The Princeton Council this week voted to sell to the Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad (PFARS) the land it needs to build a new headquarters at Valley and Mount Lucas roads, across the street from the municipal complex.
The deal, for the nominal amount of $100, was part of an arrangement the town and the squad previously had worked out.
PFARS is looking to break ground on the roughly 15,500-square-foot building in November, squad President Mark Freda said after attending the Sept. 11 council meeting. PFARS is raising money to pay for the project, with the building estimated to cost $7.9 million and take about 12 months to construct.
The squad acquired from the municipality about 1 acre near the police and fire departments, so that eventually all three first responder agencies will be located near one another.
In February, the Zoning Board of Adjustment approved plans the squad has to construct a building that will replace the current headquarters, a facility from 1963 that PFARS has said it has outgrown.
In remarks to the council, Freda said the squad is raising money not only for the building, but also for an endowment. He did not provide a dollar figure for how much it has raised to date.
As part of the agreement it has with PFARS, the town will buy the current squad headquarters on North Harrison Street.
“They would have to move over first because we can’t take it when it’s in active use,” Mayor Liz Lempert told reporters on Sept. 11 when asked about the timing of the acquisition.
PFARS will not leave North Harrison Street until the new building is done, Freda said.
“Part of the agreement with the town is that we don’t have to go anywhere until the new building is done. We move into the new building and then they buy the old building,” he said.
In terms of uses for the North Harrison Street property, Lempert said affordable housing is “the main idea” that has been floated. So far, officials have made no decisions.
Council President Jenny Crumiller, appearing at Lempert’s press conference, said on Sept. 11 that one possibility is for the town to sell the parcel.