photo by: Bremen Keasey

The office building at 2000 Bluffs Drive in Lawrence. The former call center building has been proposed by the city as a potential new site for an updated City Hall. The Lawrence City Commission will hear a presentation about the plan Tuesday night.

Lawrence city commissioners expressed interest in more discussion about a proposal to purchase and redevelop a building at 2000 Bluffs Drive in Lawrence and eventually turn it into a new city hall.

The commission received a presentation Tuesday from Gwen Gigous and Katie Pohlman of design firm Multistudio about the options of either renovating the existing City Hall building at 6 E. Sixth St. or moving to the new, larger site.

Renovations to the current location would cost an estimated $12 million. The Bluffs Drive location would cost an estimated $11.7 million to renovate, but it would also cost about $4.2 million to purchase the site. The city has set aside $12 million in project funding in its long-term improvement plan to cover the costs of either project. Any construction on either project would be expected to start in 2026.

In the presentation, Pohlman said there were concerns about space with the current City Hall building. The current building is only 35,000 square feet, while Pohlman estimated that the city should have about 50,000 square feet to provide adequate space for its employees. The building at Bluffs Drive, which has that amount of space, would also provide more room to grow and expand, Pohlman said.

“We want to have projects with sustainability and longevity to give the ability to grow within the space,” Pohlman said.

City commissioners seemed interested in discussing the Bluffs Drive option further, although there were some concerns about making the space visible and accessible to the public, considering it’s tucked behind a few hills. Commissioner Mike Dever asked if it would be possible to explore providing pedestrian paths to the Bluffs Drive building to make it easier to reach.

Commissioner Lisa Larsen also wanted the Multistudio team to explore the option of having solar panels on the site to help it be more sustainable.

However, Gigous noted that the biggest point against the site would be moving the city hall out of downtown. She said that at an open house with city employees, the issue the employees were most worried about was being farther from downtown and less visible to the public.

Gigous said the current City Hall building, which was built in 1980, would need extensive renovation to continue to be used, including repairing leaks, upgrading restrooms to be ADA compliant, installing new electrical services and generators and rezoning the HVAC system. An additional cost to the renovations would be that city employees would have to move out of the building for a year because of the electrical work, Pohlman said.

In addition, Gigous said the riverfront and roadways at the current site hemmed in any ability to expand, leaving the city “stuck with what they have” within that space. Meanwhile, the property on Bluffs Drive, formerly a call center and customer service location, has 50,000 square feet, which would allow the city to consolidate its departments in one location.

Gigous said having more departments under one roof can help reduce the “siloing” of government departments and create more collaboration as well as make it a “one-stop shop” for people who need to access city resources.

“It’s really about improving the community experience and employee experience,” Gigous said.

Gigous said the team explored two other alternative sites — the Reuter building in the 600 block of New Hampshire Street and the Riverfront Mall building at One Riverfront Plaza — but she said neither was fit for the needs. Gigous said the Reuter building’s design would make it difficult to construct a meeting room for commission meetings, and the renovations at the Riverfront Mall building would be prohibitively expensive.

Because the current City Hall building has significance to the community as an anchor property, if the commissioners choose a different location, city officials suggest starting a public process for the future of the property. If the location were to change, the existing City Hall building could be sold or repurposed for a different community use, which the city believes would help offset the costs of choosing a different location.

The commission will make a recommendation on which option the city moves forward with during its Oct. 15 meeting.

In other business Tuesday, city commissioners approved the execution of a $132,776 contract with Sunflower Paving Inc. to repave parking lots and build a concrete walkway in Holcom Park and reconstruct a walking path to Clinton Lake Softball Complex.

The initial cost to the project would have been $250,000, but budget cuts in the 2024 general fund reduced the allocation for the project to $125,000. The project also received $8,000 from the Municipal Services & Operations operating budget for the ADA improvements at the Clinton Lake Softball Complex.