City of Portsmouth Purchases Community Campus from The Foundation for Seacoast Health

The City of Portsmouth and The Foundation for Seacoast Health closed today on the sale of the Community Campus to the City.

Last fall, the City announced the intention to work with The Foundation for Seacoast Health to buy the Community Campus with its 72,000 sq. ft. building and surrounding 34 acres of land. The City and Foundation also agreed the sale will ensure the Community Campus will continue to support the current non-profit tenants, and the services they provide, and will remain accessible to Seacoast area residents.

“The Community Campus is a unique property, and this acquisition represents a generational opportunity for the City to acquire both a functioning building whose tenants are already serving our residents and a significant piece of land adjacent to existing City facilities, including the new athletic field,” said City Manager Karen Conard. “The purchase gives us the ability to expand the educational, recreational and community support assets that are in ever-growing demand. Given the size of the parcel, it is unlikely that an opportunity for the City to make such an acquisition will ever happen again.”

CEO of the Foundation for Seacoast Health, Debra Grabowski, said, “This transaction has been a long time coming for the Foundation. We have been seeking a win/win arrangement that would allow the Foundation to fulfill our mission to improve the health and wellbeing of seacoast residents in more significant ways, while ensuring that the original vision as a multi-tenant home for non-profit organizations continues. The sale of Community Campus to the City of Portsmouth accomplishes both objectives, and we are very pleased with the outcome.”

“The pandemic both revealed and created needs that we were each challenged to meet,” commented Mayor Deaglan McEachern. “The future for the City and the Community Campus is very bright. The sale gives the Foundation for Seacoast Health resources to fulfill their mission in new ways. We both expect these decisions to be a transformative investment toward an equitable recovery in Portsmouth.”