The Smithfield Times will for now remain at its current office at 228 Main St.

The Town Council voted Jan. 7 to reject two offers the town received last year to purchase the building. The higher of the two had offered $400,000, or 75% of the property’s appraised value, for conversion to a food, beverage and entertainment space.

Vice Mayor Bill Harris, one of three new council members elected in November, made the motion to direct Town Manager Michael Stallings to “inform all involved parties that the property is no longer for sale at this time,” which fellow council newcomer Darren Cutler seconded, and passed unanimously.

The previous Town Council voted July 1 to issue a request for proposals soliciting sealed bids for the 3,300-square-foot building, which the town purchased in 2020 for $425,000 from then-Times owner John Edwards and had five years ago planned to renovate as additional office space for the town government – a plan town officials said last year was no longer viable. The town continues to lease a portion of the building to Smithfield Newsmedia, which publishes the Times, Slice of Smithfield magazine and related digital products, for $1,200 per month.

In September the town released a draft contract proposing to sell the building for $400,000 to No Hassell LLC, a holding company owned by Jay and Amber Hassell, who co-own the Hamtown Mercantile multi-retailer venue across the street from the Times. The other party to submit a bid by the town’s July 31 deadline was Mark Hall, CEO of Hallwood Enterprises, who bid $325,000.

The Hassells’ proposed sale price was well below the $535,000 valuation appraiser Sinnen-Green Associates had provided to the town in March. The town made the appraisal public in September.

“For me, the most significant issue surrounding the potential sale of this property under the existing RFP is that the Town Council was positioning itself to accept a bid well below market value of the property,” Harris said. “As stewards of the people’s money, I believe it is the duty of the Town Council to exercise great care in the managing of the people’s money, and I do not believe there is any justification for selling this piece of town-owned property or any other piece of town-owned property below market value.”

Harris also referenced the 15 speakers who’d turned out for an Oct. 2 public hearing on the matter, all of whom urged the council to reject or renegotiate the lower-than-appraised offers and either re-solicit bids or sell the building instead to Times Publisher Steve Stewart, who offered in February 2023 to buy the building at appraised value and reconfirmed his offer in February 2024.

Stewart said he’d been en route to hand-deliver a bid on July 31, the final day of the 30-day window, when a family emergency resulted in his missing the 3 p.m. deadline that day.

Town Councilwoman Valerie Butler, one of four holdovers from the prior council, said there was a “misunderstanding” on her part as to whether the stage outside the Times office would convey with the building when she voted last year to offer the building for sale.

The town used over $100,000 of its federal COVID-19 relief money from the American Rescue Plan Act in 2023 to build the 37-foot-wide stage on the Times lawn, where the Isle of Wight Arts League and the Times host the Downtown Smithfield Summer Concert Series on Friday evenings. The draft contract with the Hassells would have sold the stage along with the building but would have reserved a permanent easement and retained the right to schedule community activities on the lawn and stage, provided the town notified the Hassells at least 60 days in advance.

“Had I had a different understanding of it I don’t know if I would have voted for that transaction,” Butler said.