Contractors: Price paid for 271 Building reasonable; renovations needed

Three local contractors and the leader of the Wichita Area Builders Association say the $5 million the county paid for the former Internal Revenue Service building was reasonable, according to the director of the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department – one of the agencies slated to move into the location.

The group, after a recent walk-through of the six-floor building at 271 W. Third St., also felt that none of the floors would be move-in ready without some remodeling, Tom Stolz told Sedgwick County commissioners during a staff meeting Tuesday morning.

They also said remodeling and moving into the building piecemeal – one of the options on the table – would drive up total renovation costs, he said.

“When you’re rehabbing a building like that, you’re turning power on, you’re turning power off. You put one chute on the side of the building to do demolition. If you have to do that more than once, it costs,” Stolz said.

“Not to mention all the work that’s going on. They (the contractors) thought it would be impossible to run a business – any type of business, private or county – while construction and demolition is ongoing.”

The discussion is the latest in a mounting controversy surrounding the building’s $5 million purchase late last year to house some county offices.

A new conservative majority took over the commission in January, when former state legislator Jim Howell took office. He joined current commissioners Richard Ranzau and Karl Peterjohn, who voted against buying the building in the first place.

Last month Howell asked Stolz to determine whether any of the space could be occupied as is by the building department and the Metropolitan Area Planning Department while the commission mulls over the building’s future.

Howell, who has voiced his opposition to the building’s acquisition in part because of its price, has requested an audit of the purchase.

Projected renovation costs are about $6 million, which included redoing the first and part of the second floors for a new downtown-area car registration tag office. Initially other projected tenants included the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department on the fifth floor, the Metropolitan Area Planning Department on the sixth floor and the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office of Professional Standards on the second floor.

But plans to move the tag office have since been put on hold while the agency, at the behest of Howell and his fellow commissioners who are a part of the conservative majority, seek alternative options.

County Treasurer Linda Kizzire said Tuesday that an ideal, permanent home for the tag office would have 16,000 to 20,000 square feet of space within 3 miles of the county courthouse and 145 to 170 parking spaces to accommodate future growth.

An upcoming request for proposal will seek such a building.

Now the downtown tag office is packed into an aging, cramped building at 200 W. Murdock that Kizzire said was bought by the county in 1989. Inadequate parking means its employees, as well as some customers, don’t park on site, she said.

Meanwhile, the building department – a consolidated agency now split between county and city offices – is scrambling for a common workspace for efficiency’s sake.

But, Stolz said Tuesday that contractors who were asked to assess the feasibility of a quick, renovation-free move into the old IRS building – now called the “271 Building” – agreed that “all of the floors would require some level of preparation work before business could be established.”

Among those who participated in the walk-through were contractors Randy Coonrod, Tom Dondlinger and Bob Simpson and Wichita Area Builders Association CEO Wess Galyon.

The building is a total of 94,580 square feet. About 92,244 of that is usable space, county spokeswoman Brittany Clampitt said last week.

Stolz said contractors who toured the old IRS building estimated the price of constructing a new building of similar size downtown at $225 to $250 per square foot – or $18 million to $22.5 million total.

Including purchase and renovation costs, the price per square foot of the 271 Building would be about half that, he said.

If the county opts to go forward with remodeling all six floors at one time, Stolz said, the projected project completion time would be about eight months.

The three upper floors likely would take the least amount of work and money to be move-in ready – requiring at bare minimum removal of some walls, new paint and carpet, and new wiring to support technology such as the county’s computer system, Stolz said.

Most of the remodeling costs will go to renovating the ground floor, part of which was used for immigration offices and another part that has holding cells and toilets from when the building had its federal identity.

Commissioners Tim Norton and Dave Unruh, who voted in favor of buying the 271 Building with former commissioner Jim Skelton, reiterated their support for purchase during Tuesday’s staff meeting.

They said the county should move forward with the proposed renovations.

Galyon, the builders association’s CEO, agreed.

“Fifty, 55 bucks a square foot, that’s a good buy. I don’t care who you are. It’s a good buy for a building that size,” he said.

“That building has good bones, it’s solid. It has a lot of flexibility in terms of how it could be used. It’s just a matter of what you use it for.”

This story was originally published May 5, 2015 at 7:56 PM with the headline "Contractors: Price paid for 271 Building reasonable; renovations needed."