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In a work session last Thursday, Lexington City Council received an update on the plans to renovate city hall, including a list of potential sites for the city’s departments to relocate to during the renovation.
City Manager Tom Carroll presented Council with three potential spaces for lease that could serve as a temporary swing space for most, if not all, of the departments located within city hall. The first, and the one that he said would be is first choice if the lease is within the $787,000 budgeted for swing space, is the second floor of the former BB&T building at the intersection of Neslon and Walker streets. The building is owned by John Adamson and the lower floor is currently home to the LewisGale Physicians Family Medicine and Specialty Center. The space is smaller than the current space being utilized at city hall (4,000 square feet as opposed to 7,000 square feet), but the space would require minimal upgrades to be utilized. He noted that there isn’t easy access to the second floor of the building and that parking is limited, meaning that employees would likely have to park off-site.
The second site Carroll presented was the former Lexington Restaurant on South Main Street. Parking is much better at that site, Carroll noted, though the building would require some internal renovation to be utilized for city functions. If the lease on the BB&T building isn’t feasible, Carroll said that this was his second choice, provided it could be leased and renovated within the budget.
The third potential site that would require a lease is the building for Buddies True Value Hardware Store at 517 E. Nelson St, which will be closing in August. Like the Lexington Restaurant building, it would require internal renovations, but Carroll noted that the space is 7,000 square feet, so there wouldn’t be as much need for downsizing. The biggest disadvantage is the location, which he observed was not very visible from the street, and access could be hindered by traffic for Wendy’s and Frank’s Pizza, especially around midday.
Carroll said he has reached out to Lexington City Schools Superintendent Rebecca Walters and Director of Operations Jason White about possibly using the Community Room at the School Board Office on Diamond Street as the swing space for the city’s registrar’s office, no matter where the rest of the departments end up. He told Council that both Walters and White had “expressed willingness to accommodate us as much as possible.”
The final site that Carroll presented was the VDOT property on Waddell Street. One of the buildings on that property is currently being used by the Rockbridge County Schools Transportation Office, but will soon be vacated. That building is not currently ADA accessible, which doesn’t make it an ideal swing space for more public facing offices like the treasurer or commissioner of revenue, but he feels that the space “is workable, with minimal investment, for back office space such as human resources, IT, planning, finance, and the city manager’s office.” There are also two other buildings on the property that could, potentially, be fixed up and utilized as swing space, but Carroll noted that public parking was limited and they would require renovations to make them useable. The one advantage to that site is that the city owns it, so there wouldn’t be cost for leasing the space.
A decision on which site will be utilized will be made in the near future. The proposed timeline for the renovation is to put the project out for bids in December, with the goal of City Council selecting a bid at its meeting on Jan. 15, 2025. The departments would move out of city hall in February for renovations to begin, and the project is scheduled to last a minimum of two years.
