City of Concord Wants NH Employment Security Building

As expected, the city of Concord has reached out to the state of New Hampshire to get a right of first of refusal on the soon-to-be vacant Department of Employment Security building on South Main Street.

In a letter from Oct. 2, circulated to a number of election and state officials, City Manager Tom Aspell informed Gov. John Lynch that Concord would exercising its right to acquire the property which was recently approved for divestment in September by the state’s Long Range Planning Committee.

The state has been renovating the old Tobey School building on the state hospital grounds for a new office for Employment Security. It budgeted $22 million for the renovations.

The city recently had the Employment Security building appraised and the fair market value of the building and grounds was priced at $1.75 million, or about what the state wanted for the building.

About this time last year, the city of Concord expressed interest in the building and committed to a potential development strategy that included sending out request for proposals to find someone who would be interested in a public-private partnership.

“Without the City’s involvement,” Aspell wrote, “we are concerned about the viability of redeveloping this important property in a way that will maximum its highest and best use.”

Aspell said the RFP was “nearly complete” and would be released in November.

In the letter, Aspell told the governor that the city was in the process of taking “a very aggressive role” in redeveloping South Main Street, including entering into four partnerships which have developed more than 313,000 square feet of new development between Pleasant and Theatre streets.