County to complete move into Ronald Reagan Building

Sedgwick County commissioners voted to move several more county departments into the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Wichita.

They voted 4-1 on Monday to spend $1.9 million to remodel the top three floors and move departments into the building, which is at 271 W. Third St. Several joint city-county departments moved into the first three floors of the building this fall.

The appraiser’s office, currently on East Harry, would move to the fourth and fifth floors. The county’s Department on Aging on West Central would move to the fifth and sixth floors. Comcare’s administration and the county’s geographic information services would relocate to the sixth floor.

The move would eliminate three different leases, saving the county almost $386,000 annually, said Tania Cole, project services program manager.

“Placing these departments would then fully occupy the Ronald Reagan Building,” she said.

The county bought the former IRS building in 2014. The Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department, the Metropolitan Area Planning Department and the Wichita Area Metropolitan Planning Organization are housed on the first three floors, which have already been renovated.

“The original plan was to gut the whole building, which would have increased our costs,” Commissioner Richard Ranzau said. “We’ve made use with as much of the interior as possible, and that significantly reduced our costs there.”

The $1.9 million price tag includes $1.5 million in renovation costs and about $455,000 in architecture fees, furniture, networking, moving expenses and maintenance items. It would be paid for with cash from the county’s general fund.

The departments could move into the building in December 2017, based on an estimated timeline.

Commission Chairman Jim Howell said he had some concerns about parking at the building. He asked to delay the vote until January, after David Dennis and Michael O’Donnell are sworn in as commissioners.

“This is reasonable for us to delay this for a short time,” Howell said. “That does allow the commissioners that are coming on a chance to consider bonds versus deficit spending (to pay for the renovations).”

That motion failed 2-3, with Commissioner Tim Norton joining Howell.

“I understand we have two new commissioners coming in, but I don’t feel like we have to stop doing business because of that,” Ranzau said.

Howell ultimately voted against the amendment to the capital improvement program.

This story was originally published November 14, 2016 at 6:39 PM with the headline "County to complete move into Ronald Reagan Building."