PROVIDENCE — Despite a massive state deficit, the Carcieri administration is looking to buy some real estate.

In an ad that ran in yesterday’s Providence Journal, the Department of Administration is seeking proposals from property owners interested in selling a 50,000- to-70,000-square-foot commercial building “in the greater metropolitan area” to the state to be used as a new computer center. Responses are due back by Dec. 22.

Asked the rationale for seeking to buy a building when the state is struggling to pay its bills, Governor Carcieri’s spokeswoman, Amy Kempe, said: “The current [information-technology] center is a former used-car-lot building that is in poor shape and has more value to the surrounding businesses in the area. By relocating the IT department, the building and land can be sold at the appropriate time.”

While some of the high-level state employees and consultants who do computer work for the state are in the main state Department of Administration building on Smith Hill, others work out of a former Volkswagen dealership in Johnston, purchased by the state for $505,000 in 1981, that currently serves as the state’s centralized data center.

“By consolidating operations into one building,” Kempe said, “space would be available in the DOA building. There are a number of departments whose leases are expiring within the next two years and those agencies could be moved into the DOA building, thereby eliminating the lease expense.”

Specifically, the state is seeking to buy a handicapped-accessible building that is within 15 miles of the generating source for its power, has 250 dedicated parking spaces and a security system that is already equipped with “multi-layer entry, card access, camera active surveillance,” has a rooftop gas-fired heating, cooling and ventilation system and meets specific electrical-power requirements, according to the State Properties Committee Web page.

The drive to relocate the computer center was one of the first assignments the new governor gave his first information-technology chief in 2003. By then, the state had already taken a pass on a proposal to buy a building on the East Side.

Two years ago, Carcieri proposed a $20-million renovation of the old Varley Building at the John O. Pastore Center to house the state’s E-911 system, the state computer center and a full emergency-operations center. Voters had rejected a bond issue only two years earlier that included $14.5 million for a less expensive renovation of the Varley building.

Asked why the price had gone up so dramatically in the intervening two years, an administration spokesman said the 2004 proposal was simply to renovate the old hospital building into a conventional office building.

New regulations required E-911 to be housed in a building that can withstand a seismic event, meaning the building would need additional upgrades. The specialized high-tech equipment used by E-911 and the state computer center would also require more expensive modifications. Instead of sprinklers, the building would need a dry fire-prevention system, which is more expensive but necessary to protect the equipment, he said.

But that proposal, too, fell by the wayside.

Asked where the state planned to find money now to buy a commercial building, Kempe said the state’s capital plan already includes $8.9 million to “renovate one of [the] soon to be vacated Training School buildings for a consolidated IT center. With the softness in the commercial real estate market, DOA wanted to solicit opportunities to save money by purchasing a building that could suit our needs instead of renovating a former training school.”

But now, “There appears to be buildings for far less money than the $8.9 million that was appropriated … If the state can save $1 million, the savings can either be banked or used for some other capital project.”

The decision to see what’s available on the real estate market was made by the State Properties Committee on Nov. 14. Kevin Flynn, the state planner who chairs the committee, recalled arguments that the down market provided the state with an opportunity to buy a new building at a bargain price, because there would be little competition.

kgregg@projo.com