SOUTH PORTLAND – The South Portland City Council on Monday decided against attempting to purchase 148 Ocean St., the building directly next to City Hall that had been eyed for the possible expansion of municipal offices.

The discussion of a new City Hall was revived last year. The Ocean Street building was one of the options considered later in the process. During the course of discussions, the council also looked at a handful of potential locations and ended up ruling out purchasing an empty office space at Waterman Drive or using Mahoney Middle School as the site of a new City Hall, in favor of keeping the facility where it is, at least for the time being.

While touring 148 Cottage St. in mid-January, councilors found that the building needed serious repairs.

“In my tour and the tour we had with the councilors, we see the best part of the property is it aligned adjacent to City Hall and could be used as an area for a future building or future parking lot,” City Manager Jim Gailey said. “It is intriguing and it was worth discussing, but my recommendation is, let’s not pursue it. It is not the right time. We don’t have any immediate plans for a City Hall expansion.”

City Council members agreed.

“My concern from the beginning with this building is we didn’t have any specific plans for the space, but rather we were buying it on speculation because it made sense on a nebulous long-term thought we had for City Hall,” said Councilor Tom Coward.

Councilor Tom Blake agreed with Coward and said he was glad the council at least had the discussion to see if the purchase made sense for the town.

“It is prudent,” he said, “to look at all our priorities on an ongoing basis.”

Mayor Rosemarie De Angelis said she worried that by purchasing the building the city was taking on more than it could handle.

“I agree it is biting off more than we can chew right now, but I am glad we fleshed it out,” she said.

In January, Gailey brought up the idea of perhaps purchasing the building, which houses the Riverview Foundation, which owns the building, as well as State Farm Insurance and the A+ Driving School.

It was placed on the market this winter through CBRE|The Boulos Company for $499,000. The 7,100-square-foot building, built in 1940, also has two vacant commercial offices.

“When the property went on the market, I thought there was no better time than now to at least take a look at it and talk about it,” Gailey told the City Council.

The property has been on the city’s radar for the past decade. Despite discussions in 2005 between Gailey, then director of Community Development, and the management of the Riverview Foundation, the city ended up abandoning the plan for other, more pressing priorities.

If the city had purchased the building, it would have continued operating it as a commercial enterprise and possibly use some of the existing vacant space for overflow meeting space. Looking at the building and the property as the site of an expanded City hall complex would have come much further into the future.