New Bedford Mayor Blasts Plan to Close U.S. Customs House

NEW BEDFORD (WBSM) — New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell is pushing back against a potential closure by the federal government of the U.S. Customs House downtown, and expressing frustration that he only learned about it through a Google alert.

Mitchell Slams Lack of Federal Communication

Mitchell has penned a letter to Paul Waldron, Executive Director of the Public Buildings Reform Board, objecting to the closure.

“At a time when trust in government, particularly the federal government, is arguably at an all-time low, reducing the federal government’s connection to the residents is about the last thing the federal government should be doing in a region that is not part of a major metropolitan area,” Mitchell wrote. “Proposing to close the Customs House and the Hastings Keith Federal Building is difficult to justify as a cost-saving measure, and it runs counter to the needs of effective federal governance and the City’s interests.”

Hastings Keith Building Also on the Chopping Block

In his weekly appearance on WBSM Wednesday morning, Mitchell pointed out that the General Services Administration announced last year that it intended to close one of the city’s two federal buildings, and had targeted the Hastings Keith Federal Building downtown, which houses the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Services, among other agencies.

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Mitchell already wrote a letter to the GSA in February of 2024 pushing back on the plan to close the Hastings Keith Building, and said Wednesday on WBSM that he continues to speak up about keeping it open.

“The reality is there has to be a big federal presence here,” Mitchell said. “There’s a massive number of businesses that are regulated by the federal government, mainly the fishing and fish processing industries. So there are direct federal interests here and compelling federal interests here, that’s why there needs to be a presence of the federal government here.”

He said that while it does make sense to “economize” federal buildings in other municipalities where they are “largely vacant,” that doesn’t apply to New Bedford. Mitchell said he has “long argued that they should be increasing the federal presence (in New Bedford), not finding ways to scale it back.”

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Mitchell said the City of New Bedford was given no notice from the federal government about the plan to close the Customs House. Instead, he learned of it through a Google alert regarding a PBPR press release for a public meeting that was held Wednesday in Boston to discuss the potential closing of six federal buildings in Massachusetts.

“They were going to have a hearing, but they weren’t going to have a hearing here, it was going to be in Boston,” Mitchell said on WBSM. “I am hopeful our pushback is going to be enough, but this isn’t the way to go about doing it.”

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Customs House History and Federal Importance

Mitchell said the Customs House is 191 years old, built during President Andrew Jackson’s administration in 1834 “during the height of the whaling era to regulate that commerce.” It was designed by Robert Mills, who also was the architect of the Washington Monument.

It was renovated about 10 years ago and is in “good as new” condition, Mitchell said. It currently houses the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection offices.