Could Portsmouth's 'Hail Mary' for McIntyre actually work? Here's what stakeholders say.

PORTSMOUTH — Despite all the city has been through in its more than two decades long ordeal to try to gain control of the Thomas J. McIntyre federal building, John Cavanaugh thinks city leaders may have found a winning strategy.

“I’m optimistic, from my experience in New Hampshire politics, if you have a local consensus, you can accomplish things,” said Cavanaugh, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, in an interview this week.

Cavanaugh worked with Gregg back in 2004 on the former senator’s successful legislation concerning the federal building.

The law required the General Services Administration — which owns the 2.1 acre downtown property — to build new offices at the Pease International Tradeport and turn the McIntyre land and building over to the city.

Almost 20 years have passed without the GSA doing what Gregg’s legislation mandated it to do.

Instead the GSA is in the midst of an ongoing online auction to try to sell the property.

But Cavanaugh — along with other city residents and officials — hope that Gregg’s legislation can still be used to force the GSA to turn over the property to the city.

Congressional delegation must play 'key role'

Cavanaugh, who worked for Gregg’s office for more than a decade, believes the state’s current “congressional delegation can play a key role” in any potential acquisition.

Cavanaugh doesn’t believe partisan politics will impact the current delegation’s efforts. Gregg is a Republican and all the state’s current senators and House representatives are Democrats.

“I don’t think so, and it shouldn’t,” he said about politics potentially impacting the effort for the city to get the McIntyre property, which sits in the middle of downtown close to the city’s popular waterfront.

“The genesis of the project was Mayor (Eileen) Foley and the largely Democratic City Council requesting help from the New Hampshire delegation,” said Cavanaugh, a Portsmouth resident. “It was bipartisan from the inception.”

Cavanaugh thinks city residents “should be hopeful and optimistic” that the city will get the McIntyre, “but vigilant and engaged at the same time.”

The City Council voted earlier this week to seek the property through Gregg’s legislation, and to hire Washington, D.C. law/lobbying firm Holland & Knight to work for them on the acquisition.

Despite Cavanaugh’s optimism, city officials and others who spoke during a series of interviews this week, acknowledged the city still faces a number of substantial challenges to acquiring the property.

The most daunting may be the GSA’s long and current position that it does not have to give the McIntyre to Portsmouth because it never built or moved into a new building at Pease.

It did, however, buy land there which remains unused.

How GSA has responded to Portsmouth's latest effort

Paul Hughes, a spokesperson for the GSA’s Boston office, said “we do not anticipate any impact” when asked if Portsmouth’s decision to hire the D.C. firm would affect the agency’s current online auction to sell the McIntyre.

Hughes noted that there “is no estimate” for how long the auction will run.

“The auction end date will be determined by the bid activity,” Hughes said Wednesday.

The current high bid for the property, according to the agency’s auction website, remains at $5 million.

That bid was made on July 1 and the auction opened on June 20.

The agency anticipates “additional bids,” Hughes said.

No one from the delegation has contacted the GSA about the issue as of Wednesday, he said.

Community must speak with a 'clear voice'

City Attorney Susan Morrell told the council this week that Holland & Knight “highly recommended the lobbying pursuit versus a civil suit and did not believe there would be a success with a civil suit against GSA.”

“Their advice is first of all to engage the community and get sort of unanimous or (a) very clear voice that this is what the community wants,” Morrell said. “And second to put together a plan to make a municipal use out of this property.”

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

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.

More: Redgate/Kane seeks '8 figures' from Portsmouth in McIntyre lawsuit. City attorney reacts.

Reached Thursday evening, Morrell said she believes the city’s new efforts to get the McIntyre and the Redgate/Kane lawsuit are “two separate things.”

“I don’t think one is going to affect the other,” she said.

She pointed out that the lawsuits started after the city had been dropped from the Historic Monument Program.

“They’re not really related, whether someone might claim they are, we can’t tell,” she said. “I don’t believe they’re connected at all.”

Mayor: Finding consensus 'the hardest part of the job'

Mayor Deaglan McEachern acknowledged that reaching a public consensus about what to do with the McIntyre “is the hardest part of the job.”

“We have to make a decision on what we would like to present to our federal delegation and the Congress more broadly,” McEachern said during an interview this week. “And we don’t have a lot of time.”

He believes the city should focus on using the existing federal building to create affordable housing, which would be “an economic driver” for Portsmouth.

“It serves a need for small businesses who need workers,” McEachern. “ … It’s an opportunity for Portsmouth to show it’s still a working downtown.”

McEachern also wants to see the post office return to the McIntyre.

The city should focus first on finding a municipal need for the existing federal building, before deciding what to do with the rest of the property, McEachern said.

“I think that one of the failures we’ve had in dealing with the McIntyre is it’s an enormously large property,” McEachern said.  “If we could have a plan to convert the building to housing, I think we could bring in more uses in the future.”

He expects the council will start discussions on how they want to use the property at their Aug. 7 meeting.

Tabor: Consensus to bring back post office

City Councilor John Tabor made the motion for the city to try to acquire the McIntyre through Gregg’s legislation.

In terms of McEachern’s desire to use the building for affordable housing, Tabor said, “I think there’s more discussion to have around that.”

“There’s housing versus municipal uses, versus any other use,” Tabor said.

He believes there is consensus on the council about returning the post office to the downtown McIntyre location.

“It would be great if we could get the post office boxes back and counter service,” Tabor said.

Tabor agrees “there’s a lot of sense” in the council trying to develop the property “in phases” if they’re able to obtain it.

“The first phase is the federal building and maybe the air space over the post office wing,” tabor said. “Second phase would be a program with lots of public benefit.”

