Concord Could Lose $1.3 Million On Former ES Building Sale

CONCORD, NH — At October’s Concord City Council meeting, the mayor and councilors will consider a proposal to sell the former New Hampshire Employment Security building on South Main Street to a Massachusetts developer for what appears to be a $1.3 million loss, according to documents. City officials have been negotiating with a consortium of real estate developers and investors including The Dolben Company – a Woburn, MA-based real estate developer that also owns Pembroke Place in Penacook – as well as partners that own Dunkin’ Donuts locations in Vermont and a development firm that invests in Subway and Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants. The partnership – Dol-Soul Properties – is proposing to build a six-story, $12.5 million 109-unit apartment building with ground floor retail and parking at the parcel that the city has owned for about five years.

The consortium is offering to pay $1.075 million for the building and is requesting that the city to also pony up $300,000 to demolish the current structure, rezone the parcel, and limit impact fees to no more than $150,000 – about $147,000 less than what normal developers would pay.

The city bought the building from the state of New Hampshire for $1.575 million in 2012, and used tax increment financing (TIF) from the Sears block to borrow nearly $2 million to pay for the building. It also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to mothball the building from the elements for the last five years.

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When completed, the building is expected to bring in about $340,000 in tax revenue.

Parking, according to the report from Matt Walsh, the director of Redevelopment, Downtown Services and Special Projects, is also expected to be a problem.

A 109-apartment building will require about 136 parking spaces. Dol-Soul plans to build or otherwise provide at least 54 parking spaces on site, Walsh noted, “however, they may provide as much as 103 spaces.” As part of the agreement, the city shall provide up to 82 permits for residential tenants – at the Storrs Street and Hills Avenue garages or on South State Street – for up to 20 years and an extension for 10 additional years of “provided certain conditions are met,” he noted.

If approved, the city has four months to adopt the required ordinances and the developer will make a non-refundable $100,000 deposit. The closing will occur no later than Sept. 30, 2018.

City councilors will consider the sale – as well as a number of side proposals including the public capital impact fees ordinance change as well as paying the demolition costs for the developer – at the board’s Oct. 10, 2017, meeting.