Renovation of Maumelle City Hall will allow city offices to stay put instead of relocating across Maumelle Boulevard, unless City Council members decide to build at the new location, Mayor Mike Watson said.
Maumelle voters approved a $2.7 million bond project in the November election to either renovate the existing building at 550 Edgewood Drive or build a new City Hall. The election came a month after a Little Rock developer offered to donate 6 acres near Maumelle Boulevard and Commerce Drive for a new City Hall, park, pond and trails.
But, the estimated cost of $4.8 million for a new building, even with the free land, is out of reach for Maumelle’s city government, property owner Gene Pfeifer said last week.
Maumelle’s 2015 general fund budget is $11.4 million.
“They appreciated my offer, but the cost of the new building was more than they could figure out how to finance,” Pfeifer said. “So they’ll go ahead and renovate the present facility.”
When told of Pfeifer’s comments, Watson didn’t disagree but clarified that “there’s been no official ‘no, we’re not going to do it.’ I haven’t made an announcement.”
“I want to run it back by the City Council to get their vote on it,” he said. “They would have to come up with additional funds somehow. I’ve not had anybody who’s pushing us to locate to that area.”
Watson added that he probably will take the question to the City Council sometime next month for a final decision. Council members debated last year the merits of relocating City Hall or remodeling the current building.
Representatives for Pfeifer made a presentation Oct. 6 to the City Council about the possible donation, but no vote to accept or reject the offer was taken. Since the November election, the eight-member City Council has three new aldermen who may want to re-examine the offer, Watson said.
“It’s ultimately their decision,” Watson said of the City Council members.
Watson said he has told Jeff Hathaway, a real estate broker who represents Pfeifer, that he “didn’t see a lot of sentiment for adding the additional dollars to the project. The money we have to do the City Hall project was basically to renovate this building.”
In making the land offer, Pfeifer said at the time that he also would benefit because another 20 acres he owns adjacent to that property would more likely be developed into stores and restaurants with the public development adding roads and drawing traffic to the property.
The plan, as Hathaway presented to the City Council, sketched out a 24,000-square-foot building. The current City Hall, situated in a former retail building about 40 years old, has about 14,000 square feet.
The bond election asked Maumelle citizens to vote on “the design, construction and equipping of City Hall, or renovation of the existing facility.” No location was listed to allow the city flexibility with its plans, Watson said at the time. Voters approved the capital improvement project with almost 58 percent of the vote, one of three listed bond projects that voters passed.
“I think it was a great project,” Watson said of Pfeifer’s idea. “The timing was a little off. We should have had that discussion when we were having the bond project discussions [last spring], long before it went to the ballot.”
A related, $4.61 million bond project also approved was for a new Senior Wellness Center, having outgrown its space on the lower level of the City Hall complex. The relocation of the Senior Wellness Center will give more space for other City Hall offices to operate.
The city’s purchase last year of a 6-acre plot at Odom Boulevard South and Club Manor Road, next to Lake Willastein, for a fire station was done with the idea that the Senior Wellness Center could relocate there as well, Watson said.
“The facility will likely be included within the plat of land the city purchased in 2014,” said Nicole Heaps, the center’s director. “An RFQ [request for qualifications] will be published soon to develop the design of the building.”
Without having to purchase land, the Senior Wellness Center will be able to “spend more dollars on the building,” Watson said.
Discussions for such additions include a long-desired therapy pool for Senior Wellness Center members, Heaps said.
“The city will review staffing, cost and building logistics to determine if this amenity can or cannot be included in the facility,” Heaps said.