The city of Platte City has made a purchase that will lead to a new City Hall and police station.
City Administrator DJ Gehrt told the Platte County Citizen the city purchased two buildings in December at 224 and 228 Marshall Street for $700,000 although the purchase price for accounting purposes says $800,000. $100,000 of the price is being donated by the seller.
Gehrt said the plan is to demolish the older building at 224 Marshall street and renovate the property at 228 Marshall Street.
The city budgeted about $4.2 million for the purchase, design and construction of the project. It does not include other side work that may cost about $200,000 more.
The city will award a contract for demolition of the building at 224 Marshall Street. Gehrt said the plan is to award a construction contract by late this summer with the hopes of moving into a new building late summer 2022.
The smaller building, which used to be the old Platte City Pharmacy, will be updated and used for a city council chambers. The new building will house the city’s administration and police department. The new building will be somewhere between 10,000 and 12,000 square feet.
The city won’t abandon the current City Hall building after it moves into a new building. Gehrt said the plan after they move is to renovate the existing building into a new Platte City community building that will allow the city to move most of its functions at the current Civic Center to the new building.
“We’ll continue to reduce our footprint over there,” Gehrt said.
Gehrt said that project will take place in 2023 to give the city a little wiggle room if issues pop up. The cost of that project is estimated at $400,000. The city will apply for a grant through the County Parks Partnership Grant for $320,000 with the city matching $80,000 of the costs.
When discussing the idea of having a new city hall and police station Gehrt said the board of aldermen didn’t want the city to lose its presence on Main Street because of the involvement the current City Hall plays in downtown activities. Gehrt said this gives the city the opportunity to build a new City Hall and maintain that presence.
“If we want to be involved and do downtown events it’s really important for the city to maintain a physical presence on Main Street so we can support those events,” Gehrt said.