The city’s hopes of constructing a massive parking garage and conference center on Deer Street are “in limbo” following a Rockingham Superior Court judge’s ruling that the City Council made an unlawful deal with the project’s developers.
Plans call for a 200-room hotel, more than 20 condominiums, 5,000 square feet of retail space, a 1,000-seat conference center and a 657-car parking garage adjacent to the Sheraton Harborside Hotel. The City Council voted in December 2005 to spend $15 million of public funds on construction of the parking garage. But, Judge Kenneth McHugh ruled last week that the deal benefits developer HarborCorp more than the city.

The ruling came in response to an appeal filed by attorneys for Nine Seventy Six Realty Trust and 1000 Market Street Corporation, also known as Ocean Properties, which has contested several other hotel projects in Portsmouth in the past. 
“An objective consideration of the evidence points to the enormous advantage, both financially and by usage, that HarborCorp realizes by the City funding the parking garage, and the private benefit exceeds any public benefit the Project presents for the city,” McHugh’s ruling reads.

City Attorney Robert Sullivan said the city’s primary goal is to construct a large conference center in the downtown area, which would benefit the entire community. He called the parking garage a “central feature” of the project. The city’s position is that the public benefit of the conference center dwarfs any private benefit HarborCorp might gain.
In his ruling, McHugh says he agrees that the overall project could provide considerable public benefits, “including the creation of 300 jobs, more income and greater tax revenue.” However, “all of these benefits are still available to the City if HarborCorp funds the garage itself,” he wrote. 

McHugh noted that, under the city’s deal with HarborCorp, only 57 of the parking garage’s 657 spaces would be available to members of the general public during “peak times for potential city use.”

Although McHugh ruled that the $15 million bond for the parking garage is unlawful, he noted that his ruling does not mean the project is dead. He advised the City Council to “take another look at the garage’s construction and funding and use to make sure that the final agreement does not provide HarborCorp with more than an incidental benefit.” He further suggested that HarborCorp might agree to reduce its guaranteed parking spaces or fund a substantial portion of the construction.

The City Council met with legal counsel in a nonpublic session on Monday, Oct. 15, but Sullivan said it would take time to determine the city’s next course of action. “For the moment, the conference center is in limbo,” he said. “There are probably a great many ways to deal with the issues that have been raised by the court.”

Portsmouth candidate forums

As the Nov. 6 municipal election approaches, a number of candidate forums will be held in the Port City to help voters choose between 17 City Council candidates, six School Board candidates and five Police Commission candidates.

Citizens for Voter Education will host two candidates’ nights in the Eileen Dondero Foley City Council Chambers at City Hall this month. A forum for council candidates will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 17, and a separate forum for School Board, Police Commission and Fire Commission candidates will he held the following Wednesday, Oct. 24. Both events will be broadcast live on Channel 22 and will be rebroadcast at 7 p.m. on Oct. 20 and 27 and Nov. 3 and 5.

Portsmouth Listens will hold two roundtable forums in the Portsmouth High School cafeteria. The first will include council candidates and will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 31 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. The second will be for School Board, Fire and Police Commission candidates and will be held the following night, Thursday, Nov. 1, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Islington Creek Neighborhood will hold a forum for council candidates at The Portsmouth Pearl at 45 Pearl St. on Wednesday, Oct. 24 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The event is open to the public but is geared toward residents of the Islington Street area.
Friends of the South End Neighborhood Association will hold a forum for council candidates at the Little Harbour School on Thursday, Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m. The event is co-sponsored by the Little Harbour School PTA and is open to the public.

Four of Portsmouth’s nine current city councilors—Mayor Steve Marchand and councilors Joanne Grasso, Harold Whitehouse Jr. and John Hynes—are not running for reelection. Whichever council candidate reels in the most votes will be named Portsmouth’s new mayor.

Four seats are up for grabs on the School Board, and two of the incumbents—Nancy Clayburgh and John Lyons—are not running for reelection. (Clayburgh is running for City Council.) The other two incumbents—Ann Walker and Henry “Clay” Hayward II—will face four aspiring newcomers.

Police Commission Chairman John Kelley, the only commissioner up for reelection this year, will face four opponents. No one signed up to challenge incumbent Fire Commissioner Michael Hughes. Both commissions have three members, but all other seats are filled until 2009.

Check upcoming issues of The Wire for more information on the candidates.