Council Rejects Employment Security Building Proposals

The city of Concord has rejected proposals forwarded by two development groups interested in constructing new projects at the Department of Employment Security Building site on South Main Street.

ReARC, a development team based out of Vermont, and a local development team made up of developer Steve Duprey and attorney Jonathan Chorlian, developer Eric Chinburg, and Walter Chapin, the president of Company C, submitted proposals to the city for consideration and, for a number of reasons, they were all rejected, according to Matt Walsh, director of Redevelopment, Downtown Services, & Special Projects for the city.

The most dynamic of the proposals, forwarded by ReARC, was a nearly-250,000 square foot retail, hotel, restaurant, apartment, and library complex, taking up the entire block between Thompson and Fayette streets.

The project came in at around $60 million and would have required acquiring the Concord Feminist Health Center Building and the Eagles location.

In the proposal (as shown in Photo 5), a storefront would run along South Main Street. A hotel and apartments would be constructed on four-stories above the storefront. A restaurant was proposed for the top floor. A public library, with about the same square footage of the current library, would flow along the South State Street side of the project (see Photo 4).

“The entire block was a building,” Walsh said. “It was huge … a beautiful building though.”

The project was rejected because the developer requested that the city construct a two-story underground parking garage, for about $10 million, that the city would run and lease back to the developer, at about $500 per space. The proposed pricing would be a multi-million dollar financial loss for the city.

“The cost of going underground is just massive … hugely expensive,” Walsh said. “The cost is the cost to build it and then you have to ventilate it (and) it needs to be lit 24-hours ... it’s very expensive.”

The entrance to the underground garage would have been on Fayette Street.

The group, Walsh said, “is still interested in Concord” and may be active in other development possibilities in the future.

Duprey’s group proposed a number of different concepts including a public library along South Main Street from Thompson Street north, with a storefront near the intersection with Fayette Street, possibly for Company C to build a new retail store (see Photo 3). Apartments were to be constructed above the library and store, offset to the back.

Another concept called for a stand-alone three-story retail structure for Company C on the existing DES Building footprint with a parking lot behind the structure (see Photo 2).

Another concept included apartments built on stilts above a parking lot along Fayette and South State streets (see Photo 1) attached to the store on the current footprint. 

Company C, according to the Concord Monitor, backed out of the idea of moving its retail store into the building in January.

“They were all different proposals, so they had advantages and disadvantages,” Walsh said. “And the parcel is so hugely visible because of the dog-leg and South Main Street. You can see it from South Main Street; you can see it from the Statehouse … it’s gotta to be something cool.”

Walsh added that, long-term, without the parking part of the proposal, ReARC’s concept was the best one financially, due to its size. Two of the Duprey group’s projects failed, he said, because they didn’t utilize the full potential of the lot.

Both developers also wanted the utilities buried in front of the building, an added cost to the city, but agreed to purchase the current building for what it would cost the city to obtain from the state.

Financials around leasing any potential new library space to the city hadn’t been ironed out with either developer. That would have also added cost that also would be a detriment to the financials since the city would then have a vacant library building that it would need to spend money on to renovate for some other use, possibly for an expanded municipal campus area that officials are already studying.

Next steps

The rejection of all the proposals allows Walsh and the city to restart the process again, offering both teams the chance to offer new proposals. It will also allow the city to speak with people who expressed an interest in the parcel but didn’t formally submit plans, for whatever reason. The city may also even reach out to other development companies who might be interested in offering ideas for the parcel.

Walsh said he had looked at other concepts, especially smaller ones, relying on the surface parking for housing units and the on-street parking for retail. The city requires two spaces for every new housing unit, he said, and the surface area allows for that. Whether or not it is financially viable to construct a smaller project though remains to be seen, he said.

Walsh said a building reconstructed on the current footprint would be around 50,000 to 60,000 square feet, with ample surface parking. When acquiring the other parcels, about 100,000 square feet could be constructed without more space needed for parking.