Boca Raton staff outline conversion plan and procurement approach for newly acquired City Services Building (6551)

City staff presented details on the City Services Building at 6551 during the May 26 Boca Raton workshop, describing the property’s role in a broader facilities strategy and outlining procurement and cost estimates.

City Manager Sahaney said the 70,000-square-foot, two-floor building — purchased in 2025 for $17,000,000 and occupied this year — will be reconfigured from a former call-center layout into a municipal operations center to house most city hall operational departments. “The facility is approximately 70,000 square feet,” Sahaney said, and staff completed an initial space-needs analysis and is moving through design.

Staff estimated renovation construction at about $8,000,000 although the original budget allowed $10–12,000,000; Sahaney noted the $8 million figure is an estimate. Councilmember Perlman asked for a site walk-through with the architect once plans are complete, and staff agreed to provide preliminary design documents to the council.

Public works and engineering staff (Zack Bier) explained technical questions including building age and hurricane risk categories; staff said design will confirm the appropriate risk-category rating under Florida building code. When asked about procurement, Bier said staff expects to use a construction-manager-at-risk approach: a qualifications-based solicitation for a construction manager who joins the design team for preconstruction services and then proposes a guaranteed maximum price for construction work, with contractor-subcontractor bids shown to the city for transparency.

Council members flagged Sunshine Law constraints for group walkthroughs and asked staff to coordinate individual tours, and several councilmembers urged staff to proceed mindful of costs and to provide detailed procurement documentation and design intent items for review. Sahaney said staff will return to council as the project moves into final construction phase.