GSA's narrowed courthouse-site search triggers shellshock

Central Penn Business Journal, Aug 1, 2008 by Veronikis, Eric

DAUPHIN COUNTY

Two possible sites that the U.S. General Service Administration (GSA) selected for a new federal courthouse building in Harrisburg are out of the administration's crosshairs for now.

But owners of a property at Second and Locust streets, and a leasing agent for the Payne Shoemaker building at Third and Pine streets, still are experiencing the negative effects of the previous search, they said.

The GSA last year narrowed its search to sites that encompassed those corners. Public outcry erupted because the GSA's choices would have uprootedbusinesses along Second, Third and Pine streets.

In October, theGSAsuspendedits evaluation of the sites and decided instead to study the redevelopment of its existing site at Third and Walnut streets. By February, the administration named its existing site the best fit.

John and David Brinjac, co-owners of Brinjac Engineering, own a parking lot at Second and Locust streets. The lot is across the street from their engineering firm. The Brinjacs want to sell the lot, but David Brinjac said bidders haven't committed because GSA could reconsider the site.

Jim Helsel is the leasing agent for the 16-story Payne Shoemakerbuilding. He has not been able to lease empty office space there because people are not aware that the GSA is no longer studying the site, he said.

Two major tenants moved out of the building just before the GSA announced the corner of Third and Pine streets as one of the possible courthouse sites.

One was a law firm that took up a little more than five floors of the approximately 54,000square-foot building. The other was a lobbying firm that filled two floors of the Payne Shoemaker building.

Helsel has been unable to fill the empty offices in the building because the corner had become a possible site for the courthouse, he said. Possible tenants still believe the administration has its sights on the corner.

GSA officials said the Payne Shoemaker building, which dates to the 1920s, would remain if they opted to build at Third and Pine streets. But the administration's promise didn't make a difference, Helsel said. Tenants think constructing the courthouse near the Payne Shoemaker building could affect their leases, he said. Helsel is a partner at Lemoynebased RSR Realtors.

"Now the courthouse is not going in, and now I have to figure out a way to get that out to people," Helsel said. "(The building) used to be easy to fill. It's right acro ss the street from the Capitol."

GSA is no longer evaluating the two sites, but that does not mean those spots were eliminated, said Gina Blyther Gilliam, regional public-affairs officer for the GSA Mid-Atlantic Region, based in Philadelphia.

Harrisburg Mayor Stephen R. Reed opposes the sites. The mayor and GSA officials have long disagreed about the appropriate location for the courthouse. Reed wants it at the mostly vacant corner of Sixth and Reily streets, and GSA wants to build it downtown.

Early this year, at the suggestion of federal Judge Christopher C. Conner, a congressional delegation asked the GSA to study a compromise site at Second and Paxton streets.

The administration began the study and is waiting for information from the city to complete it, Gilliam said.

The blocks encompassing the corners of Second and Locust streets and Third and Pine streets could still get picked, Gilliam said. But GSA still thinks the existing courthouse location would be best, she said.

The Payne Shoemaker building is about half full. Helsel has marketed it on Internet real estate search engines and distributed door-to-door advertising to get word out about the building.

It features Class B office space. Class B space is a step down from Class A, but the building is a stone's throw from the Capitol. That makes the Payne Shoemaker building perfect for lobbyists and law firms, Helsel said.

Other factors have hurt lease rates in the building, he said. When Market Square Plaza opened several years ago on Second Street, that took away possible tenants, too, he said.

Still, the GSA's pinpointing the corner for its short list of courthouse sites has crippled Helsel's leasing efforts the most, he said.

"It's made it difficult to even get people to look at the space," Helsel said.

The Brinjacs had a possible buyer sign an agreement to purchase the lot. But during the due-diligence period, the bidder walked away because it was on the short list of sites.

"That's what has been the holdup for three or four years now, and now there is a staredown between the mayor (Stephen R. Reed) and GSA," David Brinjac said.

BY ERIC VERONIKIS

ericv@journalpub.com