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Fort Lauderdale staff outline options, timeline for a new city hall and site choices
Summary
City staff told commissioners they will seek an owner’s representative, prepare design criteria and present site options (three city‑owned parcels downtown) as part of work to replace or relocate city hall; staff expects demolition work on the current site to finish by late February or early March.
Ben Rogers, acting assistant city manager, presented a City Hall update to the Fort Lauderdale City Commission on Jan. 7, summarizing demolition progress, a solicitation for an owner’s representative, a design-criteria package and downtown site options for a future city hall.
Rogers said demolition on the current city hall site is nearly complete, with dewatering and subsurface work permitted and the city expecting to deliver a vacant, fenced parcel “probably by the end of February or early March.” He said the city has an active solicitation for an owner’s representative with the bid period extended to Jan. 15 and that staff is preparing a design criteria package that would define a roughly 30% design scope for a new building.
Rogers presented four pathways the commission could consider for delivering city hall: build on the existing city hall parcel (about two acres), redevelop city‑owned land near the Fort Lauderdale Police Department (about 8.94 acres outside the new PDHQ), redevelop the Riverwalk Center Garage parcel (about three acres split into 1.8‑ and 1.2‑acre parcels), or pursue purchase/land-swap/lease options or a public‑private partnership. Rogers cautioned that redevelopment of the police‑headquarters parcel would require addressing where existing city operations (fleet, parks and rec and other services) would be housed during construction.
Rogers illustrated city‑hall examples from other Florida cities to show different scales and program mixes and noted staff is preparing revenue‑sufficiency modeling for operating and lifecycle costs. He asked commissioners to be prepared to discuss program decisions at the upcoming goal‑setting session — specifically which departments and public services the commission envisions occupying any new city hall — because those decisions will affect building massing, parking and the capital budget.
Rogers also said staff will summarize leased and off‑site space costs for city departments so commissioners can weigh the tradeoffs between consolidating employees under a single roof versus maintaining satellite facilities. He said some prior needs-assessment materials exist from the county joint‑government process but will likely need updating post‑COVID.
Ending
Rogers asked for direction at the city’s goal‑setting session and said staff will return with a more detailed site recommendation and design scope after the owner’s representative is selected and additional financial modeling is complete.
