New bidder for McIntyre building in Portsmouth raises bidding by $1 million-plus

PORTSMOUTH — Bids for the 2.1-acre Thomas J. McIntyre federal building property in downtown Portsmouth continued to increase throughout the day Wednesday, with a new high bid of $6.9 million coming in late in the afternoon from an unknown fourth bidder.

That bid in the online auction came in more than $1 million higher than a $5.75 million bid made earlier in the afternoon by Portsmouth developer Willian Binnie.

The General Services Administration, which owns the 80 Daniel St. property, extended their online auction three times on Wednesday by 24 hours each time a new high bid came in, according to a GSA spokesperson and its auction website.

Until Monday, the GSA had received just one $5 million bid, but since then three others bidders have joined the fray and entered into a bidding war over the property, which is located close to the city's popular waterfront.

The online auction will continue to at least late Thursday afternoon, according to the GSA's auction website page.

Paul Hughes, a regional public affairs officer with the GSA, explained the auction was initially extended 24 hours from its projected close time on Wednesday morning after the GSA received what was a new high bid of $5.7 million. That was before the two higher bids came in, with the $6.9 million bid making a dramatic increase over the smaller increases of $50,000 in previous bids.

The potential buyer of the McIntyre who made the nearly $7 million bid is known publicly only as Bidder No. 4.

“When the close time is posted, a 24-hour inactivity period is established,” Hughes said in a statement in response to questions from Seacoastonline. “Each time a new high bid is received within the inactivity period, the auction will automatically extend for an additional 24-hour inactivity period.”

“If the high bid remains unchanged for the full inactivity period, the auction will close,” Hughes said.

Unknown bidder makes new high bid for McIntyre

A potential buyer known publicly only as Bidder No. 3 posted a bid of $5.7 million Wednesday morning, about an hour before the auction was scheduled to close, according to the GSA’s auction web page.

The bid at the time eclipsed the previous high bid of $5.65 million made by William Binnie, president of the locally owned Carlisle Capital Corporation, on Tuesday morning.

But later Wednesday afternoon Binnie posted another bid, which as of about 3:30 p.m. was the new high bid of $5.75 million, until the nearly $7 million bid came in.

Hughes said Wednesday that “GSA sales are all-cash, as-is, where-is without contingency” transactions.

“Once the auction ends, GSA will consider an award to the high bidder; however, GSA has the right to accept or reject any and all bids,” Hughes said. “GSA will release the name of the high bidder if the high bid is accepted.”

“Typically, GSA sales become final within 60 days of the close of the auction,” Hughes said. “GSA will announce when the sale is completed.”

Binnie confirmed he's in the bidding

Binnie confirmed Tuesday morning that his company made an initial bid to acquire and redevelop the Thomas J. McIntyre federal building property on Monday.

Binnie's company made the bid “to see if we can make this project something the city and our family can be proud of.

"I don’t want to see this turned into high-rise towers, we live and work right next to it," he said. "It’s been painful for everybody, including us, to see this process play out."

The GSA before this week had received just one $5 million bid since it started the auction of the 2.1-acre 80 Daniel St. property in June. Carlisle Capital is located at 126 Daniel St. Binnie's company made its first bid Monday, he said.

There had been a total of 16 bids made on the property as of Wednesday: the original July 1 bid, three on Monday, nine on Tuesday and three on Wednesday in what has become competitive auction.

A representative of developer Mark McNabb stated late last week the well-known Portsmouth developer had not placed a bid.

The auction is continuing despite the fact that the City Council hired Holland & Knight, a Washington, D.C.law firm, to try to convince the GSA to end the auction and turn the property over to the city.

Mayor Deaglan McEachern acknowledged recently that the GSA has not changed its position against that request.

The City Council voted to use the property for below market-rate housing if they acquire the 2.1 acres.

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The initial $5 million bid was made on July 1, according to the GSA.

Binnie said he does not know the identities of the other bidders.

Binnie and his company have made previous proposals to the city of Portsmouth to redevelop the McIntyre property, including a $45.9 million plan in January 2022. The city is still trying to acquire the property from the GSA after a private-public partnership with the development team Redgate/Kane failed earlier this year.

Binnie envisions return of the post office and open space

Binnie’s top priorities for the redevelopment of the property, if his company acquires it, are to “bring back the post office to the site in the center of downtown Portsmouth,” he said.

The second is to ensure there are “no high rise towers” at the McIntyre “and to maintain as much open space as possible,” he said.

Finally, he wants to use the existing federal building “in its best and most economically capable way,” Binnie said.

He replied it was “premature to speculate on that stuff” when asked specifically how the federal building could be used.

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The first question to answer, he said, is “can we secure the asset at an economically viable price? Can we deal with the terrible asbestos in the building, which will cost millions of dollars to remediate?"

He added redeveloping the site “for public use or something that would benefit the city would make all the sense in the world. We’d be happy to work with the city."

Binnie's company previously redeveloped the former Citizens Bank building on Elm Street in Manchester into more than 100 apartments, he said.

“We have experience doing this, it’s not a foreign project for us,” he said.

But he declined to say what he thinks the best use of the existing building would be.

“It’s going to take us a long time to determine,” he said.

Binnie thanked the community for “all the positive feedback we’ve gotten” when the company has shown interest in the McIntyre.

“We’re a family-based company, we live here, we work here,” he said. “The city of Portsmouth is important to us.”

He described the ongoing and often contentious deliberations about what to do with the McIntyre property - which is located in the center of downtown – as “heartbreaking.”

“It’s been so disruptive politically, it’s a shame and it’s been unnecessary,” Binnie said. “We want to work with the city and find a way for this to make sense for all the various constituents."

The city tried for the past several years to secure the 2.1-acre McIntyre property for $1 through the government's Historic Monument Program.

GSA dropped Portsmouth from that program earlier this year when the city and its private development partner Redgate/Kane couldn’t agree on a redevelopment plan and subsequently sued each other.

This story may be updated.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: New bidder for McIntyre building in Portsmouth NH goes $1M higher