Municipal offices moving to Parson Street
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — City Hall will soon be located across town, following Council’s 6-1 vote Monday night to authorize City Manager Jim Bennett to sign a lease agreement for 56 Parson St., owned by Thomas McKenney, for 10 years. Councilor Craig Green voted in opposition.
This is the latest in a list of changes the municipality has undergone under the management of Bennett, who was hired in 2010 by councilors seeking someone to “take the city in a new direction” — this time west across the Presque Isle Stream to the former MPG office building.
Following the sale of City Hall’s current home on Second Street Monday, councilors entered discussion on which of the two proposals best fit municipal needs. Under consideration were the 56 Parsons Street building and the former Sampson’s Supermarket at 260 Main St., owned by R&L Real Estate, LLC (Robert and Greg Graves).
Council Chair Emily Smith called both “really good deals,” with Councilor Leigh Smith noting “per square foot, they’re very inexpensive.”
Councilor Pete Hallowell said “I’ve been pushing for a lease … I’m not sure what will be 10 years from now. We’re picking up equity on both ends. If a future council wants to buy, once I’m off (council), go ahead.”
“We don’t know in 10 years what we’ll need in the building; 20-somethings won’t want to come in to pay taxes but will do so by cell phone instead. Why do we want to buy a building that may not be the building we need in the future?” asked Hallowell.
The Main Street site proposed 7,465 square feet with a lease of 15 years, with total lease payments of about $1.2 million — with additional space possible. The Parson Street building proposed 10,800 square feet for a 10-year lease at just over $700,000. Both offered “purchase price credits” and an option to buy at any time during the lease.
Councilor Dick Engels said he’d never heard of a municipality leasing a city hall.
“We’re down to two properties. There’s an issue of being in competition with other landlords because of the Main Street lease space. The other needs upgrades. Personally, I’d rather own than be a tenant,” said Engels.
Councilor Randy Smith said he “saw the potential efficiencies with 56 Parson St. that haven’t been assessed yet.”
“There are all kinds of ways to better serve the public, have employees have a much better workplace and work environment in a new building for less money. Quite frankly, if we’re going to attract and retain employees in municipal government in Presque Isle, part of it is having a nice workplace. I think the MPG building would supply that,” said Randy.
Engels noted employees’ concern over a lack of windows at the Main Street site was another factor to consider.
“Windows could be added for a reasonable expense. If we take the Graves’ site, we’d have more windows than presented now,” said Bennett.
Green said he liked the Main Street location. “If we want to be open for business, driving into town and finding City Hall to do commerce, how much better than driving into town and literally be right at City Hall?”
“The other thing is the value added piece. I feel strongly that we have been encouraging through the Downtown Committee’s Healthy Main Street the downtown corridor. If indeed we’re going to move, I much prefer to be on Main Street where we’re fully accessible to those walking, biking, employees can conveniently walk to the convenience store, food outlets,” said Green.
Green said “the attractiveness of putting in what you think upgrades need to be at Parson Street — the Graves make it (the Main Street site) a turn-key, just walk in. For those reasons I’m pretty partial to that site, to be downtown. If I had to be somewhere other than here (Second Street), that’s where I’d prefer to be. Where I’d really prefer to be is add 7,000 square feet to the Community Center. Then we wouldn’t need two heating systems, two buildings and two parking lots to maintain.”
Council Vice Chair Mike Chasse agreed with Green in that “a more viable option would be to build a much smaller City Hall onto the Community Center, rather than stay permanently at either of these locations.”
Discussion wound down, with Green making a motion to lease 260 Main Street. Lacking a second, the motion failed. Randy Smith then made a motion to enter a contract for the 56 Parson Street property, seconded by Emily Smith, with councilors voting 6-1 in favor of leasing the former MPG building for 10 years.
