modern City Hall<\/a>, but negotiations are still underway between the city and developer.<\/p>\nContract negotiations kicked off on Jan. 8, city officials say. Commission approval of any deal is likely months away.<\/p>\n
During a meeting on Dec. 2, commissioners ranked the four development teams vying to build the new City Hall.<\/p>\n
The rankings, from first to last: FTL City Hall Partners, Balfour Beatty, Fort Lauderdale Civic Partners and FTL Beacon Collaborative.<\/p>\n
The top-ranked team includes CORE Construction, Stiles Corp. and the PALMA architectural firm.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s initial proposal calls for a 15-story building. To bring the price from $344 million to a more reasonable $200 million, the building will have to get smaller, city officials say.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Trantalis said he was taken off guard when Sorensen suggested the city look into buying the tower that stands next to the City Hall site.<\/p>\n
The matter came up at the very end of a public meeting on Jan. 20 that extended past midnight. The topic was not listed on the agenda, but came up during commission comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me this was out of left field,\u201d Trantalis told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. \u201cHe broached the subject after midnight almost as an afterthought.\u201d<\/p>\n
The commission has already voted to enter into a comprehensive agreement with a developer it has chosen to build a new City Hall, the mayor argues.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo entertain a sideshow shows complete bad faith on the part of the commission,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it violates our integrity to make representations to a third party and then try to pull the rug out from under them. Why would anyone want to bid on a project if they win the contract and the city turns around and tries to cancel it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sorensen says he based his suggestion on news relayed by City Manager Rickelle Williams in an email on Jan. 16 that made it clear the building was for sale.<\/p>\n
The email included a proposal from the building\u2019s owner.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy choosing acquisition over new build, the city can avoid the time-consuming oversight and capital required for design, permitting and construction,\u201d the proposal stated. \u201cThe acquisition cost alone will save Fort Lauderdale approximately $50 million versus the cost of a new construction project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how the discussion came up at 12:15 a.m. on Jan. 20 at the tail end of the commission meeting.<\/p>\n
Sorensen noted the city manager\u2019s email about the sale proposal from the owner of Tower 101.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that something we want to look at in terms of costs and so forth?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
The mayor, surprised by the question, noted that the commission had already approved the concept of a new City Hall and ranked the developers competing to build it.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Steve Glassman added: \u201cI think they\u2019re also just a little too late (in proposing to sell the tower). I think they should have made that offer before we started our process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Pamela Beasley-Pittman interjected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we should entertain the offer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Trantalis said he disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve already started on a path for a City Hall project,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere would we have chamber meetings (in the existing tower). We\u2019d have to tear down walls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glassman agreed, saying he was opposed to entertaining the new offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put four development teams through a process,\u201d he said. \u201cThey all spent a lot of money. They complied with our timeline. So how do we just say now, \u2018Well thank you, but now we\u2019re going to go in a new direction?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Sorensen argued that the city is under no obligation to make a deal with the top-ranked developer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not committed to anything,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can stop that negotiation at any point. During that time, we can also consider any other options we want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glassman argued it was a bad idea to change course at this point.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a process that we started,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have four developers that we ranked. And if things go sour with number one, we go to two or we go to three or we go to four.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sorensen held his ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut just so you\u2019re aware, the process doesn\u2019t preclude us from considering outside options,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Vice Mayor Herbst chimed in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a great idea,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s one we should absolutely consider. I think it would be financially irresponsible not to take a look at it. If we\u2019re talking \u2026 millions of dollars that we could potentially save, I think we have an obligation to the taxpayers to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why the mayor thinks buying the existing tower is not a good idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe building is over 25 years old,\u201d Trantalis said Tuesday. \u201cIt could have the vestiges of decay an older building often possesses. We don\u2019t know if it has hurricane-impact windows. We also need to figure out if the floors can be reconfigured to accommodate the kind of City Hall we require. It doesn\u2019t have a public plaza.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bill Brown, chair of the city\u2019s budget advisory board, says he viewed the 11th-hour proposal with skepticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 101 tower was built in 2001,\u201d he told the Sun Sentinel. \u201cThat means they\u2019re due for their 25-year inspection. You have to look at what it\u2019s going to cost to retrofit it and also whether it can be retrofitted to meet Cat 5 standards. I think there\u2019s too many unanswered questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown had one final comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a nice building for $86 million,\u201d he said. \u201cBut will it withstand a Cat 5?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After extensive deliberations about building a head-turning new City Hall \u2014 including a meticulous ranking of developers vying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64752,5957,13776,28,30,29,249,62396,67757,67758,19722],"class_list":{"0":"post-139072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-ben-sorensen","9":"tag-city-hall","10":"tag-dean-trantalis","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-fort-lauderdale","15":"tag-john-herbst","16":"tag-new-city-hall","17":"tag-sorensen","18":"tag-steve-glassman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}