photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

Updated at 2:42 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12

The city has announced that it will take two of its departments out of Riverfront Mall — Lawrence’s Municipal Court and its planning department — moving 51 total employees to City Hall.

The mall is located just east of City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., and it has housed the two entities for about five years. In a press release, the city said it notified the landlords on Sept. 20 about the intent to vacate the building.

Cori Wallace, a spokesperson for the city, said the move aims to centralize key public service functions to “optimize accessibility for residents.”

Wallace said the process of adjusting services and relocating staff who previously worked at the Riverfront Mall is underway. That includes moving 38 planning employees and 13 Municipal Court employees.

The city said all proceedings with the Municipal Court clerk would take place at City Hall starting on Nov. 25. Court proceedings will occur in the City Commission chambers while the window for court transactions will be on the first floor.

Other services that will be moved include utility billing and transactions with the planning department, which will move to the ground floor of City Hall on Nov. 18 and Dec. 6, respectively.

The Riverfront Mall building is owned by Riverfront LLC. The city has leased spaces for its planning department and Municipal Court from Riverfront LLC since 2019, under a 10-year contract at approximately $300,000 per year. The city owns the land, but Riverfront LLC, operated by the Simons family, owns the mall building, which also houses a hotel, SpringHill Suites by Marriott.

The move comes at a time when city officials contend that the current City Hall is overcrowded and in need of about $12 million in repairs. It is not immediately clear how the City Hall building will be able to accommodate the two additional departments, given those space challenges.

The move also comes at a time when the owners of the Riverfront Mall property have filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the city alleging that the city and its contractors caused millions of dollars in damage to the Riverfront Mall property when construction crews altered the bank of the Kansas River as part of a project to repair the nearby Bowersock Dam.

As the Journal-World reported in October, the owners of Riverfront LLC have attempted to settle the lawsuit with the city by selling the Riverfront building to the city. Riverfront contends the building could be used to help solve City Hall space problems, and even suggested that part of the building could be demolished to open up new access points between downtown and the Kansas River.

But city officials told the Journal-World in October that they had no interest in the building, in part because the building is in poor condition.

Issues have involved HVAC problems that have left the space inadequately heated or cooled, roof leaks, and a ceiling tile falling on a staff member, among others. At times, conditions have been bad enough that some planning staff members have had to work remotely, the city said in a statement issued to the Journal-World last month. If anything, the city said at that time, the city was interested in ending its lease early with Riverfront.

Riverfront owners contended in October that they were working to fix all building condition issues raised by the city. Wallace said the city is currently evaluating the contractual lease obligations associated with the departure and will provide additional updates as details are finalized.

As the Journal-World reported in 2019, the city spent about $763,000 to renovate the leased space in the Riverfront building because the city said municipal court and the planning department were both in need of new space to operate more efficiently. The Riverfront space provided about 40% more space for the two departments, the city said at the time.