GSA Details Decision to Stay at McIntyre Federal Building

The General Services Administration says it decided to stay at the Thomas J. McIntyre Federal Building because a new facility at Pease International Tradeport, at a projected cost of $20 million, is just not economically viable.

"To construct that facility under these circumstances would clearly not be in the best interest of any taxpayer, local or national," GSA Regional Administrator Robert Zarnetske wrote in a March 27 letter to Portsmouth Mayor Robert Lister and the City Council.

Zarnetske wrote the letter after Lister and council sought a status update and an explanation for the GSA's position.

The City Council will review the matter during a work session March 31, starting with a site walk around the exterior of the McIntyre building in downtown Portsmouth. The site walk is scheduled for 5:30 p.m., followed by a 6:30 p.m. session in council chambers at Portsmouth City Hall.

The work session is a continuation of a meeting from February. Lister and the congressional delegation sought a better explanation why the General Services Administration is not heeding a 2004 federal law that "conditionally directed" the GSA to build a new facility at Pease International Tradeport and convey the McIntyre building to the city of Portsmouth.

In his letter to Mayor Lister and Council, Zarnetske writes that the 2004 legislation is not a mandate. He said that the GSA determined it would not build at Pease because it is, at this time, not in the best interest of taxpayers. The U.S. Postal Service and the Small Business Administration also determined the proposed Pease location did not meet its needs, according to Zarnetske.

The GSA plans to undertake renovations of the McIntyre building, including mechanical and exterior upgrades, over several years.