Cornell Gives Notice on Lease for Shoals Marine Lab
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The Forest Society's Creek Farm Reservation includes a "Summer Cottage" that has been the mainland home of Shoals Marine Lab.
Two-year window for finding an appropriate partner for buildings at Sagamore Creek conservation area
PORTSMOUTH, N.H., August 5, 2014 — The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (Forest Society) announced today that they have begun a process to find an appropriate replacement lessee for the buildings at Creek Farm in Portsmouth. Cornell University has used the large 19th-century summer home since 2006 as a mainland office for students and staff in support of the educational programming conducted at the Shoals Marine Laboratory (SML) on Appledore Island, one of the Isles of Shoals.
“SML has been a wonderful partner, and we can’t help but be disappointed to see them go,” said Jane Difley, president/forester of the Forest Society. “Our task now is to look for a different, similarly compatible organization that can make appropriate use of the buildings on the site of our Creek Farm Forest Reservation.”
Shoals Marine Lab is an undergraduate education and research marine biology program that is administered collaboratively by the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and Cornell University. Cornell, the leaseholder of the buildings on the grounds of Creek Farm, has given formal notice, triggering an exit clause in the lease. Moving forward, UNH will be assuming a more active role in the management of SML. As a result, the Creek Farm site became redundant given UNH’s facilities at its Durham campus, the Jackson Estuarine Laboratory on Great Bay, and at the Gregg Marine Science Complex in New Castle.
“Shoals Marine Laboratory will benefit greatly by our enhanced partnership with UNH. Our access to their world class marine and estuarine research facilities will best support our students and the overall mission of the Laboratory,” said Jan Nyrop, Senior Associate Dean in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell. “We are grateful for our time at Creek Farm and will continue to make use of Creek Farm into early 2017.”
The 35-acre property, which includes Goose Island and 1,125 feet of shoreline on Sagamore Creek, was once part of the 18th-century farm of royal governor Benning Wentworth. The main house and grounds were created for Arthur Astor Carey in 1888, and then purchased in 1957 by Lillian and Chester Noel. The Forest Society, New Hampshire’s oldest and largest land conservation organization and the owner of 174 Forest Reservations statewide comprising 52,000 acres in more than 100 towns, acquired Creek Farm in the year 2000.
The Forest Society is interviewing potential candidates to help lead the search for an organization or institution looking to establish a presence in Portsmouth. The property includes a dock on tidal Sagamore Creek, providing water access to the Portsmouth Harbor and beyond. Proposed uses will need to be consistent with city zoning and building code regulations and the historic character of the main building.
“Fortunately, we have more than two years to find a partner who can make use of the building in a way that is compatible with the Forest Society’s mission, including the conservation purposes of our Forest Reservation and the ongoing public enjoyment of the property,” Difley said. The New Hampshire State Department of Resources and Development holds a conservation easement on some 30 acres of the property.
Creek Farm Cottage is a total of 19,461 square feet, including an unfinished basement of 5,714 square feet, attic of 2,078 square feet and 1,020 square-foot open porch. There is also a two-story (650-square-foot total) utility building with a first floor garage.
The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests was founded in 1901 to “perpetuate the forests of New Hampshire through their wise use and their complete reservation in places of special scenic beauty.” www.forestsociety.org
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