A rendering of a new city hall for Fort Lauderdale designed by City Hall Partners, a team that includes CORE Construction, Stiles Corp., Plenary Americas U.S. Holdings, PGAL and the PALMA architectural firm.
Courtesy of the City of Fort Lauderdale
City of Fort Lauderdale commissioners are at odds over what to do about a new city hall: spend $268 million on new construction or a fraction of the price on an existing building?
The commission will vote on whether to sign an interim agreement with the developer behind the futuristic design of the proposed new building at next Tuesday’s meeting, which a majority of the commission seems poised to vote in favor of. But Commissioner Ben Sorensen is sounding the alarm on what he says is too high a cost: the new building will cost taxpayers $24 million a year, adding up to over $724 million over 30 years.
“I’m not saying stop the negotiating with the builder. I’m not saying never build,” Sorensen said. “I’m saying to just evaluate the options. And they are saying, ‘Absolutely not. We are not going to evaluate anything.’”
Mayor Dean Trantalis said building a new city hall sooner rather than later will save the city money in the long-run.
“We cannot continue to delay this because we spend millions of dollars every year on rent on buildings that scatter city services throughout the city,” Trantalis said. “It’s costing us money, not just in terms of rent, but in opportunity costs, our inability to function in an efficient way. So we’re eager to get this project moving forward. Every month that we wait costs more money.”
Fort Lauderdale’s city government has been in need of a new city hall for years after its previous home was destroyed in the historic April 2023 flood. Last December, commissioners voted for their favorite design by FTL City Hall Partners, a team that includes CORE Construction, Stiles Corp., Plenary Americas U.S. Holdings, PGAL and the PALMA architectural firm.
A Fort Lauderdale home for sale is seen partially submerged in the Edgewood neighborhood after the 2023 rainbomb. As climate change makes intense rainfall, tidal flooding and higher storm surge more common, experts say it still hasn’t fully factored into Florida’s real estate market. MATIAS J. OCNER mocner@miamiherald.com
Sorensen was one of four votes approving the plan to build a new city hall in December, but he said he wants to pump the brakes now after learning about two building owners who are interested in selling for less money. He’s also spooked by the city’s looming budget deficit and the possibility of the state legislature slashing property taxes. Last month, city officials said Fort Lauderdale may face a “worst case scenario” $100 million budget gap if the city loses property tax revenue.
Not only does he prefer to look into purchasing an existing building, Sorensen said the interim agreement vote should be delayed. The interim agreement document was made public on Thursday.
“Neighbors and residents of Fort Lauderdale have three or four days to evaluate the biggest decision we’re ever going to make?” Sorensen said. “That seems like we should have more time to evaluate this.”
But Trantalis argued that the city has already evaluated enough. Even before city hall flooded, the mayor said, city commissioners were interested in building a new city hall, even collaborating with the county on a joint government center. But that idea was too expensive, costing $3,000 per-square-foot, so the city backed out about six years ago, he said.
After the flood wrecked city hall, Trantalis said, “we hunted around the city looking for possible buildings” but none were feasible. So the city put out a request for design proposals, which commissioners ranked in December. Commissioner John Herbst was the one dissenting vote at the time because he preferred building a smaller city hall and having staffers work out of a privately-owned office building in northern Fort Lauderdale, the Sun Sentinel reported.
The original price tag on the approved design was $340 million, which developers lowered by about $80 million by scaling down the size of the building. The price for the current design comes out to about $1,400 per-square-foot, which Trantalis said is reasonable.
When asked how the city will pay for construction, Trantalis said the city has “various sources,” including the general fund, incoming money from a lawsuit settlement and real estate the city plans to sell.
“The commission has always wanted to have a freestanding City Hall, one that reflects the modern era and one that sets a standard for architectural appeal for a city that is growing,” he said.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis delivers the annual State of the City speech at The Parker in Fort Lauderdale on Sept. 29, 2025. Darlene Kamperveen Courtesy of the City of Fort Lauderdale Build versus buy
But plans for building a new city hall veered off course in January when commissioners learned that the owner of Tower 101 offered to sell his building to the city for $86 million months earlier in July. The city then got another offer from the owners of 1 East Broward, who wanted to sell for $122.5 million.
By late January, a majority of the commission — Commissioner Pamela Beasley-Pittman, Herbst and Sorensen — showed interest in purchasing one of the buildings. But Beasley-Pittman walked back her comments two weeks later, explaining that she was interested in purchasing the building along with building a new city hall.
Regardless, Sorensen has not let up. He has repeatedly brought up his desire to examine the existing buildings for sale, but to no avail. He told the Herald he has “absolutely no idea” why other commissioners are not interested in analyzing the two buildings and/or waiting to see if the state legislature changes property taxes.
“Let’s at least wait until we move through the legislative session to see what the legislators do. They may do nothing on property tax reform, or they may do something,” Sorensen said. “But before we make a decision to make the biggest financial investment the City of Fort Lauderdale has ever done, let’s see what possibly could happen to our revenue.”
Sorensen argues that it is worth taking the time and money to analyze the two buildings, especially considering one of the owners offered $25,000 to help pay for an examination. He added that his city hall office works out of 1 East Broward, which he said is beautiful and “in fantastic shape.”
Trantalis is unconvinced. He pointed to the $255 million Miami-Dade County is spending to renovate a 52-year-old office building. “There are no savings in buying a used building like some people are advocating,” the mayor said.
Sorensen said it is “irrelevant” to dismiss the idea of renovating an existing building just because one local government had a bad experience. “I can give you an equal number of examples of buildings that were built way over budget, if you’re sharing an example of a renovation that went way over budget,” he said. “That argument isn’t really a strong one.”
El comisionado Ben Sorensen, a la derecha, habla con Artavious Hall en el comedor de LifeNet4Families el lunes 12 de enero de 2026, en Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Sorensen está interesado en abordar la falta de vivienda en la comunidad y visita LifeNet4Families con frecuencia. Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com
The mayor suggested that Sorensen is trying to “score political points” by delaying the project.
“Anybody who’s looking to derail this project, whether they be on the commission or off the commission, they’re trying to fashion themselves as being some sort of champion of the people, when in fact, it’s really a distraction,” Trantalis said. “They’re doing a disservice to the public by suggesting that we should buy used goods, hoping that it doesn’t end up costing us more in the end. It always does cost more. Experience after experience has taught us that.”
On Monday, Sorensen hosted a Zoom town hall on the topic attended by dozens of residents and members of local civic groups. Some attendees did agree that renovating existing buildings often have hidden costs, but most were in favor of delaying the vote.
Resident Marilyn Mammano, a member of civic group Lauderdale Tomorrow, said the commission should not rush into a binding agreement.
“They need to explain to us why it is that they are so dead set against pursuing other options. Frankly, they didn’t have those options when they made this decision,” she said. “So why not take a breath? Don’t go off and sign an agreement until you at least looked at the other possibilities.”