NORTHAMPTON — Strike two for the former Registry of Deeds building in the heart of downtown. Once again, a bid deadline for the building at 33 King St. has come and gone without an interested buyer.

The 1.46-acre property boasts a prime location in the heart of downtown Northampton, but has failed to attract any interested bidders since the city first put out a request for proposals in August of 2023. The city’s first RFP had a deadline of submission by July 30, 2024. When that failed to attract investors, the city put out a second proposal, tweaking the original RFP in hopes of being more suitable to buyers.

The deadline for the second RFP was Sept. 6. The city has yet to put out a third RFP more than a month later. By comparison, the second RFP went out a day after original’s deadline expired.

Both request for proposals called for the current building to be torn down and replaced with a newer multi-story building.

Carolyn Misch, the city’s director for Planning & Sustainability, said it was her opinion that the litany of requirements the city had included in the RFP, along with current macroeconomic factors contributed, to the lack of interested buyers.

“There were a lot of parameters that made it not clear what the city was expecting,” Misch said. “Maybe because of the market, the costs of construction is adding to the risk.”

In addition to asking bidders to commit to using a ground-source heat pump to heat and cool any building developments, the first RFP would have scored proposals based on the size of the project (with more stories given higher scores); how many parking spaces would be provided (with 50 or more parking spaces given the best score); and whether the proposal calls for mixed-income housing, with a 60-40 split of market rate housing to affordable housing or commercial use being considered most beneficial.

The second RFP made a few alterations, lowering the minimum asking price by $400,000 to $2.1 million, reducing a required deposit for interested bidders from 10% to 2.5% of the asking price and giving a criterion asking developers to show the financial benefit to the city over the next 10 years a $500,000 lower estimation. The timeline for construction to commence after permit review was also reduced by more than a year, from 30 months to 12 months.

Misch said that another RFP would eventually be posted, but it is unknown at this time when the city would do so, as it reviews the process to try to make the property more enticing.

“There’s clearly something wrong with the property that’s not attracting people,” Misch said.

The building is located next to the Calvin Theater and across from Hotel Northampton and was built around 1975. It has been vacant since 2019 when the Hampshire Probate and Family Court moved to a new location on Atwood Drive, and the state subsequently transferred ownership of the building to the city.

When they approved putting out an RFP a year ago, councilors set the minimum bid at $2.5 million, though several members of the public also weighed in during a joint committee meeting held before the council took up the measure. They questioned whether the city should lower, or perhaps even do away entirely with, the minimum bid for the property.

“If you set a really high minimum bid, there’s a danger that people won’t respond to this RFP, and then we’ll be back at square one again,” said Sam Scoppettone, a Northampton resident who works in real estate development. “I don’t want to see the building continue to sit vacant and the property continue to be an eyesore on downtown.”

At that meeting, councilor Marissa Elkins pushed back against ideas of lowering the minimum bid.

“The way we find out what the market will bear is by putting it on the market,” she said. “If we don’t get the bids, then we don’t and we retool and that’s our signal that we’ve overshot.”

Proceeds from any future sale of the property would be split evenly between the state and the city of Northampton.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.