- March 4, 2025
The concept of creating a committee to look at options for a City Hall appears to be off the table, but the project of giving the city a new home appears to have plenty of life.
City officials on Tuesday appeared to be in consensus to look at two different options: refinance the $5.8 million loan the Town Center Community Redevelopment Area owes the city and look at more details to have the CRA pay for the construction of a City Hall.
City staff presented the City Council with a financial analysis of building a City Hall during Tuesday’s workshop. The first option, a lease-purchase agreement, would cost taxpayers an additional $260,000 to $560,000, and it’s something City Manager Jim Landon said isn’t really an option.
Currently, the city pays about $240,000 a year in rent payments at City Marketplace.
Under the City Hall lease-purchase, the term would be 20 years for a $6.8 million principal building.
“This is not a good option,” Landon said. “This option doesn’t make any sense financially.”
Landon then presented a plan that would have Town Center landowners and building owners pay for construction of a City Hall through property taxes.
The Town Center CRA, which was formed to diminish the blight along State Road 100, loaned about $5.8 million from the city’s general fund (capital). The CRA pays 5% interest on that loan right now.
The proposal, according to the presentation, would be for the CRA to refinance that loan and pay the city back.
The CRA could get an interest rate lower than 5%, said Chris Quinn, the city’s finance director. Doing that would provide the city with the $5.8 million it would need to build the City Hall. In addition, the city would use about $1 million in building permit fees surplus for the project. That $1 million has been sitting in the bank, Quinn said.
City Councilman Jason DeLorenzo said saving $240,000 a year might not sound like a lot, but over 10 years, it adds up to $2.4 million.
No action was taken at Tuesday’s workshop, but the City Council — which also acts as the CRA board — was in consensus to have city staff go back and get more information on refinancing the loan and doing more research on details of a City Hall.
“Just give us direction to go put together the details, and then you can go thumbs up or thumbs down, and then move on,” Landon said.
