Moving City Hall

[RecycleMichael]

Mayor looks at moving City Hall      
Center could house nearly all city employees

By P.J. LASSEK World Staff Writer
3/16/2007

Mayor Kathy Taylor will announce Friday that if a plan to purchase the One Technology Center downtown is successful, city hall could be moving from its current site as early as fall.

"This is one of the few opportunities the city of Tulsa has to use assets it already owns to spur economic development . . . and to look at consolidating the city's departments to provide cost savings through efficiencies," Taylor said. The city has entered into a purchase-option agreement with the Leucadia National Corp. of New York, the owner of the 15-story glass building, formerly the WilTel building.

The 120-day option is not costing the city any money and is contingent upon further study during the next 90 days on whether the purchase is economically feasible, Taylor said. "If it's not the right thing to do, we'll walk away," Taylor said. The decision to move forward came as a result of a preliminary study on consolidating City Hall conducted by The Staubach Co. The company will continue to lead the further study and data analysis. The city is paying Staubach $100,000.

The preliminary study has a proposed timeline that suggests that if the city decides to move forward contract drafts are set to be drawn in April with a closing date July 15. The city has several facilities that are in poor condition with a mini mum of $12 million in deferred maintenance costs, but are in prime development areas, Taylor said. "This is about looking for the highest and best use of the taxpayers facilities," she said.

Some of those facilities include the city hall site next to the conven tion center and arena, the Public Works facility at 23rd Street and Jackson Avenue on the west bank of the Arkansas River, and the Hartford Building in the east end area of downtown. Freeing up those sites and others would spur development and put properties back on the tax rolls, she said.

City Council Chairman Bill Martinson said he is excited about the proposal. "This plan has tremendous potential, and I'm anxious to see what comes of the due diligence process. I think we would be remiss if we didn't investigate an opportunity like this." he said.

The site where City Hall now sits could be used as a hotel site for the convention center and arena, the 23rd Street and Jackson Avenue site has been identified as a retail node for river development, and the Hartford Building is in a site that is ripe for development, he said. The city is looking at consolidating as many as 12 facilities in and near downtown into the One Technology Center. The total square footage of those buildings is just shy of 500,000.

The One Technology Center, however, has about 742,000 square feet. Its vertically designed campus features ergonomic work spaces, Internet cafes and state-of-the-art technology. Of the 15 floors, seven are fully furnished, high-tech-ready and unoccupied. The other floors are occupied by Level 3 Communications and Deloitte & Touche.

Taylor said if the city is able to acquire the building, the current tenants will stay and there is an opportunity for the city to lease extra space to other public or private businesses. "Long term this is an asset we feel will only appreciate . . . and provide an opportunity to have a positive revenue stream for the city," Taylor said.

Financing a purchase of the building has not been worked out completely, but it would either involve seller's financing or tax-exempt financing involving a trust authority, she said. If the One Technology Center doesn't pan out, city hall and other offices could still move. The preliminary study indicates other alternatives for sale or lease include downtown build ings owned by Maurice Kanbar, who owns 16 sites downtown.

Preliminary findings in the study indicate building a new consolidated City Hall with 250,000 square feet, plus a 1,000 space garage would cost a minimum of $82 million. The current market price for the One Technology Center, which includes a garage with 1,007 spaces, is $80 million.

Late last year, when rumors began to circulate that the city was looking at the One Technology Center, Angela West, broker for the building said the building price was $75 million. The study also says that filling One Technology Center with governmental offices will have a positive effect on the downtown real estate market by reducing the vacancy rate.

The study outlines several positive outcomes of consolidating city facilities into One Technology Center. They include: reduction of overall costs, efficient use of space, increased use of technolo gy, elimination of environmental and air quality concerns, support of economic development initiatives, improvement of the city's image and investment in an appreciating real estate asset.

Ed Keller, retired Oklahoma chairman of JPMorgan Chase, said the mayor's move to look at consolidating to the One Technology Center, "makes a lot of sense." The city is getting a "free option to offer a price without spending any money other than what would be expended to evaluate whether moving to one location makes economic sense," he said.

Keller said he applauds the mayor for looking at "what it cost the city to do business in multiple locations versus consolidating in this one location, particularly a location like this one with the deep discount that it is selling for. Only after that do you decide what it costs and whether you can afford it."

[cannon_fodder]

I have a brilliant solution - create smaller government and stay where you are.

"Well, government has grown so much that we need more space.  Any old place will do.  Lets see... hey, why not the newest most high tech building in downtown?  Good enough for government I guess."

Come on CEO Taylor, you said you were going to run the city like a company - companies dont upgrade when they are short on cash.

Not to mention you want other people to tackle the refurbishing of the older buildings downtown yet you high tail it to the newest building of them all.  Bah!

[Johnboy976]

It's discussed here too:

http://www.kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=122623

[RecycleMichael]

Selling the current city hall to build a hotel could make sense. A new hotel in that location will make Tulsa able to go after new conventions.  

Moving the city operations on the west bank of the river will open that area up to redevelopment as well.

