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When the city was first soliciting offers to purchase City Hall, I walked through it with the then city engineer. At that time, he told me that his opinion was that it would take $3-6M to upgrade the building to the point where city employees could safely move back in. He also told me that was in line with what two commercial contractors had estimated. It looked look a very feasible rehab. The February 22nd article here cited an estimate from BKV Group of $28M. That may be for a top-of-the line retrofit, with the custom renovations desired by each department. It seems likely it can be done for substantially less.
In any case, wouldn't it make more sense for the City to use bonds, perhaps combined with state or federal grants, to just get the work done? Then offer the building to investors as a turnkey finished project with the City as a long-term, 20-25 year tenant? Just a thought.
LAWRENCE ROSS
Loyalsock Township
Submitted by email