State signs lease to move DHHS out of Portland
State officials have signed a lease agreement with ELC Management Inc. to relocate the Portland offices of two state agencies to South Portland. The plan will consolidate the greater Portland offices of the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services into a new building that will be constructed near the Portland International Jetport.
The Portland Press Herald reported Sawin Millett Jr., commissioner of the state Department of Administrative and Financial Services, said the 30-year lease agreement will save the state more than $23.4 million during the next three decades, compared to rates paid at the current DHHS offices on Portland’s Marginal Way. City officials and social service organizations have protested the move, saying that relocating DHHS offices out of Portland’s downtown will make them harder for clients to access. The deal also faces a lawsuit from Tom Toye, the current landlord for DHHS’s Portland office and a competing bidder with ELC for a plan to merge DHHS and DOL offices.
The paper reported the lease on the proposed 75,000-square-foot building at 151 Jetport Blvd. in South Portland requires that the project receive local permits by March 15 and construction must start no later than April 16. If that timeline is met, the departments would plan to move between Jan. 1, 2015 and Feb. 28, 2015.
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