Consolidating employees into one building should be more efficient as well as making it easier for the public to interact city government.

[Conan71]

Running short on cash, but we've got $100K to pay to an out of state consulting firm to study a move which will cost at least $82mm.

Mayor has authorized $45K to a search firm to find a new police chief from outside our city.

How have we managed to elect two such incompetent and arrogant boobs in a row for mayor?  First clue should have been Ms. Taylor spending $1.2mm for a $105K per year job.  

I think we need a re-call election, this is Mayor Bill part deux.

[Wilbur]

I know it sounds shocking, but I'm going to back the Mayor on this one.  City Hall, as well as the other buildings around downtown where city employees work, for the most part, are extremely cramped.  The number of city employees hasn't grown that much, if at all, in the last 10 years or so, but the work space many are in were never meant for the number of people currently occupying the space.

The problem with early city leaders, who built some of the city owned buildings, forgot one thing..... growth.  They built buildings with only their current needs in mind.  By the time the buildings were built, they were already outgrown.

The city lost out (or should I say turned down) a great opportunity to move into the old Hess building, which is now the Community Care building, at 6the and Denver.  Hess was basically going to give the building to the city, full of furniture, but someone at City Hall thought otherwise.

The One Tech Center is a bargain at $80M (I'm confident it cost more to build, but I speculate), allows for consolidation, and allows for expansion.  

What year was the current City Hall complex built?

[D]

Wilbur,

I may be wrong, but 1969 pops up in my search.

I tend to agree with you that the City Hall seems cramped at best.

But I wonder where the money will come from. The "third-penny" money is designated for very specific things. I would say it is a contract with the voters. Does she plan to "re-direct" those funds?

Otherwise, with all departments slashing budget or personnel, where does 89 mil. come from?

[TulsaSooner]

Wouldn't the sale of the multiple outlying city properties that would be consolidated pay a huge chunk or all of the cost of the new building?

Assuming these properties are actually in demand of course.

[Chicken Little]

quote:Originally posted by TulsaSooner

Wouldn't the sale of the multiple outlying city properties that would be consolidated pay a huge chunk or all of the cost of the new building?

Assuming these properties are actually in demand of course.

Not just the sale...if those areas are redeveloped into something that generates taxes for the city, then that is part of the equation, too, I would think.

[cannon_fodder]

Not really Chicken Little - because the new building will be taken OFF the tax rolls.  Also, contrary to the article, it wont do much to help the overall downtown occupancy rate because most of the city services being located are downtown already.  Leaving them vacant creates more empty buildings.

But this time, the empty buildings are being abandoned because they are run down.  No one is going to want, if no one wants to move into the brand new One Tech Center the city is moving into... so the city will retain ownership of these now abandoned buildings.

Not to mention the grand daddy of them all, current city hall.  Who would want to buy that bunker looking thing?  We could make it a prison I guess.  The entire forum area that it is build looks like someone spat it out into the late 1960's and left it to rot, decay and die.  The entire area would have to be redone to facilitate any development - which means spending more money the city doesnt for the potential of private development.

In short:
- It abandons more property downtown.
- Takes grade "A" office space off of the Tulsa market, as if we want to avoid jobs downtown.
- Costs tens of millions of dollars we dont have
- Will likely have no effect of development (what property that the city holds are people dying to grab up?)
and provides a bigger building for the city to fill up (which they will).

How about this.  Make the city successful and then reward yourself for your effort.  Failing business dont get new headquarters.

[Chicken Little]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

Not really Chicken Little - because the new building will be taken OFF the tax rolls.

That would be part of the equation, too, no argument here.  I was simply pointing out that it is not just a cash transaction for the city, there are longer term tax revenue generation factors as well.

As for the vacant city buildings, if they were torn down and redeveloped as something else, then it would help the vacancy rate.  If they sit there vacant, it would not.  Unless the city actually has buyers lined up, then that claim seems a little speculative.

[Double A]

There's a reason One Technology Center is a bargain, it is a poorly built, energy inefficient, money pit. The city will be making a huge mistake if they buy this building.

[NellieBly]

I have to agree. Very energy inefficient. Glass that can't withstand almost tornadic winds.

[shadows]

71 says
Running short on cash, but we've got $100K to pay to an out of state consulting firm to study a move which will cost at least $82mm.

Mayor has authorized $45K to a search firm to find a new police chief from outside our city.
______________________________________

Soon we may have to come up with another study to find out why we need so many studies when we have all those high salaried at-will employees in the mayor office.

How about a party week dedicated to studies?   We getting ready for a beer party right now and making preparations to get the drunks home.  Have we made a study on how much this party will cost the taxpayer?  We could add another ½ cent sales tax, setting it aside as a party cleanup tax?  

[shadows]

quote:Originally posted by Double A

There's a reason One Technology Center is a bargain, it is a poorly built, energy inefficient, money pit. The city will be making a huge mistake if they buy this building.

Isn't that the kind of a building the city is looking for?    The second  day after they move in they will have an out of town study made to find out what  your  post indicates.   We will need another  100K.  As it has been said  eventually we will be talking about the need for real money.