Prairie Village is looking to either renovate or completely rebuild its city hall and also remodel the city’s police department headquarters next door.
City staff presented three preliminary project options at a special city council session on Saturday that came with projected price tags for work on both buildings ranging from $29 million to $42 million.
This comes as the city is also gauging public opinion on a new community center on the site of the aging Paul Henson YMCA, which sits directly south of the current city hall and police building.
Put together, the city hall and community center projects — if carried out — could in the coming years remake the city’s civic campus on Mission Road.
City Hall is currently overcrowded
- Melissa Prenger, the city engineer, said aside from ongoing electrical and HVAC issues, the current city hall building, which opened in 1971, cannot accommodate staff growth.
- Due to overcrowding, some staff members are currently working in storage rooms or closets, and the way the building is laid out hinders collaboration, she said.
- Prenger added these issues are also prevalent at the police department headquarters, which was built in 1995 and sits directly adjacent to City Hall.
First option: Work within existing footprint
- The first option is a more modest renovation of city hall that comes with a projected price tag of $10-12 million.
- This plan would switch around department locations to maximize space and improve efficiency in the current building.
- In addition, the police department building would also be renovated at a cost of up to $19-20 million.
- But Prenger said this option would not ultimately meet the city’s needs for more space inside city hall.
Second option: Possibly add a second story
- The second option, a more extensive remodeling of the current city hall building, is projected to cost between $20-22 million.
- It would add up to nearly 11,000 more square feet to the current city hall.
- This added space would come by way of either expanding the existing one-story structure or adding a second story, though it would cost the same either way, Prenger said.
- The police department building renovations would also be included in this option, again at a projected cost of $19-20 million.
Third option: A completely new city hall
- A completely new city hall building would cost the city between $25 million and $27 million, Prenger said.
- A new city hall would be built at a different location on the city’s civic campus, which runs between 75th and 79th streets from the north to the south and between Mission Road and Delmar Street to the east and west.
- With a new city hall, the police department’s needs could be met at a lower cost than the $19-20 million price tag included as part of the other two options, Prenger said, though an exact figure for this option was not given at Saturday’s meeting.
City staff will continue to work through options
- Prenger said city staff has yet to work through all of the pros and cons of each option.
- This includes fully vetting what a new building would cost and where it would be.
- Prenger said city staff will bring options, with pros and cons, back before the city council at a future meeting.
Go deeper: Prairie Village City Hall to undergo first major renovation in quarter century
