In submitting his budget for fiscal 2008, Gov. Donald L. Carcieri stressed one point regarding proposed cuts to human services and
personnel: A difficult budget cycle calls for difficult decisions. But to avoid even more cuts, he proposed selling some state properties to generate revenue.
In total, seven state-owned properties could come into the marketplace, with a combined asking price of more than $28 million.
They include high-profile sites such as a parking lot next to the Garrahy Judiciary Complex in Providence and long-neglected property such as the state’s computer center in Johnston.
According to Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal, the governor has always had a policy of selling properties no longer needed by the state to raise revenue and to avoid costs associated with the land. In fact, according to the governor, the sale of excess property is expected to save taxpayers more than $7 million in fiscal 2007.
But with a combined projected deficit of nearly $350 million for fiscal 2007 and 2008, Neal said, the need to sell unnecessary property has become more pressing.
“These are properties that we believe … should be sold as a matter of policy anyway,” Neal said.
The parking lot next to the Garrahy complex, which had previously been considered for mixed-use development and for government employee parking, is among the most valuable and potentially appealing to buyers.
The governor’s budget estimates it could fetch $7.5 million from a private developer, and officials believe it could draw interest for mixed-use development given the current interest in projects in the city and the relocation of Interstate 195, which will open up a large stretch of land near the waterfront for new development.
The governor had proposed the sale of the parking lot last year, but no buyer was found, Neal said, so the governor put the property back on the list this year.
“It is believed that the space is underutilized,” Neal said. “The state could get a significant benefit financially with the sale, and [a sale could] propel the full utilization of that site that would help revitalize that area.”
The governor is also proposing the sale of the computer center on Hartford Avenue in Johnston. The sale of that site, which could generate $1.5 million, according to administration estimates, would be followed by the relocation of the functions housed in that building.
Presently, the building is “out-of-date [and] somewhat dilapidated,”
Neal said. The state has identified one potential site to house the functions, he said, but officials are currently seeking other options to get the best deal possible.
“At the end of the day, there is a very definite need to move the computer center into a newer facility,” Neal said.
The most valuable property the governor is proposing to sell is the R.I. Department of Health’s Chapin Health Laboratory at 50 Orms St. in Providence, valued $10.9 million. That site houses several functions, including the department’s health lab and the medical examiner’s office.
However, Neal said, if the state were to sell that property, it would have to lease it back, at least short-term, while it sought a new home for the lab.
The governor is also proposing the sale of R.I. Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals properties in Providence, Woonsocket and Charlestown, which are expected to fetch a total of $8 million, and R.I. Department of Environmental Management property at the Port of Providence, which could go for $500,000, according to the governor’s budget.
Asked to comment on the proposed sales, Charles T. Francis, president of CB Richard Ellis/New England’s Rhode Island office, said the properties seem to be genuinely valuable, but he would have to know an “awful lot” more about each of them before he commented on the price tags the governor’s office had attached to the properties.
