Overland Park is taking steps to acquire a seven-story office building near College Boulevard and Metcalf Avenue for $22.5 million that will serve as a future city hall.
The nearly 155,000-square-foot building at 6201 College Blvd. is currently home to a variety of office tenants. County land records say that College-Lamar LP, an affiliate of Kansas City-based real estate firm Copaken Brooks, owns it.
City documents estimate that Overland Park would need to spend approximately $86.5 million to renovate and expand the building over the next decade, as leases expire before the building reaches full occupancy in 2034.
On Monday, the Overland Park City Council voted unanimously to approve a purchase and sale agreement, a key step toward officially acquiring the building, which falls in a key reinvestment area the city has dubbed OP Central.
The city council’s action on Monday follows past discussions and long-term plans to relocate Overland Park City Hall to a more central location, creating additional space for city staff to work.
Overland Park city buildings are aging, not big enough
Today, city staff in Overland Park work from facilities across the city, including the main administrative office facilities at Overland Park City Hall and the Myron Scafe building across the street near Antioch Road and Santa Fe Drive.
Combined, the two core administrative buildings offer about 91,500 square feet of office space, nearly half as much space as architecture firm PGAV said the city will need long-term in a study last year.
On top of the space needs, staff have said the two buildings are becoming obsolete. City hall was built in 1967 and expanded in 1986. Scafe — which houses both police and city offices — was built in 1975.
There’s also the matter of accessibility. The Scafe building has no elevators, and city hall has just one that is frequently out of order.
With all that in mind, the city has, over the years, pondered a series of options for new, centralized city offices.
Proposals have included a new city administration building on the W. Jack Sanders Justice Center off Metcalf Avenue near 125th Street, a new city hall at 95th and Metcalf or a totally new building near the Overland Park Convention Center off College and Nall Avenue.
New city hall project could cost $109M
With the cost of acquiring the building at 6201 College Blvd. and the estimated expense of renovating it, city documents anticipate that the project’s cost is roughly $109 million and will not require an increase in city property taxes to help fund.
Right now, the plan is to cover the $22.5 million acquisition cost with cash reserves and possible reimbursement revenues raised through special, limited sales taxes the city is contemplating in the area.
Subsequent renovation would likely be paid for with a mix of cash and bond debt, according to city documents. Exactly what that will look like will become clearer later when the project is added to the city’s capital improvement plan list.
The city will also have to maintain the building and manage existing leases as they expire, which it will contract with Copaken Brooks to continue doing.
The plan, per city documents, is to use lease revenue to cover those costs, but that money will diminish as leases expire ahead of renovation and the city’s occupancy of the building. (Any extra revenue raised during this period that does not go to paying taxes or other management costs would be kept by Copaken Brooks.)
“The next chapter in our city”
On Monday, councilmembers were broadly in support of moving ahead with the purchase and eventual renovation of 6201 College Blvd. for a future city hall facility, with multiple councilmembers lauding it as an investment in the city’s future and the well-being of city staff that do the day-to-day work of municipal government.
“We are not just talking about a new building. We are talking about the next chapter in our city,” Council President Holly Grummert said. “This is more than a symbolic move; it’s a smart move, a move that places city government where it is most accessible and most impactful.”
Others said they see it as a direct need for the city due to the limited space and aging facilities that city staff are working out of today.
“This is actually a need, not a want,” Councilmember Inas Younis said.
During a city council Committee of the Whole meeting earlier in the evening Monday, Councilmember Scott Mosher said the project was exactly what he wanted to see: the reuse of an existing office building.
6201 College falls in key reinvestment area
The office building sits in the College and Metcalf area, called OP Central — a strategic investment area in the city’s long-range plan that has historically been defined by large office users.
Over the past few years, the future of underutilized office developments that once served as the economic backbone of the city has come into stark focus. City officials have emphasized mixed-use redevelopment opportunities in that area as it looks to reinvent the corridor surrounding the Overland Park Convention Center.
Councilmember Drew Mitrisin called it the “perfect property” for a city hall, in part because of its location in this area.
In addition to the possibility of moving city hall to the area, Black & Veatch is currently pondering a $1.12 billion redevelopment project at its headquarters at 115th Street and Lamar Avenue that could feature housing, retail and office space.
Next steps for Overland Park City Hall:
- Overland Park is on track to close on the 6201 College Blvd. later this year, setting up the city to start design and hold public engagement opportunities about the project next year.
- The next major milestone would be plans to add onto the building in 2029, followed by the renovation of four existing floors in 2031.
- After that, some city staff could begin working in the College Boulevard building in 2032.
- Another slate of renovations affecting the remaining three floors would begin in 2032.
- Sometime around 2030, the city will also begin studying what to do with the current city hall and Scafe buildings.
- All of that will culminate in the city assuming full occupancy of 6201 College by 2034.
Looking back: Overland Park City Hall was built in 1960s. Will city move to newer, bigger space?
