Marion Hemphill, the city's director of capital planning, told the city council this week it can get more bang for its buck in such a venture, and that there are several development teams interested in the idea.
As the city over the past few years began to outgrow its Public Services Building at 155 N. First Ave., it also began acquiring the neighboring block for a new City Hall. It now owns two thirds of the block bounded by North First Avenue, East Main Street, Northeast Second Avenue and Southeast Washington Street.
The city council will decide later this month on one of several different options for developing the property. It may lease all its space from the private developer, it may own just its portion of the building, or it could be a 50-50 partnership. The council may also decide to build a traditional City Hall the traditional way, by hiring and architect to design it, and then go out to bid for a contractor to construct it. One way or another, the city is hoping to have a new City Hall in 2003.
Over on the east side of Portland, the city of Fairview 's City Hall is located within Fairview Village, a 95-acre mixed-use project by developer Holt & Haugh that can also lay claim to a post office, two schools and, later this year, a new Multnomah County library in a building that will also have retail space and apartments.
Holt & Haugh accepted $878,933 in cash up front in exchange for a 30-year lease on the 3,785-sf ground floor of a mixed-use building that will be topped by four apartments in the retail center of the development. The deal translates to well under $8 per sf per year, showing the developer's want to have another oft-used public facility in its development.
Elsewhere in the Northwest, the city of Lakewood, WA is having a three-story, 55,000-sf city hall built on five acres of the 40-acre Lakewood Mall there for $9.8 million. The building is scheduled for completion in October.
The city was preparing to close on another site for $3 million in November when mall owner Wells Fargo put its mall acreage on the table for a grand total of $10. The fledgling mall, which has been unable to successfully compete with other area malls, had gone through various owners and had reverted back into the hands of the bank.
"I think that Wells Fargo felt that working with the city to develop the new City Hall on the Lakewood Mall property would be a catalysis for redevelopment," Bill Larkin, public works director for the Lakewood, told GlobeSt.com last November. "And this has turned out to be true."
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