From the Journal Gazette

It will cost Fort Wayne and Allen County governments $16 million to use Renaissance Square and the City-County Building for local government, according to reports released Monday by the city.

The city spent about $18,000 to hire Design Collaborative and Schenkel Shultz to study how much it would cost to renovate each of the buildings. The companies provided estimates for moving the city police department and county sheriff into each of the buildings.

Mayor Tom Henry said he was pleased with the group’s findings, noting the two companies’ estimates were fairly close and should give the two governments confidence to make a decision.

Henry said he preferred locating the police departments in the City-County Building but was open to either option. According to the studies, it is cheaper for the city to put the police in the City-County Building, but more expensive for the county. The reverse is true if the police move to the Renaissance Square building.

"These costs are well within the city’s expectations," Henry said. "Either (option) is acceptable to us."

But whether the county is prepared to split those costs with the city is not known.

The City Council approved borrowing $14.5 million to cover the $7.3 million purchase of Renaissance Square located at 200 E. Berry St., plus renovation costs. The city also obtained a $1.2 million federal stimulus grant for renovations.

But the county has taken no such actions to budget money for renovations or moving.

In the best-case scenario for the county, it would be responsible for $5.7 million in renovation costs.

Henry said he wants an answer from the commissioners by Thanksgiving on which option they support. With a decision made this month, city officials believed the moving of all the offices could be completed by the end of next year.

Commissioner Bill Brown said the renovation costs were more than he expected, but he still supports the concept of the two governments sharing buildings. He said the county has not yet set a budget for a move so the next step will be to take the proposals to the Allen County Council this month.

If the commissioners oppose both options, Henry said the city would still plan to use Renaissance Square to house city government. He said his staff has spent too much time negotiating that deal, so killing it now would be a tough sell.

"I believe that building has a significant use for the city of Fort Wayne," Henry said.

There were no estimates provided for what a city-only move would cost, but City Controller Pat Roller said that would also fit into the city’s budget.

If costs appeared to be higher for any of the options, she said the city would not seek more money but instead scale back the renovations of the buildings, or possibly spread the costs out over several years.

The city has budgeted money annually for work on Renaissance Square. Roller said the estimates do not include actual moving costs, but those would be small in comparison to the renovations.

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