Flush with cash, Berkeley to start work on new city hall, fire station
BERKELEY — With the economy in the doldrums and most cities reining in spending, Berkeley officials decided that the timing could not be better for construction of a $13.5 million municipal complex and fire station.
But it did not hurt that the city got a $6 million head start on the project from the NorthPark office and industrial complex, part of which lies within Berkeley's boundaries.
"By moving on this now, the way the economy is, we save on acquiring property, building materials, labor — just about every aspect you can think of," Mayor Kyra Watson said.
The most obvious impetus for the move is the run-down condition of the current structure, built in 1972. But Watson said image weighed just as heavily into the city's decision.
"To get the kinds of businesses you want to locate to your community, you have to portray an impressive business image. And the current building is not conducive to that image," said Watson, who was elected mayor in 2004 and is now in her second term. She works full time as a technical writer for Elekta, a company that specializes in developing software for radiation therapy.
Construction will begin in late spring or early summer on the two-story, 29,500-square-foot city hall and the 17,200-square-foot fire station. Completion is scheduled for next year.
Improvements in the new building will include a larger council chambers with a digital sound system; separate offices for each of the city's five council members; expanded living quarters for firefighters and larger bays for fire engines; and energy efficient heating and air conditioning systems and insulated windows, doors and other materials.
MORE METRO
bullet Get news, columns, photos and multimedia from the St. Louis area
NorthPark Partners, a collaboration of the developers McEagle Properties and Clayco, bestowed $6 million on Berkeley in 2008 for municipal improvements, while also contributing $5 million to the coffers of Kinloch and $500,000 to Ferguson, the other cities within the development's boundaries. NorthPark agreed to the payments when it purchased land in the cities for the project.
With interest, Berkeley's sum has grown to $7.5 million. The city will borrow money to pay the rest of the construction costs. It would use operating funds to retire the debt.
"With the money from NorthPark, we'll be getting a great new city hall and fire station at a bargain price," Watson said.
City Council support for the project has been unanimous.
The new complex will be at Washington Avenue and Airport Road, four blocks east of the city's tired-looking city hall and fire station at 6140 North Hanley Road.
The old building will temporarily serve as the police station after the new municipal complex is completed. City officials are debating whether to renovate the current police station, at 5850 North Hanley, or to demolish and rebuild it.
City manager Ellis Mitchell led a visitor on a tour of the cramped confines of the city hall, where some of the 30 employees have seats that partly block the aisles. Electrical cords snake along baseboards and on ceilings to reach computer equipment not envisioned when the center was built. An ancient boiler in the basement, wrapped in asbestos, pumps heat to rattling registers that sit beneath drafty, single-pane windows, some of which gape open where latches have rusted off. Window unit air conditioners cool most of the building in the summer.
The attached fire house is not large enough to accommodate a full-size pumper with aerial ladder. The firefighters living quarters are spartan, military-like barracks.
"They're pretty bare bones, and that's true of most stations in the region," Fire Chief Henry Williams said. "The new station will have better sleeping and living arrangements and just be a lot more accommodating place that is a second home to firefighters."
The new station will include separated living quarters. It will also include bays big enough to accommodate a 75-foot pumper; the current station can handle trucks up to 55 feet long.
The city chose Kwame Building Group as construction manager of the new complex.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch ©March 2010
|
