D.C. lawyers say city should get McIntyre site from GSA under law sponsored by Sen. Gregg
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PORTSMOUTH – Former Deputy City Manager Ted Jankowski contends the city can still acquire the Thomas J. McIntyre federal building property for free because of federal legislation that was passed in 2004.
“The legislation was never, ever amended in any way, or repealed. The law is still on the books, but the city has never challenged it,” he said during an interview Wednesday.
The legislation, which was sponsored by then New Hampshire U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, called for the General Services Administration – which owns the 2.1 acre property – to turn the site over to the city for free once they moved into a new building on land they purchased at the Pease International Tradeport.
The existing federal building was slated for demolition as part of the legislation.
The GSA bought the land at Pease – and still controls it - but a new building was never built, and the federal agency instead tried for the last several years to transfer the property to the city through the Historic Monument Program.
But the GSA dropped the city from that program – which would have allowed the city to acquire the property for $1 – after Portsmouth and its development partners Redgate/Kane couldn’t agree on a redevelopment plan.
The federal agency put the property up for sale through an online auction and it appears they received the first $5 million bid for the site on July 1.
A spokesperson said Wednesday the agency does not release the name of bidders.
Jankowski: Hire a Washington-based firm to deal with GSA
Jankowski believes the city should hire a Washington, D.C. law firm with experience in dealing with the GSA to try to obtain the McIntyre property for free.
“It is time for the city to fight for the property, which it already owns under Senate 1589, and which the GSA has been paid for,” Jankowski said.
The former acting city manager, who is now retired, said he hired the Washington, D.C. law firm of Holland & Knight, to evaluate the status of the legislation.
In a June 28th letter to Jankowski, attorneys Robert C MacKichan, Jr. and Joel E. Roberson state that “Section 408 of the Act has not been repealed or superseded by any other legislation and therefore it remains the law.”
They note in the letter shared by Jankowski that Section 408 requires the GSA to “convey, without consideration, the Thomas J. McIntyre Federal Office Building to the City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire for economic development purposes.”
“While Section 408 states that GSA is required to relocate the federal tenants in the McIntyre Building into a “new Federal Building” and GSA ultimately relocated the federal tenants into existing buildings, we believe that GSA has met the requirements necessary to trigger the conveyance without any cost to the city of Portsmouth, by moving the existing tenants into a “new location” even though that location was not a “new Federal Building,” they said.
Lawyers argue transfer of McIntyre to city is still feasible
MacKichan and Roberson added that they believe “that with full support of the city of Portsmouth leadership, transfer of title to the city of Portsmouth is feasible.”
“Holland & Knight is 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. “We would welcome the opportunity to share these conclusions with representatives of the city of Portsmouth or others who may be interested in the benefits of such a conveyance.”
Jankowski said he met Monday with longtime former City Attorney Robert Sullivan and City Attorney Susan Morrell about the issue.
“I think it went very well. They asked my permission to talk to the attorneys at Holland & Knight about it,” he said about the meeting.
He also sent a copy of their letter to everyone on the City Council in an effort to prompt them “to fight for the McIntyre property.”
“I’m hoping they take action on their own. It would be malfeasance with this information for the City Council not to try to get this property for free,” Jankowski said. “You’re talking two acres in downtown Portsmouth.”
Mayor also wrote GSA about existing law transferring property to city
Mayor Deaglan McEachern said he saw the letter but has not yet “spoken to the attorneys that he (Jankowski) referenced.”
“We’ll look at all avenues and possibilities,” McEachern said Wednesday.
The legislation – and what many believe was the GSA’s decision to ignore it – has angered many city and state officials over the years.
For his part, McEachern sent a letter to Flavio Peres, the assistant commissioner of real property utilization and disposal for the GSA.
In it, McEachern references the legislation and the fact that it required the GSA to “convey the McIntyre to the city at no cost as soon as certain conditions were met, which included the purchase of property for a new federal building” at Pease.
That condition was met in November 2006 when the GSA bought 11 acres for the new federal building site at Pease off Oak Avenue, McEachern said.
Mayor: GSA cost city tax revenue, jobs
“It is worth noting that the GSA’s decision to purchase the land and not develop it, amounts to a significant opportunity cost to the taxpayers of Portsmouth, both in terms of lost tax revenue, and potentially hundreds of jobs in the region,” the mayor said.
Gianelle E. Rivera, an Associate Administrator for the GSA, responded in a June letter that the transfer of the McIntyre property to the city “was predicated on the construction of a new federal building at the Pease Tradeport to house the McIntyre Property’s occupants.”
“That new federal building contemplated by P.L. 108-199 was not constructed and the funds for that project were reprogrammed when the government no longer had a mission need for a new federal building,” Rivera said.
The GSA then moved forward with the proposed transfer of the property through the Historic Monument Program, Rivera said.
“The city was ultimately unable to submit the required application to the National Park Service by the March 31, 2023, deadline,” Rivera said. “Then on May 1, 2023, the City Council voted to not proceed with a negotiated sale at fair market value.”
The online public auction for the property began on June 20.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Lawyers: Portsmouth should get McIntyre under '04 law by Sen. Gregg
