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Federal officials are again weighing whether New Bedford’s U.S. Custom House should be closed.
The Public Buildings Reform Board held a hearing in Boston on Wednesday to discuss potentially closing six federal buildings in Massachusetts — including the custom house.
The historic building at 37 North Second St. is the oldest continuously operating custom house in the country. It once registered whaling ships and served as the city’s first post office when it opened in 1836. Today, it provides office space for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and NOAA Fisheries.
Paul Walden, the board’s executive director, said in a phone interview that the meeting was mainly focused on three federal buildings in Boston. The custom house was only “mentioned in passing,” he said.
“We’re merely telling people this is a list of properties we’re looking at,” he said. “It’s all very preliminary.”
In March, the custom house briefly appeared on a list of 440 “non-core assets” that the Trump administration planned to sell. It was posted on the General Services Administration website for less than two days before the agency took it down.
The board’s analysis has “no correlation whatsoever” with the GSA’s short-lived list, Walden said.
City officials called attention to the board’s meeting shortly before it began on Wednesday, saying they only found out about the proceedings through a press release the board shared online.
Mayor Jon Mitchell wrote to the board on Tuesday arguing that the custom house should stay open.
“At a time when trust in government, particularly the federal government, is arguably at an all-time low, reducing the federal government’s connection to the residents is about the last thing the federal government should be doing in a region that is not part of a major metropolitan area,” he wrote.
Mitchell said the custom house is “architecturally and historically significant,” and it was fully renovated within the last decade. “Unlike federal facilities of similar vintage, it is now as good as new,” he wrote.
The mayor listed off an alphabet soup of federal agencies that have some presence in New Bedford, from the Army Corps of Engineers to the United States Department of Agriculture. He highlighted discussions on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration potentially consolidating its New England offices in New Bedford.
In 2023, Mitchell slammed plans announced by the General Services Administration to close the Hastings Keith federal building downtown, which has offices for the Social Security Administration and NOAA. He told the board that closing both of the city’s federal buildings could make it harder for agencies to work together, and for the public to access federal services. It would also “represent a loss of prestige to the city,” he wrote.
The mayor wrote that the city is ready to work with federal officials “to arrive at the right decision.”
Walden said he spoke to Mitchell about the potential closure on Tuesday.
“I assured him we’re just doing some high level analysis to see if it’s worth pursuing,” Walden said.
The Public Buildings Reform Board was created by Congress in 2016. It describes itself as “an independent, bipartisan agency” tasked with recommending federal properties to sell, which it says will “lower costs to American taxpayers for buildings that are outdated, poorly maintained, and largely unoccupied.”
The board assembled a list of properties that appear to have deferred maintenance, high vacancy, or are in high-value real estate markets, Walden said. The custom house was flagged through that process.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the board also discussed the John F. Kennedy Federal Building, the John W. McCormack Building, the Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr. Federal Building, and the 11 Channel Street Warehouse and Parking Lot — all of which are in Boston. The Philip J. Philbin Federal Office Building in Fitchburg was the only other building on the agenda outside Boston.
Over the next “couple of months,” the board will seek information on the custom house’s historic designation and maintenance status, Walden said. Then, it will perform a financial analysis to see if selling it is in the interest of taxpayers.
Based on that analysis, the board will make a recommendation to the federal Office of Management and Budget on whether or not to sell the property.
Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org.
Have no fear, our spend and expand Mayor will make it the 100th City Owned and Taxpayer funded building, and the City Council will approve it. 100% it’s time for change in City Hall clean out the Mayor’s Office and the City Council.
Selling to a non-profit for 1$ so it will never be on the property tax roll. Just being facetious. Would make real good office space for lawyers, doctors, and any other professional offices. And might help downtown’s existing business owners.