January 23, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The historic Custom House building looks a little like a construction site right now with a tarp covering one side, but come March it will have new tenants and a new stairway on the William Street side, federal officials said.
Patrick Sclafani, a spokesman for the General Services Administration, said in an email to The Standard-Times that NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) will be locating there in March and the interior renovations are being done in advance of their arrival.
NOAA’s Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region Stakeholder Engagement Division and NOAA seafood inspectors will be moving into the building then. Currently, the U.S. Custom and Border Protection agencies are there.
The marble floor tiles are being refurbished and a new subfloor is being installed to the building’s first floor main corridor, he said. The building, which was built in 1836, has two floors.
The contractor is also installing new granite exterior stairs on the William Street side of the building that were removed many years ago, he said.
The new stairs will be “architecturally and historically accurate to their original state,” and should be done by approximately March, he said. The reconstructed stairs will be for the exclusive use of NOAA.