Derby Aldermen Vote To Sell Former Varca Property

The former VARCA building at 5 Coon Hollow Road.

The City of Derby Board of Aldermen and Alderwomen voted Thursday to sell the former VARCA building on Coon Hollow Road to Soccer and Rugby Imports LLC of Southport for approximately $450,000.

The company supplies equipment to a variety of soccer and rugby programs on the recreational, high school and university levels. The company plans to establish a headquarters in Derby, according to previous statements from Carmen DiCenso, the city’s economic development liaison.

VARCA, a nonprofit business that offered employment and a community center for people with developmental disabilities, closed in 2018 because of a lack of funding. State funding was critically important to VARCA, but those dollars dried up as the state opted to fund more modern on-the-job training programs.

Click here for a letter published in 2018 by a member of the organization’s Board of Directors.

The property, which had belonged to Derby, reverted to the city as per the terms of a decades old agreement.

Initially the building had been envisioned as a senior center to be shared by Ansonia and Derby — one of many locations that have been floated in both cities over 10 years. Click here for an April 2018 story on that idea.

But Derby officials said that once a thorough inspection had been done, it was clear the building needed millions in repairs before it could be used as a municipal space.

The city, unfortunately, does not have the funds,” DiCenso said at a public meeting in December of 2018.

By that time Soccer and Rugby Imports LLC had reached out to Derby with a letter saying they wanted to buy the building and move to Derby. 

The company supplies equipment to a variety of soccer and rugby programs on the recreational, high school and university levels.

The company, which is privately owned, has retail stores in Greenwich, Madison, Ridgefield, Southport, and Bronxville, N.Y.

Click here for the company’s website.

Ultimately the price tag for Derby to make repairs and upgrades to the building was set at between $3.5 and $3.7 million, according to Johnson Controls, a consulting company that looked at the building.

The city then decided to put the 50,000 26,000 square-foot building out to bid in an effort to get it back on the tax rolls. Derby is one of the state’s most economically-distressed cities.

The Aldermen met in executive session with three bidders Thursday, then voted to sell the property to Soccer and Rugby Imports, the highest of the three bidders.

Corporation Counsel Vin Marino said the price wasn’t the only reason elected officials went with the company — but that it didn’t hurt. The two other bidders were thanked and encouraged to keep looking in Derby.

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