Business Times of Edmond, Oklahoma March 2020 - Page 16

Consolidation of City Offices, Potentially with
Public-Private, Partnership Studied
BY VAN MITCHELL | PHOTOS BY KAREN MOORE
T
he demolition of the former Edmond
Police station, located at 23 E.
First Street, has left the city with
an opportunity to consolidate most of its
departments under one roof through a public/
private partnership.
“The new Public Safety Center has been
open for a few years now,” said Casey Moore,
public information officer for the City of
Edmond. “What we have been doing is trying to
determine how we move forward facilities-wise
as a city.”
Moore said the city looked at repurposing
the old police station building, but ultimately
decided it could not.
Local architect Thomas Small was asked in
2013 to provide a preliminary feasibility study
for building a new Edmond administration
building to consolidate four offices currently
existing in four separate buildings where
Edmond residents and visitors now go for
services.
“We worked with an architect a few years
back to look at our space needs,” Moore said.
“At that time it was determined we might
consolidate all of our city offices into one
municipal building on that.”
Small’s updated feasibility study incorporates
design elements specific to the City of Edmond.
Its design perimeters are based on the Public
Safety Center. These goals remain relevant as
the city envisions the future, Moore said.
If eventually built administrative offices
which were disbursed to non city-owned rental
properties during the construction of the Public
Safety Center would return to the site.
Moore said the city is looking at the vacant
space in a two-pronged approached.
The first is utilizing it as a public space.
“We are making it a temporary public space,”
he said. “We are going to put some elements out
there so people can sit and relax. Our goal is to
have that space open and usable to the public
in March.”
City officials Casey Moore, public information officer, and Councilman
Josh Moore stand in the old police station location in downtown Edmond.
16
March 2020 | The Business Times
Moore said the city is looking into a possible
public/private partnership for a new municipal
building.
“We are working on a Request for
Qualifications or RFQ from developers to
look at all of our city-owned properties in
this downtown corridor with the idea of
partnering with a public-private partnership
with a developer,” he said. “It might allow for
an advantageous relationship to build a new
municipal building on that lot. There is the
potential that we could work with a private
developer in a partnership as far as building that
facility and redeveloping the other properties we
own along the Littler Street corridor.”
Moore said the city partnering with a
private investor would allow for the utilization
of a federal Opportunity Zone, of which
the property lies within. The city has about
five acres downtown they are looking at for
proposals.
Opportunity Zones were established by
Congress in 2017 to encourage long-term
investment. Investors may reinvest their capital
gains in census areas in order to defer taxes to
pay lower capital gains, and in some cases zero
capital gains on the appreciation if the property
is sold within 10 years.
The designated Opportunity Zone in
Edmond extends north of the railroad tracks at
Second Street to Edwards Street. It goes east to
Ayers then follows University Drive and east
to Bryant.
 “That is part of the advantage of working
with a private developer because there is
potentially some tax advantages for them right
now because of the Opportunity Zone,” Moore
said. “That is a little bit of what is driving
the public/private partnership being a good
option.”
Moore said if a new municipal building is
built, the city can then consolidate its offices in
one location.
 “We are really spread out along quite a
few buildings and we would like to be able to
consolidate everyone into once place to make
things easier for our residents,” he said.