In selling the former Lincoln Financial buildings to the State of New Hampshire – and thus taking them off city tax rolls – Steve Duprey said he wanted to help make up the difference to his fellow taxpayers.
He’s been in talks with the city about donating a portion of the land abutting those office buildings for more than a year, and on Monday night, the Concord City Council is set to move forward with the deal.
City leaders taking over the land and selling it to a developer likely won’t make up the tax difference of the state taking over the office buildings there. However, it would give local officials power over 18 developable acres just a few minutes from downtown, offering a chance to add housing to the area that aligns with their vision, and eventually boost the tax base.
Duprey bought the more than 180-acre Lincoln Financial campus in 2022. In recent years, as the state Justice Department and other agencies have needed new homes, the former to make way for the legislative parking garage, Duprey has taken them on at Granite Place. The state bought the South office building at Granite Place last year and is planning to buy the second from him by next spring.
Instead of selling the entirety of the parcel to the state, Duprey held on to most of the surrounding land.
“I made a representation that I would do my utmost to recreate the tax base that was being lost by the state,” Duprey said. “So I kept the land out front.”
Spread out over a few different tracts, the property includes a steep hillside with a few miles of biking and hiking trails and frontage along Penacook Street, including Little Pond Road, and Rumford Street.
Originally, under a proposal last year, Duprey would have donated a 28-acre section that stretches down to the corner of those two streets. It never went through.
Whoever owns a property on April 1 is liable for its property tax bill for the year. The sale of the new Department of Justice building to the state last year closed later than expected – leaving Duprey with the bill. In typical property sales, a prorated tax bill is often part of the negotiation – but with the state, which is tax-exempt, it’s different.
The city wanted Duprey to pay the outstanding taxes before the donation could be accepted. He didn’t think that was fair.
Over the last year, the vision for the property changed. The state pursued the second building at Granite Place, and Duprey is now including most of the open land in his donation to the city.
The plan before councilors now is for 153 acres to be passed to city ownership, and in return, the city will pay a purchase price equivalent to the roughly $336,000 in taxes accrued by Duprey on it during the negotiation. In turn, the value of the property he’s donating goes down by that same amount, decreasing the federal tax break he’ll get for the donation.
With other fees tied to the transfer, the total comes out to $370,000. Councilors would pull money from their rainy day fund to cover it. They’re scheduled to hold a hearing Monday night before voting.
The westward 135 acres of the land would be dedicated to conservation, protecting the trails, by an easement or deed restriction. Preserving that area – largely rocky and steep – was also one of Duprey’s goals for the transaction.
“Even though it doesn’t have the views of the Marjorie Swope Park, it’s beautiful land,” he said. “There are too many friends I have who ride mountain bikes and hike out there.”
Conserving the parcel could also be a death knell to any attempt by the city to build the Langley Parkway extension through the area.
The 18 acres to the east, in front of the Lincoln Financial Buildings and along Penacook and Rumford Streets, will be open for development to a buyer of the city’s choosing. The agreement requires that those 18 acres become a taxable real estate development.
“This way,” Duprey said, “the city, gets made whole, but I don’t get penalized and pay $350,000 for the privilege of donating it.”
Mayor Byron Champlin said the purchase payment, essentially a reimbursement on the taxes accrued, is worth the city’s benefit of owning the land.
“We’re preventing the developable part of that property from going to the state, which is probably what would have happened to it otherwise,” Champlin said. “And we are ensuring that something will be done, that there will be some development on that piece of property that will expand the tax base.”
While these benefits don’t fully make up for the amount of tax money lost via state ownership of the two Lincoln Financial office buildings, he continued, “certainly it will go towards making us more whole than we would be otherwise.”
Duprey has said the appraised value of the development rights over this land is just below $2.8 million, a city report notes.
The first of the two office buildings, bought by the state for $21 million last year, had an assessed value of nearly $11 million. Its tax bill was more than $109,000 to the city and $155,000 to local schools in 2024.
The second has an assessed value of around half that, and lawmakers have set aside another $15 million to buy it.
Duprey also carved out a ten-acre property along Little Pond Road that he’ll keep to build a personal residence. Another half-acre residential piece was carved out that he intends to sell.
With zoning and planning board sign-offs in hand, Duprey is determined for the sale to close by the end of the calendar year because of the tax deductions attached to it.
The city’s goal is to find a buyer within five years. Champlin and Duprey both said they see potential in the land for housing.
Duprey said a study found that, using the conservation land to meet density requirements, around 150 units could be clustered there.
At planning and zoning board meetings, neighbors along Penacook Street largely worried about what the development might be – and were reminded by city officials that any project going in would have to get its own separate approvals.
At the planning board’s review, abutter Martin Piroso endorsed the plan, saying both the preservation and the development made sense for the neighborhood.
“I think this is a great thing to do,” he told the board. “I think this is the best use of it – way better than the Langley Parkway.”