The befallen Montpelier Federal Building, vacant since disastrous floods swept through the city in July 2023, will no longer be a federal building — though what it will become remains uncertain.
The U.S. General Services Administration announced plans Wednesday to “begin the disposition process” for eight federal properties nationwide, including the one at 87 State Street in Montpelier. That could include transferring, exchanging or selling the building to another government entity — or to the public.
Altogether, this round of dispositions will save the federal government some $475 million over the next 10 years, according to the GSA, which manages the federal government’s aging real estate portfolio.
Before the flood, the modernist building housed the capital’s post office, along with local branches of the Internal Revenue Service and other government agencies. In its wake, critical heating and HVAC systems across the building’s first floor and basement were heavily damaged, with repairs expected to continue into “late 2024,” GSA spokesperson Paul Hughes said at the time.
The loss of the building’s post office, in particular, was acutely felt by many Montpelier and Middlesex residents and businesses, as it took over a year to open an adequate replacement on Main Street.
Though the future of the federal building is unknown, the GSA’s disposition program is softly connected to nationwide housing development efforts.
“Where feasible, these properties could be redeveloped into housing,” the GSA said in Wednesday’s press release, “fulfilling a key pillar of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Housing Supply Action Plan.”
A previous $1 billion round of nationwide property dispositions by the GSA in late 2023 included the former Social Security Administration office at 58 Pearl Street in Burlington. In that case, the City of Burlington endorsed a plan in June 2024 by the nonprofit operator COTS, to convert the building into a temporary 30-bed “low-barrier” shelter over winter. But in September, the GSA told Seven Days, it was still considering a handful of other applications for the Pearl Street property.
