FAIRFIELD – Operation Hope is finally getting the new home it has worked towards for years with help from the Town of Fairfield.
At the March 31 Representative Town Meeting members approved via voice vote a 75-year ground lease for a garage at 488 Tunxis Hill Road and a $300,000 no-interest loan to help purchase the former site of Trinity St. Michael’s Church at 554 Tunxis Hill Road. Currently, Operation Hope runs its food pantry at 636 Old Post Road and its outreach offices and community kitchen at 50 Nichols St.
The homeless and food insecurity services nonprofit, which feeds about 800 families and operates 42 housing units in town, recently entered into an agreement to purchase the now defunct church property from the Missionary Society for the Diocese of Connecticut for $1.8 million, according to town Economic and Community Development Director Mark Barnhart. The Missionary Society, which operates the Episcopal church in Connecticut, bought the church property from the State of Connecticut in 2022.
The RTM resolution allows First Selectman Bill Gerber to enter into the ground lease for the town-owned property at 488 Tunxis Hill Road with Operation Hope Inc. and approves the no-interest loan to purchase 554 Tunxis Hill Road secured by a promissory note and mortgage. It allows Gerber to execute all documents related to both transactions.
“This has been a long time in coming,” Barnhart said at the Feb. 19 Board of Selectmen meeting. “Our office has been working with Operation Hope to relocate and consolidate their offices as well as their homeless support services, including their soup kitchen and food pantry. We identified 488 Tunxis Hill Road as that location.
“It’s a bit small for their needs, but we figured with another property nearby it would fit their needs and requests.”
He told the selectmen that when his office started the process with Operation Hope, the nonprofit had landed a $1.5 million state grant. However, the purchase price was $300,000 higher than expected. The loan from the town will act as gap financing for the purchase of the former church property.
“The town will maintain a right of first refusal if Operation Hope were to sell the property,” Barnhart said. “We would have the right to have it sold at fair market value based on three quotes that are suitable to the State of Connecticut. All the proceeds from the sale would go back to the state.”
Carla Miklos, Operation Hope executive director, told the board at the Feb. 19 meeting that it had become too big for its office and pantry space at its two locations.
“We are now a small business with 35 staff and about 100 volunteers, serving over 1,700 local households in a year,” Miklos said. “When it became apparent that our two locations were no longer suitable or might not be available, it became sort of a crisis for us.”
Its office will become the site of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield soon, according to Miklos. That museum had been located at Quinnipiac University in Hamden until it temporarily closed.
According to town property records, 488 Tunxis Hill Road was purchased by the town from the state in 2001. It has been appraised for $846,700 as of 2024. The 554 Tunxis Hill Road property is appraised for $2,045,900 in 2024. The two-story building includes an apartment and the property also has a small playground and adjoining parking lot.
