[T]he state is planning to shuffle around the offices of several agencies following a fire earlier this summer at the Deane C. Davis building in Montpelier.
Officials say ongoing extensive renovations on the fourth floor of the building, which the state leases from the National Life Insurance Company, precipitated a conversation about how the state could better use its office space.
The administration is planning to relocate Agency of Education employees out of their offices in downtown Barre. Certain parts of the Agency of Transportation would move into the AOE’s current offices, and Agency of Natural Resources employees would be relocated within the National Life building.
“We’re still working through all the plans,” Buildings and General Services Commissioner Chris Cole said. “It’s all a big interconnected jigsaw puzzle.”
An entire floor leased by the state at Barre City Place has been empty since about 30 Department for Children and Families employees moved out in 2015, following the murder of DCF worker Lara Sobel. Cole said moving VTrans – a much larger agency – into the building will allow the state to once again fully occupy the floors it rents instead of paying for empty space.
Under the proposed plan, all of the AOE’s roughly 170 employees, which currently occupy two floors at Barre City Place, would be moved into the National Life building. Some VTrans employees would stay behind in Montpelier, and some would move to Barre. The agency also maintains regional offices and a facility in Berlin.
The electrical fire on the fourth floor of the National Life building in June caused significant water damage and soot contamination. The entire floor is being torn apart, Cole said, which presents the state with a chance to rethink how that space is used.
Work isn’t expected to wrap-up at the National Life building until next year. Cole said nothing will happen before then, and that the moves will not happen all at once.
“Right now we’re working with AOE, and it’ll take a month or two to work through their preferred design,” he said. “It’s going to be a planning process for the next six months.”
