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Council hears three City Hall options—renovate, repurpose City Center, or build new—and asks for more detailed cost and schedule analysis
Summary
An architect’s space‑needs update presented three options for City Hall (renovate existing building, convert City Center, or build new). Staff recommended additional design work and a possible funding plan that spreads costs across years; council asked for a focused workshop and closed‑session review of acquisition/negotiation details.
City staff presented results from a recent space‑needs and feasibility assessment that examined three options for the city’s long‑term municipal facilities needs: renovating the current City Hall, repurposing City Center, or building a new facility on a different site.
John Urban and the consultant team said rough cost ranges for the options are in the tens of millions of dollars (presented in the meeting as roughly $30M–$35M for some scenarios), and emphasized tradeoffs among useful life, downtown accessibility and negotiation complexity. Urban said a renovated City Hall would be mostly gutted and rebuilt internally, leaving the concrete facade and functionally acting like a new building in many respects; City Center was described as a “cleaner slate” with a turnkey advantage, while a new build would be more expensive and harder to site in the central city.
Council members voiced a range of preferences—several favored keeping City Hall in the central city for economic benefits to downtown businesses, while others cautioned that detailed site and purchase price work should be kept out of wide public discussion to preserve negotiating leverage. Staff recommended programming funds for design work in 2025 so the city could be ready to proceed once the council gives direction, and suggested waiting for an updated facility study in May before committing larger CIP dollars.
Council asked staff to schedule a focused workshop—potentially including closed‑session negotiations material—so members can weigh options, hear refined cost estimates and assess financing and timing prior to a final decision.
