Utility to use $2.4 million from customers to help save Concord gasholder building

The utility that owns Concord’s historic gasholder building will contribute nearly $2.4 million collected from customers toward its preservation and revitalization, making it much more likely that the iconic brick building will be spared from demolition.

The news comes from Liberty, formerly Liberty Utilities, which had once warmed that it might tear down the gasholder because of the cost of maintenance after decades of neglect.

“This commitment is an enormous boost for this challenging project,” said Jeanie Forrester, chair of the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance board of directors. “More funding is needed, but Liberty’s contribution makes it much more feasible to fully rehabilitate the building and find a use for the property that allows for public enjoyment and is a catalyst for robust development along the city’s old rail yards.”

A 2021 consultant’s report that lists options for the building and 2.4-acre property, including its use as an educational and recreational site to anchor the neighborhood, had estimated costs ranging from $1.5 million to many millions, depending on details. It has taken about $600,000 to stabilize the building, which suffered considerable damage after a fallen tree punched a hole in its roof. Most of that figure was contributed by Liberty.

Built in 1888, the gasholder held and distributed flammable gas made from coal that was used for lights and heat in downtown Concord before natural gas arrived in the 1950s. While many such buildings exist, this one is believed to be the only such structure in the United States in which the enclosed gas containment unit is essentially intact.

The latest announcement from Liberty was prodded by a Jan. 11 “stabilization agreement” order from the state Public Utilities Commission that allows the gas company to add the $2.38 million contribution to the tally of costs which are used to set customers’ rates. That figure includes $486,596 that the company has already spent and it may include work cleaning up soil polluted over the decades, according to the PUC order.