New Cocoa Beach City Hall plan features green space plaza, future parking garage
Cocoa Beach leaders are pursuing construction of a new single-story City Hall featuring an outdoor "cultural green space" plaza — with room nearby for a future parking garage.
On June 16, Jacobs Engineering Group of Orlando presented two conceptual City Hall designs — a one-story building and a two-story structure — to the Cocoa Beach City Commission.
After discussion, commissioners preferred the $4.3 million single-story, 10,750-square-foot City Hall proposal, which is designed for 36 occupants.
"I'm a big fan of the one-story building, and I'll tell you why. It costs one hell of a lot less money," Commissioner Mike Miller said.
"But more importantly, it functions much better, in my opinion. It brings all of our employees together on a single floor. We're trying to, with this facility, encourage collaboration among all of our staff," Miller said.
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No final decisions have been made, and the site remains at the corner of South Orlando Avenue and Minutemen Causeway. Wayne Carragino, assistant to the city manager, cautioned that costs and engineering details remain in the conceptual stage. City officials will next seek design-build bids from developers.
“We'll put an RFQ (request for quote) out on the street. There will be responses to that. We will shortlist that, and we will select the top-ranked firm. They will actually design the building,” Carragino said.
“Sometimes, the end product is different than what you have here. But this allows us to put a design-criteria package together for the RFQ," he said.
In addition, City Manager Robin Hayes said bids would be solicited to demolish today's City Hall and move staffers into the public works building — which would require interior modifications — in August or September. Construction would proceed in stages and require City Commission approvals.
Cocoa Beach leaders have debated whether to build a new City Hall since at least 2003. Today's two-story shared City Hall-police station complex — which dates to 1962 — "is undersized, lacks necessary spaces and has fallen into disrepair," an agenda memo said.
In December, the Police Department moved into a $9 million, three-story police station on the other side of South Orlando Avenue.
Cocoa Beach's 24,400-square-foot Fire Station 51 opened in February 2015. Then in May 2019, the city opened its three-story, 241-space public parking garage across the street from City Hall.
The future City Hall could feature a rooftop photovoltaic system, and its campus could incorporate space for a future annex building measuring roughly 10,000 square feet.
Amid sky-high construction and material costs, the $4.3 million single-story design clocked in at an estimated $400 per square foot.
"You might be a little shocked at that number, but that's kind of the going number these days — I hate to say it," Kevin Kuehn, Jacobs Engineering Group manager of architecture, told commissioners.
The cost estimate for the two-story, 12,900-square-foot City Hall concept was $5.9 million. That equates to $457 per square foot.
"This is where I think everybody started getting concerned about, 'Wow, that's a lot of money,' " Kuehn said.
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Developing the ¾-acre City Hall cultural green space could cost $1.5 million, including $300,000 to demolish today's aging City Hall, $210,000 for a canopy structure, and $100,000 for an entertainment platform.
Kuehn said the future three-level City Hall parking garage may cost $5.4 million for 178 spaces.
Mayor Ben Malik said his banking clients are pausing major projects amid fears of a looming economic recession.
"Let's face it: There's a 50-50 chance we go into a recession, because we put too much money out. And that's just a fact," Malik said.
"So as things slow down, our timing might be really good," he said.
In September 2017, Hurricane Irma's gusts ripped off about half of the City Hall-police department roof, inflicting about $1 million in structural and water damages. After months of repairs, displaced staffers moved back inside the building in February 2018.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: New Cocoa Beach City Hall plan features cultural green space and more
