The New Hampshire Retirement System will close on a $5 million purchase of an office building near Horseshoe Pond next week, removing another revenue-generating property from Concord’s tax rolls. 

The building at 80 Commercial Street, a 32,000 square-foot brick structure, will become the organization’s new headquarters for its roughly 80 employees. It currently leases space on Regional Drive, an agreement that ends in spring 2026. 

“We were looking for the most cost-effective, long-term solution to house our staff and to serve our members,” said Jan Goodwin, the executive director. “This is the best fit.” 

The property produced $127,938.88 in tax revenue in 2024, about a third of which went to city coffers and half to the Concord School District. As a state entity, the retirement system is tax-exempt. 

The New Hampshire Retirement System manages the pensions and benefits for local and state public employees, including teachers, firefighters, police officers and tax collectors. While the system’s benefit formulas and eligibility requirements are set by lawmakers, its operations and investments are managed by a board of trustees who are bound by law to act in the best interest of the system’s beneficiaries. The state pays into the system as an employer, and occasionally covers expenses brought about legislation, but the system does not receive regular state funding. 

The purchase will be funded through the Retirement System’s trust funds, Goodwin said. 

Some minor renovation is expected, but the scope of the work and the official move-in date isn’t set yet, Goodwin told the Monitor. 

The office space, built in 2000 as part of the redevelopment of the Horseshoe Pond area, is currently owned via an LLC by Neville Investments, a Vermont-based property management company, according to city tax records.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correctly reflect how the retirement system uses state funding. 

Catherine McLaughlin  can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.