Garage sale: Borghi offers $1 for downtown parking structure

LACONIA — City councilors will review a letter expressing a buyer’s intent to purchase the top two floors of the downtown parking garage for $1 at their meeting Monday night. 

The city council meeting is set for 7 p.m. on Monday, May 9, at City Hall downtown.

City staff took steps in December 2023, to declare the second and third floors of the parking garage surplus property. The first floor is home to Fit Focus, a fitness center owned and operated by Brandon Borghi and his family. They purchased the ground floor in 2017.

A year and a half ago, the city entered into a purchase and sales agreement with Kevin Hayhurst, a real estate developer and owner of the Paugus Bay Pub, who hoped to build a domed sports facility at the top of the structure, but that deal fell through. 

In a letter dated June 4, 2025, and signed by Brandon and Derek Borghi dba. 5623 Real Estate Development, the Borghis summarize the general terms and conditions of their purchase offer to the city for the upper floors of the garage. Their initial offer to the city was penned in March, according to a staff report. 

The Borghis offer the city $1 for the purchase of the property, “together with a commitment to clean up the property and perform any improvements reasonably necessary to allow its continued use as a parking garage”. 

Their intention is to pay the cost in full on the date of closing.

According to their terms for purchase, there is to be a 15-day due diligence period from the execution of the purchase agreement.

The letter of intent to purchase the property, were it signed by a representative of the city upon council approval, is non-binding as written prior to the execution and delivery of the purchase agreement.

The anticipated fiscal impact to the city, according to a staff report attached to Monday night’s agenda, is realizing a decreased annual cost in maintenance to the property. 

If councilors were so inclined, they could set a public hearing on the sale as soon as Monday, June 23, the date of their next meeting. 

The parking garage was built in 1974, part of the Urban Renewal project which changed much of the landscape of downtown. The following decades' worth of salt, rain and snow corroded steel supports on the building and led to the closure of the top floor to vehicles. 

The city received an estimate of $10.8 million to build a new garage five years ago, more than twice the amount it would cost to perform long-term repairs.

In other business, city councilors will hold a public hearing regarding potential bonding for Section A of the proposed Opechee Loop recreational development.

Opechee Loop Section A includes the widening of a pedestrian walkway on the west side of Elm Street, from Doris Ray Court to Franklin Street. The project would serve to expand the Winnisquam-Opechee-Winnipesaukee Trail from its existing northern terminus, located near the intersection of Union Avenue and Elm, to Franklin Street.

The total anticipated cost of the project, including necessary repairs to the deck of the Elm Street bridge, is $935,000. The project was awarded $225,000 in grant funding through the Northern Borders Regional Commission, and another $100,000 through Belknap County. It’s proposed that the remaining balance — $610,000 — would be funded through bonding, with payments on principal and interest to come from the Lakeport Tax Increment Financing district.

The cost of the bond would depend on rates at the time it was issued. Given current rates, according to a city staff report, the anticipated cost to the city of the bond would be $188,000 over 15 years.

Following a public hearing, councilors could take a vote to approve or deny the resolution authorizing bonding for the project.