Platte City buying property along Marshall Rd.
The City of Platte City is purchasing the Platte Professional property along Marshall Road and will use the site to construct a new police station/city administration building.
Agreement to purchase the property at a price of $800,000 was made by the Platte City Board of Aldermen at a meeting Tuesday night.
The property consists of three adjacent parcels totaling 4.2 acres located at 224-228 Marshall Road. It includes two existing buildings. The property is being purchased from Carl Myers, BKJ, Inc. and Carl Myers dba Platte Professional and Dental Building.
The total price of $800,000 includes a $700,000 payment by the city combined with a $100,000 donation of property value from Dr. Carl Myers to the city, so the city’s net cash outlay for the purchase is $700,000.
DJ Gehrt, city administrator, says the city anticipates renovating a 4,400 sq ft. (2,200 sq. ft. on each floor) constructed in 1980. The 6,100 sq. ft. building constructed in 1960 will likely be demolished and will be the site of the new police station/city administration building, Gehrt said.
Plans call for the city to take ownership later this month or in January. Currently, a closing date is scheduled for Dec. 28.
A report from Gehrt to the aldermen indicates the plan is to renovate the building at 228 Marshall for municipal use, and clearing the building at 224 Marshall to prepare the site for construction of a new 12,000 to 14,000 square foot police station/city administration building.
The total project budget for the police station/administration building is $4.2 million, of which $1 million is funded from current fund balances and $3.2 million will be funded by issuance of general obligation bonds that were approved in April of 2019, Gehrt said.
Site clearance will occur by the spring of 2021 and facility construction is expected to begin in late summer/early fall of 2021, Gehrt reports.
As for the current City Hall at Fourth and Main Streets downtown, Gehrt said the city anticipates retaining and renovating it for future community use, such as a downtown community center.
“This would be available for public rental and would provide the city with an anchor for downtown events. If this occurs, the renovated space will replace the community room at the Civic Center (the former school cafeteria). The board’s discussion has focused on the importance of retaining a city presence on Main Street in the downtown area. This plan also recognizes the usefulness of retaining a city-owned facility to support downtown events,” Gehrt told The Landmark this week.
Here’s a convenient summary of the city’s plans:
TEAR DOWN BUILDING: The 224 building is the 6,000 sq. ft. single story building set back from the street on the northeast part of the property. That site will be the location for a new municipal building that will be home of both the police department and city administration (in essence a city hall).
“That allows us to take advantage of existing utilities and to have functions (police department and administration) which can share customer service, administrative support, document center/copier/printer; meeting rooms, break room, etc.,” Gehrt explained.
“We have not done any architectural/design work but have a working concept in which there is a common entry/lobby and customer service rep with a secure entry to the police department from one side of the lobby and access to the more traditional City Admin/City Hall functions on the other side. The police department will have interview rooms, locker rooms, evidence storage, etc. but will not have jail/holding cells or dispatch facility (we are fortunate to be close to the sheriff’s office).
NEW BUILDING DIMENSIONS AND USE: Gehrt says the new building will have been planned for a 50-year service life, planned building size range is 12,000-14,000 square feet with at least half (6,000 to 7,000 sq ft) assigned to police department functions.
By comparison, the current rented police department is 1,500 square feet, old police department in the east wing of the Civic Center was 3,200 sq. ft. The existing City Hall building (400 Main Street) is approximately 3,500 sq. ft., of which approximately 20% is the board meeting room.
“Having the police department and city administration/City Hall in the same building is consistent with the city’s long term staffing and support plan which has been to consolidate administrative support locations/staff to the extent possible. Even with full community build out over the next 40 years, it is difficult to support having multiple administrative support locations and multiple single purpose support/administrative staff,” Gehrt said.
“In 2010, the city had five administrative support access locations (parks department, public works department, police department, municipal court and City Hall) each with a dedicated on-site administrative support employee. Between 2010 and 2019, public works and police department administrative support moved to City Hall. When the park office closed due to the pandemic, the recreation coordinator was also moved to City Hall,” Gehrt explained.
Over the past 10 years, cross training, consolidation and natural attrition has reduced the number of administrative support staff from five to three with no discernable impact on service quality. Maintaining all of these functions in the new facility will allow us to continue to provide admin support within current staffing levels.
RETAIN AND RENOVATE BUILDING: Gehrt said the two story building at 228 Marshall Road (close to the road) is currently planned for retention and reuse. The building has approximately 2,200 sq ft on each floor. He said the city is keeping an open mind regarding final use of the building as it goes through the formal design development process. However, the initial conceptual plan uses the main floor of this building (2,200 sq ft as the board of aldermen meeting room).
“This will provide a meeting room that is three times the current capacity for public meetings as well as providing a large training room. This concept of having a board chamber in the stand alone building is not set in stone but will be the starting point for the final design process. Use of the bottom floor (2,200 sq. ft.) will be established during the final design process,” Gehrt explained.