“I’d love to see the people in Portsmouth be able to go to the roof of the federal building and have an observation deck there,” he added.

Assistant mayor sees opportunity to unite the community

Assistant Mayor Joanna Kelley believes the debate by the council over how to use the McIntyre is “a great opportunity to be united.”

Still, Kelley sees the need for “some more conversation” about how the federal building should be used.

She pointed to potentially using it for school or city office space.

“We’ve seen that offices have left downtown. It’s a good opportunity for putting offices in that building,” Kelley said. “That would keep the downtown alive during the slower months.”

Asked if she thinks the city’s efforts to get the McIntyre will be successful, she said, “I’m hopeful, I stay hopeful because I think that hope is the easiest thing to have.”

She stressed too that “the big thing for” her is “we’re not having to spend any additional funds.”

“This Hail Mary is not costing any additional funds for the taxpayer,” Kelley said. “To me this is low risk. The worst they (the GSA) can say is what they’ve already said, which is no.”

Owed money?

As the former chair of the McIntyre Subcommittee, Peter Whelan believes not only should the GSA give Portsmouth the McIntyre, but the federal agency owes the city a lot of money.

The GSA received $22 million from Gregg’s legislation to move to Pease, the former U.S. senator and governor recently told Seacoast Media Group.

“They bought the property, but they never built the building,” Gregg said. “I’m not sure what happened to the money.”

To Whelan, that means “Portsmouth is really due that money.”

When the city was working with Redgate/Kane two years ago on their joint redevelopment plan, Whelan heard about the legislation.

“I was like, where’s the money. We could use that for project costs,” Whelan said. “Earmarks don’t go away.”

Did congressional delegation let McIntyre money go?

Whelan said he spoke to a representative in the office of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, who told him the state’s senior senator had signed off on “redeploying the money for another GSA building down South.”

“Our congressional delegation let that money go. Whether it’s right or wrong, I think Shaheen thought we’re going to get it (the McIntyre property) through the Historic Monument Program,” Whelan said.

“I think we should have access to that $22 million,” Whelan added. “The congressional delegation is letting us down. We’ve heard crickets from them.”

Congressional delegation weighs in on latest McIntyre effort

Ty McEachern, Shaheen’s press secretary, did not directly address Whelan’s comments about what happened to the funding in Gregg’s legislation.

He did say “Sen. Shaheen will continue to be engaged in efforts regarding the McIntyre Federal Building, working alongside fellow members of New Hampshire’s congressional delegation to ensure the city and stakeholders have the support they need.”

Collin Gately, the director of communications for U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, said the congressman “has been monitoring the situation with the McIntyre Building.”

Pappas, his spokesperson said, “will continue to work with the city and local stakeholders to provide support and assistance as they work with the federal government in this process.”

Sahil Mehrotra, spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, said “Hassan continues to closely follow the latest developments with the McIntyre building.”

“Sen. Hassan and our office will keep working with all who are involved here, including the city of Portsmouth and the General Services Administration.” Mehrotra said.

How would lobbying work?

Attempts to reach one of the two lawyers from Holland & Knight working with the city on Wednesday and Thursday were unsuccessful.

But in an offer letter to the city, the firm stated that “we can support the city of Portsmouth to engage the New Hampshire federal congressional delegation, the key U.S. Congress Committees with authorizing and appropriations jurisdiction over the General Services Administration (“GSA”), and the leadership of the GSA to achieve the City of Portsmouth’s preferred results.”

The law/lobbying firm also claims they are “consistently ranked as one of the top bipartisan lobbying teams in the country and we have worked on many of the most complex GSA real estate transactions.”

They said when hired they “would leverage our longstanding relationships with the key decisionmakers in Washington, DC and our knowledge of the GSA disposal process to seek the conveyance of the McIntyre Building under the terms of the (Gregg legislation).”

One last try

Former Assistant Mayor Jim Splaine credited Ted Jankowski for focusing city leaders on the Gregg legislation.

“He deserves a lot of credit,” Splaine said during an interview this week.

Jankowski, Portsmouth’s former deputy city manager, hired Holland & Knight to evaluate the status of Gregg’s legislation, and then shared the results with the city.

“The property is worth this one last try. If we get it, I think it opens a whole host of options for what we can do with it,” Splaine said.

He mentioned ideas for the property that include “as much green space as possible, maybe a fountain,” along with “a small supplementary post office.”

Other space could be used for non-profits, the arts community or city services, he said.

Like other current and former officials, he too called for using at least part of the property for affordable housing.

“We need housing that singles and couples can live in, real micro housing, with 500 square feet,” he said. “You can do a lot with that design.”

“That’s less expensive than so called workforce,” he said. “Affordable housing, I think that’s what’s needed.”

Time for the wrecking ball?

Former City Councilor Paige Trace served on the McIntyre Subcommittee with McEachern and Tabor.

She declined to predict what will happen next with the McIntyre or suggest how it should be used.

“I don’t presume to know what the use should be, but I understand why the lobbying firm is saying municipal will get you farther faster than private development,” Trace said during an interview Wednesday.

She credited Gregg’s legislation for “getting it right,” which called for demolishing the federal building, creating open space and adding smaller buildings that fit in with the downtown’s architecture.

“Just like when I was on the subcommittee, I found a lot of things about the McIntyre to be difficult to deal with,” Trace said.

She did agree with Gregg’s description of the existing federal building, which he called an “eyesore.”

Like Gregg, Trace believes it’s time for the federal building to go.

“What I want to see is the city coming together and having a bon voyage party, and then bring in the wrecking ball,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Will Portsmouth NH get McIntyre site under 2004 Judd Gregg law?