An increased need for town office space will result in the one commercial tenant at the town’s John P. Riggio Building to make way for a yet-to-be-determined town agency.

When Town Hall operations moved into a renovated Mulvey School, the former Town Hall in the town center, the Riggio Building, was converted for use by public entities and agencies. Town employees only partially filled the space at the time, leading to rental of the unused office space to a David Stein Surveyors. A Sept. 8 vote by the Board of Selectmen (BOS) ends that rental arrangement; now the town will reclaim Stein’s space for town government use.

The Riggio space rented by Stein Surveyors, now part of Angus McDonald Sharpe Associates, included second-floor offices and a storage room on the first floor. Under the terms of the BOS motion, Angus McDonald Associates will have until the middle of December to move out of the Riggio Building. That gives First Selectman Noel Bishop and the BOS until then to decide which of the competing town government space requests to honor.

The current Riggio Building non-profit and government tenants include the Westbrook Youth & Family Services Agency, Westbrook Fire Department, and Town Emergency Management operations.

Bishop said recently that he has received several town agency or board requests to be assigned use of the soon-to-be vacant spaces. One was from the Board of Fire Commissioners to assign the space to the town fire marshal and deputy fire marshals for their use.

Bishop also made clear at the BOS meeting that no decision has yet been made about which agency will move to Riggio Building spaces.

Bishop wrote to McDonald after the BOS vote to inform him of the board’s decision.

“As you know from a previous BOS meeting, we did revisit the issue of space at the Riggio Building,” Bishop wrote. “After considerable and thoughtful discussion, and given the demands for space for our municipal government, the BOS will no longer permit any outside entities to use or rent space at the Riggio Building.”

McDonald wrote back, acknowledging the board’s decision and agreeing to vacate the Riggio Building offices by Dec. 15.

“[A]s much as I would like to stay in the building, we have not made the best use of the space, did not pursue a lease, and I personally tend to agree that the space should be used by outside entities. That said, I appreciate your forthright efforts to accommodate our needs and the time to relocate,” wrote McDonald.