Rachel Pierce
After months of limited activity during the federal shutdown, planning for the future of Montpelier’s federal building at 87 State Street has resumed.
In early December, the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission received $100,000 from the Northern Border Regional Commission’s Fall 2025 Catalyst Program to continue feasibility work on the 70,000-square-foot former Montpelier post office on State Street and its 1.6-acre lot. According to the grant announcement, the funding will support the analysis of “flood-resilient, mixed-use redevelopment options that include housing, parking, and commercial space,” with an emphasis on “economic recovery, community resilience, and revitalization of Vermont’s capital city.”
The federal building was damaged in the flood of 2023 and has not reopened since, displacing the post office among other organizations. The post office has yet to find a new permanent location in town, with a temporary retail site on East State Street and a sorting center in Berlin.
The Northern Border award builds on the $100,000 appropriation secured earlier this year by Montpelier’s state representative Conor Casey (D-Washington 4) and state senators Andrew Perchlik (D/P Washington) and Anne Watson (D/P Washington), as well as the $50,000 raised by the Montpelier Commission for Recovery and Resilience through local philanthropic partners. Together, these funds will pay for environmental review, legal analysis, architectural and engineering assessment, as well as strategy development by real estate consultants Samantha Dunn and Jeffry Glassberg, who are advising on potential redevelopment options.
Meanwhile, the federal General Services Administration (GSA), which owns the property and is overseeing the disposal process, has provided a preliminary valuation. “GSA has put a figure on the building — $2.475 million,” said Jon Copans, executive director of the Montpelier Commission. Negotiations have not begun in earnest yet because due diligence work is still underway, he said, and partners are gathering the environmental and structural information needed to understand the full scope of redevelopment.
The ongoing due-diligence process includes an environmental review, an assessment of the building and site conditions, and an analysis of potential redevelopment scenarios. The regional planning commission has begun compiling environmental documents, with additional assessments expected in coming weeks. Copans said that, because of its substantial interior space and lack of natural light, the building would be challenging to repurpose as housing, but noted that preliminary evaluations indicate that 90 to 100 housing units could fit on the rear portion of the parcel — an area locally known as “the Pit.”
“When you think about downtown Montpelier and the housing crunch, this feels like a really significant opportunity for our community,” Copans said.
From the outset, the city and the commission have made it clear that they are not pursuing municipal ownership of the federal building. As outlined on MontpelierStrong.org, the state of Vermont — through the Agency of Commerce and Community Development — is the entity engaged in the negotiated sale process with GSA. No municipal tax dollars are being used for the due-diligence work, consultancy fees, or any potential acquisition.
Should negotiations between the state and GSA fail, the property would be sold at public auction. At that point, it could be purchased by a mission-driven development group or special-purpose entity with the resources to redevelop it, or by an undercapitalized private investor — an outcome that state and regional partners hope to avoid.
As due diligence advances and negotiations resume, the next phase of work will clarify which redevelopment options remain viable and whether the property can return to productive use.
