Preis interested in insurance building site

Developer and property owner Richard Preis has long had his eye on the 17-lot tract in the shadow of the State Capitol that previously housed the Department of Insurance building. Now that the property is for sale, Preis is interested in buying it. “My family has owned land in that area since 1894,” he says. “That particular piece of property has always intrigued me.” The former insurance building site, which still has a two-story parking garage on it, is one of dozens of properties the state is trying to sell in order to come up with $47 million for the revenue side of its tight, 2013-14 operating budget. The state has budgeted $5 million for the insurance lot, a price that does not appear to faze Preis one way or the other. “The appraisal is what it is,” he says. What does concern him is getting buy-in from residents of the adjacent Spanish Town neighborhood for any future development he might be involved in on the site. “If we could have positive participation from the neighborhood, the site would be of interest to me,” he says. —Stephanie Riegel