2024 12 17 Packet website

Unverified text extraction. Check the original page for numbers, names, and layout.

Agenda Item 
ATHENS CITY COUNCIL 
REGULAR SESSION 
Tuesday, December 17, 2024 
VIII c. Approve Obtaining an Appraisal of Downtown Building to be Used as a City Hall 
Overview 
City Hall conditions, capacity, renovations, expansions, ADA compliance, and replacement 
construction have all been discussed for some time. During 2021, Allen & Hoshall prepared a 
survey of existing city hall conditions, renovation/expansion possibilities including reconfiguring 
recommendations with an updated floor plan, and cost estimates (report attached). However, no 
action was taken regarding this report. In looking toward the future and predicting the city's 
population will remain stable with minimal increases, the city needs to determine if the existing 
city hall should be renovated and/or expanded to retain most city departments, or an existing 
building acquired and renovated into a city hall, or a new city hall designed and constructed. The 
three options are explored as follows: 
Renovate/Expand Existing City Hall 
The existing 22,000 square foot city hall could be renovated/expanded into a more usable space 
and most departments kept within the building or at least on the city hall property campus. For 
example, Parks & Recreation could be relocated to a city-owned house at Regional Park to be 
closer to their maintenance staff to free up space needed for the remaining city hall offices. The 
house at Regional Park would need some renovations, however. Allen & Hoshall could be retained 
again to continue their city hall work from 2021 to prepare a revised space needs study of all 
departments except Parks & Recreation resulting in a revised floor plan and possibly new buildings 
on the existing city hall property campus. Then construction drawings could be prepared including 
HVAC replacement, code compliance issues, and needed IT infrastructure improvements such as 
an expanded data center, upgraded wiring, and council chambers audio/video enhancements that 
have been on hold for several years until a final decision can be made. Then, the project could be 
bid out, a general contractor selected, and construction could begin. The estimated cost of this 
option would be $3-4M using partially borrowed funds (debt) and take about 12+ months to 
complete. 
Acquire an Existing Building and Renovate 
A downtown building is available to evaluate as a possible replacement for city hall. According to 
the Tennessee Property Assessment Data card, this property generally consists of 3+ acres ofland 
with paved parking and greenspace, a two-story building built during 1966 and 
expanded/renovated during 1976 with the main floor having 13,440 square feet and the basement 
having 13,440 square feet for a total of 26,880 square feet. In addition, the facility has drive­
through lanes, many interior perimeter offices on both levels, and new HVAC units. The land is 
valued at $163,700 and the building is valued at $1,907,000 for a total value of$2,070,700. This 
property last sold during June 2018 for $500,000. 
If the council is interested in acquiring this property to be used as a city hall, many things would 
need to be considered including obtaining an appraisal of the property to determine current fair 
market value, conducting an engineering assessment to determine current conditions of all building 
22