Speaker(s)

Ben Murphy

Vice President, Real Estate
MassDevelopment
Springfield, MA

Speaker(s)

Jeff Bagg, AICP

Senior Planner
BSC Group
Easthampton, Massachusetts
MM

Michael Mattos

President & Executive Director
Affordable Housing & Services Collaborative, Inc.
Braintree, MA
Jay Pateakos

Executive Director
Taunton Office of Economic & Community Development
Taunton, Massachusetts

Unused surplus properties owned by a public entity take away resources from already tight budgets. An expert panel shares their experiences, reviews sample projects, and explains the benefits of redeveloping surplus public property, which can include:

Creating a community asset out of vacant or underutilized property;

Supporting the community’s economic development goals;

Creating new housing; and

Supporting sustainability by reusing an existing building, utilizing property that is often within or close to a walkable neighborhood or business center, or utilizing property located where infrastructure already exists.

Three sample projects include an underutilized structure with additional developable area, scattered-site urban schools with limited developable area, and an open-space site.

Take away strategies to reposition surplus public property into productive use, including an RFP process that will attract developers with relevant property information and clarity about community-supported reuses. The goal is for communities to turn a liability — holding surplus public property — into an asset that supports its economic development goals. It is an alternative to auctioning property for the highest bid without development and timeline controls.

Learning Objectives:

Produce a community-engagement plan to identify reuse scenarios for surplus public property.
Identify relevant property information to include in an RFP for redeveloping surplus public property.
Produce an RFP process that will attract developers to redevelop surplus public property.