BENTONVILLE -- Accessibility and customer service need to be the key attributes to a new City Hall, according to city leaders.
City officials have been discussing with architects over the past several months what space is needed to keep accessibility on the forefront, said Jake Harper, director of finance and administration. Harper presented a concept at the Dec. 11 City Council meeting of what could be the future of the six departments housed in City Hall.
Next steps
Bentonville City Council approved the $3.8 million offer on the City Hall building on West Central Avenue on Dec. 11. Officials hope an architectural services contract for the administrative services building will be presented to council for approval in January.
Source: Staff report
Council members unanimously approved selling the City Hall building on West Central Avenue for $3.75 million to Recasting LLC.Recasting is registered in Delaware and shares an agent with Ropeswing Hospitality Group and Springdale Downtown, both of which are backed by the Walton family.
Recasting will lease the City Hall building back to the city for no cost for up to three years as part of the sales agreement.
City Hall houses the city's information technology, human resources, accounting and purchasing and legal departments as well as utility billing and the mayor's office.
"When we talk about accessibility, we're talking about the ease of getting to a city facility," Harper told council members.
Utility billing, human resources and the purchasing departments all have regular customers from those opening and paying utility accounts to job applicants, he said.
Parking is inadequate for those customers, and demand will grow with the city, Harper said. Utility billing is especially challenged. More apartment complexes also means more turnover in accounts, which means more traffic through the billing office.
The city bought land along Southwest A Street in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the intention of eventually building an administration building including the departments in City Hall as well as the community development and planning departments.
However, the Downtown Activity Center and the Community Development Building were constructed at, 215 and 305 S.W. A St. respectively, to accommodate immediate needs of certain departments, leaving an empty lot between them, according to city officials.
To build a facility in space between those two buildings for the six departments in City Hall would only allow for 49 parking spots, which would be at capacity the moment it was built, Harper said.
"We're not getting the accessibility to citizens for people to come up and visit the departments they're wanting to visit," he said.
The solution Harper proffered to council members had two parts.
The first would be to build a smaller City Hall facility either in the empty lot on Southwest A Street or south of the Community Development Building. The facility would include larger council chambers, the mayor's office and the legal and finance departments. There would be room for 82 parking spots if it was in the empty lot, according to Harper.
He explained there's the possibility for a public-private partnership for a downtown parking project in the empty lot, in which case, the smaller City Hall would be constructed south of the Community Development Building where there's a parking lot.
"There have been no concrete talks about the details on this," Harper said of the partnership. "But we were made aware of it, and we did want to present this in a way that would keep everyone's mind open to what the future of this could be."
The second part of the recommendation is to build a City Administrative Services Building outside of downtown. It would include human resources, accounting and purchasing, information technology and utility billing.
A likely spot could be on city land at the southeast corner of Southwest I Street and Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard. There's 12 acres there, and the administrative services building would need about 2 acres, Harper said.
Tim Robinson, council member and animal shelter task force member, said the task force is also looking at that location for an animal shelter.
Robinson and Harper said there would be room for both buildings.
"The plans are conceptual and for discussion," said Mayor Bob McCaslin. "There are no concrete plans."
It'll be important for the mayor's office to remain in the downtown area because residents expect it, he said.
Local municipalities who have space in their downtowns send a message that city government is a steward of the public realm, said Stephen Luoni, director and professor at the Architecture Community Design Center in the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas.
"There's still always a lingering sentiment that local governments need to have a symbolic presence in their downtown," he said.
The benefit of the City Hall building sale is that space can be used for commerce and increase the city's tax base, Louni said, especially as downtown squares in the region become more desirable and valuable.
There's also the possibility the utility billing office and the drive-thru window, which is currently at 402 S. Main St. across from the library, could be combined into one building, McCaslin said.
That would free up the building on South Main Street to be repurposed or sold, according to city officials.
Stephanie Orman, City Council member and mayor-elect, said the plan is to name a committee shortly after the new year begins to create a plan with tangible deadlines.
"I'm confident that we'll be able to meet those deadlines," she said.
Proceeds from the City Hall sale of will be used to help pay for the new building, which is estimated between $8.7 million and $9.8 million, Harper said. The remaining $5 million-$6.2 million would be paid for with reserve money.
NW News on 12/17/2018