The prospect of a new office block to house nearly 200 public servants in Armidale has developers fighting hard for a piece, with up to four sites thought to been have shortlisted for the lucrative build.

When the government called for bids to build and own a new headquarters for the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority last year, local and interstate developers set their sights on the small town, with 10 proposals put forward.

Three sites and four development proposals were shortlisted late last year, and among the frontrunners are sites with colourful histories in a town that has attracted more than its share of unwelcome headlines.

It is understood a preferred bidder is now in detailed negotiations as bosses race against an ambitious plan to have most public servants working in the chosen office block by mid-2019, and a decision is expected on the site by the end of February.

As Barnaby Joyce struggles through the crisis that has taken over his political future, there could be pitfalls aplenty for the Canberra bureaucrats trying to give effect to his decision to move the veterinary medicines group to his home town of Armidale. In a small town (population 29,000), where new government buildings are an uncommon windfall and the development community is small and coloured by remarkable tales, the choice is perhaps more fraught than most.

While no-one in Armidale would name or officially confirm the shortlisted bidders, there are limited options and few secrets in the small development community.

Among sites believed to be in the running are a building owned by the brother of Phillip Hanna, a well-known Armidale businessman who has hit the news more than once over his close links to Richard Torbay, the former NSW state MP who was to be the Nationals' federal candidate for New England.

Torbay's candidacy collapsed over his relationship with disgraced Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid. And, in a neat circle that seems to encapsulate the Armidale community, his withdrawal cleared the way for Barnaby Joyce to stand for the seat lower house in 2013, launching the ministerial career that led to the APVMA being moved from Canberra to Armidale.

Hanna's name has come up in relation to another site in the running to build the new veterinary authority headquarters, but it is not clear whether he is behind the bid. The lease of that site is in dispute after a deliberately lit fire in late 2016 destroyed the club that operated there and resulted in the club owner leaving town, deeply sceptical about how business is done in Armidale.

A third site is owned by grazier Peter Maguire - who is no relation of the Greg Maguire, the Armidale businessman in the news for providing free accommodation to Barnaby Joyce and his new partner.

Peter Maguire's plan is to knock down buildings on four residential properties on the corner of Rusden and Markham streets, opposite the TAFE, and build the new headquarters there. He would not comment.

And the fourth site believed by locals to have been in the mix is at 124 Taylor Street, where the local council has approved an application for serviced apartments, but the deal to operate those apartments hasn't been done.

The empty block is owned by Melbourne businessmen Bret Hartwig, Peter Breckenridge, and Richard Minc. Hartwig would not name the developers behind a bid to build the APVMA headquarters on his block, but he believes the bid did not make it past the shortlist and has lapsed.

First, to the property at 91 Beardy Street where Kate Richards' Armidale Club was destroyed by arson in September 2016. Richards says could not restart her business after the fire, the owners telling her the building was not insured and could not be rebuilt.

But she says she has a 25-year lease on the site, signed in July 2015, and she insists the lease stands - a claim that complicates any new building on site.

Property owner Gary Burgess, who owns it with his son Greg, would not comment on the bid this week.

"There's three or four others in the running and I don't know which one's going to get it and I don't want to say anything about it. You would be the same if it was your bit of land," he said.

Asked whether Richards was still the leaseholder, he said "no, no, no, no, no" but he would not elaborate.

As for Richards, she knew nothing about the Armidale Club site being a possible new home for the veterinary authority until contacted by the Canberra Times.

She has spent 18 months fighting the loss of her business and, after waiting for the coroner's report on the fire this month, she is now planning to sue Burgess for loss of profits and failing to insure the building.

Richards says she spent $80,000 setting up her club, ran it for little more than a year, and just two weeks before the fire she was granted a hotel licence, upgrading it from a club.

Armidale coroner Michael Holmes, reporting in February, found the fire was deliberately lit, but did not name a suspect.

The police did settle on a chief suspect - an Armidale security guard who shot himself the next day.

