As the New Hampshire House of Representatives considers tearing down the legislative parking garage on Storrs Street and building a new one at the current state Department of Justice building on Capitol Street, Concord officials say they will have to wait and see how the proposal might impact the city’s downtown parking.
The Storrs Street parking garage, which has 205 parking spaces and was built in 1975 on land leased from the city, is not the only source of parking for lawmakers and State House employees.
The state also has parking connected to the Legislative Office Building, which is across the street from the Concord Library nd City Hall. A Concord city ordinance in place since 1981 also allows the City Manager to temporarily reserve a certain number of parking spaces for disabled legislators during the legislative session. There are 60 spaces that the state has marked for session days, according to Director of Redevelopment Matt Walsh.
Walsh said there are also about 6 on-street spots near North State and Park Street reserved year-round for the Governor and other Legislative leaders. Metered spots are also reserved for Governor and Executive Council meetings at the State House.
The city makes about $50,000 to $60,000 each year by selling parking cards to state employees in various departments. This year, state employees hold 535 parking cards, which are used to pay for metered spots at the state’s expense.
Walsh said the state has discussed building a new legislative garage at the NH Department of Justice site since 2004.
“There are different plans that have gone forward and consultants have been hired and it’s never successfully gone through the budget process, so we’re waiting and watching to see what happens with this go-around,” he said.
A new garage could more than double the number of parking spaces for legislators, but many unknowns remain, including the final number of spaces, who will be allowed to park there, plans for when the Legislature is out of session, and whether disabled legislators will still be able to access on-street spots near the State House. It’s also not yet clear if new street parking spaces would be created or disappear and whether other state-owned parking facilities would undergo changes.
All of those factors could play a role in whether the garage increases the city’s parking availability or revenue.
“Until we have more information it’s hard to be able to discuss what the potential impacts will be,” Walsh said.
Mayor Jim Bouley was enthusiastic about the removal of the “old, tired” garage, saying that it had outlasted its lifespan. “From my point of view, to remove the Storrs Street garage would be a positive for that part of the city,” Bouley said. “I think it’s an eyesore at this point.”
Bouley said he hopes that plans to rebuild to build a new garage at the site of the current Attorney General’s office, which sits across the street from the Concord Police Department, would include the input of city staff.
“If the state is going to build a garage on the current [Attorney General] site it would be my hope that the state would continue to work with the city and our planning department and community development department to make sure that it fits in with the character,” Bouley said.
Concord’s property tax revenue is limited by the number of state-owned and nonprofit properties in the city. Moving the N.H. Attorney General’s office doesn’t necessarily mean the state would purchase or construct a new building, and leasing from a private landlord would keep the building on the city’s tax rolls, said Deputy City Manager Carlos Baía. “The tax issue is not really an issue,” Baía said.
One site being considered for the Attorney General’s Office is the north building at the former Lincoln Financial headquarters at 1 Granite Place, which is owned by Steve Duprey’s company Foxfire Management. Brady Sullivan owns the land and the south building at the complex, while Foxfire owns the lobby between the two buildings.
Duprey currently rents the top two floors of the north building to the Judicial Branch’s Administrative Office of the Courts, which has an option to buy. The other two floors are occupied by commercial tenants.
“If the [Attorney General’s] department is going to move, I would hope that they would continue to pay property taxes or payment in lieu of taxes,” Bouley said. “I fully recognize that the state doesn’t have to go through that process but hopefully being a good neighbor, they would.”
Duprey said that when he enters development agreements on projects like the downtown Smile Building, they have covenants that include payments in lieu of taxes from the state to the city. Duprey said he understands the impact that tax-exempt properties have on the city budget.
“Being a Concordian, I pay taxes like everybody else,” Duprey said.