Price tag on City Hall remodel job jumps by $5 million

Bigger plans are now in the works for Wichita Falls’ City Hall – and bigger plans call for a bigger price tag.

Preliminary idea for a new foyer at the Wichita Fall City Hall.
BYSP

Wichita Falls Times Record News
Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News
August 16, 2023

Assistant City Manager Blake Jurecek on Tuesday updated city councilors on the renovation plans for the nearly century-old building that also houses Memorial Auditorium.

The price tag has increased from the original $12.5 million that city councilors approved to $17.5 million.

Money for the project would come from federal dollars given to the city for relief from the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in cost means more than half of the city’s share of $29 million relief package would go to remodeling City Hall.

Jurecek said the money would not be used in the historic auditorium itself.

“We knew we had some money and we wanted to spend it on this building,” he said.

He said the higher price tag does not reflect increased construction costs.

“We’ve actually changed the scope quite a bit of this project,” he said.

Steve Wood of BYSP Architects said concepts for the building are still in the works, but he presented some initial plans and artist’s conceptions.

Most departments would move around the building in a game of musical chairs. The plans call for a larger City Council chamber in place of the current utilities collection office. The chamber would have large windows overlooking the grounds.  Other work would include a larger gathering space at the front of the building, a new city manager’s office suite, meeting spaces and larger bathrooms. The building would become more handicapped accessible. Work would be done on the grounds facing Seventh Street and would include moving the memorial statues from their present locations.

Jurecek said the additional money necessary for the bigger plans would be taken from other buckets of the federal relief windfall.

“We’re not having to raise the tax rate for this project. This is not going to raise taxes or be burden to our citizens,” he said.

He also said remodeling would not take away money from any of the other projects the council designated for the relief money.

Construction will get underway in January 2024.

In 2018, voters overwhelmingly rejected a bond issue to build a new municipal complex for city offices.