Police discounted Richards and her associate Allan St James as suspects, saying the pair were underinsured, they had just received an expanded licence, they tried to restart afterwards, and they had been trading well.

They also discounted building owner Gary Burgess, saying because the building was not insured, he had nothing to gain.

They dismissed the idea that the rival Sky Nightclub had started the fire, saying there was no evidence to suggest such a thing, everyone had an alibi, the Armidale club was not a real commercial threat, and the Sky Nightclub had since closed down in any case.

Police also rejected as unlikely that the fire was random, centring their suspicions on a security guard who worked at both nightclubs and at the Armidale hospital.

Police said there was circumstantial evidence of his involvement, including a dispute with a former club employee over a mobile phone that he believed had been left at the club, and his mental state at the time. His new mobile phone was found left at the site after the fire, and he was linked with the bottles of whiskey used to start the fire in the early hours of the morning.

The coroner, though, described the man's suicide as "the matter of real coincidence", saying his death was related to "unresolved personal issues". There was no evidence tying the security guard directly to the fire, the coroner said.

Under the heading "A coincidence", the coroner also referred to the competing clubs, saying there was no evidence either way on the suggestion a competitor might have been responsible.

Richards says "very strange things have happened" over the club, including rumours that someone had drawn up development plans for her site before the fire. The day after the fire she says a group of men were at the site and told her they were valuing it.

And she claims Phillip Hanna approached her within weeks of the fire with an offer to buy her lease, which she was prepared to sell, but he never followed through with a concrete offer or deposit. She says Hanna had told her the site – which includes a large carpark behind – was too small for the APVMA.

Richards says she tried to buy another hotel following the fire, but lost out to a rival venue, which came up with the $37,000 deposit before she could. The rival never settled on the purchase.

At that point, and after a house break-in, Richards decided it was time to leave town, and she has started again with her partner in Adelaide.

"There was certainly a lot of things that were very odd," is how she summarises the rise and fall of her Armidale club.

Fairfax Media does not suggest the fire was connected to the APVMA bid. The Coalition plan to move the APVMA was an election promise at the July 2016 election, but the order to move didn't come until November 2016, two months after the fire.

If it is a frontrunner in the bid to house the public servants, it is unclear who is behind the development, with no-one prepared to put a name to the bid.

Another option is a building owned by Robert Hanna, brother of Phillip Hanna, at 121 Rusden in the middle of the town. It is beside the family's historic department store and Robert Hanna said the single-storey building is vacant at the moment, with a carparking building adjacent, and a structure strong enough to take extra floors on top. The Armidale business community believes this site is complicated by the existing building and tight timeframes, so perhaps an unlikely option.

While Robert Hanna owns the building and says it would be his development Phillip Hanna has prepared the bid for him. Phillip Hanna would not comment for this story.

Phillip Hanna is known not only for his links with Torbay, but hit headlines in 2008 when he was given a three-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to firing a rifle at a fellow developer the year before.

The APVMA's entry into New England was marred by controversy when its staff were found working in a McDonald's early last year. Now, 15 public servants, eight of them locals, are in temporary digs shared with Centrelink at 246 Beardy Street while the new office is commissioned. It will not be government-owned but leased from the winning developer.

Commercial property real estate agent, Neil Mortimer, said the project had generated large interest from developers. Another, John Sewell, said the building was likely to be $3 million to $4 million in value and a "mini-stimulus package" for the town.

"Everyone had their fair crack to do it. It was a very transparent process," Mr Sewell said.

He described the move as "probably one of the best things to happen to Armidale in the last generation" and backed the Nationals' move to decentralise the Australian Public Service.

"The people who work at the APVMA will be the right people to live in Armidale," he said.

Armidale Regional Council mayor Simon Murray said the move held a large potential flow-on effect for businesses and the town's vibrancy.

As for the Canberrans who work for the veterinary medicines authority, decision time looms. The authority says it will ask Canberra-based staff "to signal their intentions" on whether they will move in the coming weeks.