City staff, in a memo summarizing a consultant’s report, suggest Evanston should consider selling its Church Street parking garage.
The memo, to be discussed at Monday’s virtual City Council meeting, also suggests that aldermen consider building a new combined city hall and police station on some city-owned property downtown.
The $129,000 report, from consultants at Jones Lang LaSalle, reviews more than a dozen city-owned properties and explores their potential market value.
It notes that the existing Civic Center has nearly 115,000 square feet of space to house just over 160 employees — which is more than triple the 225 square feet per employee that JLL says is now typical for office buildings.
It also says the building’s original construction as a high school makes it difficult to reconfigure for more efficient usage.
The report suggests that both current sites could be sold for redevelopment — the Civic Center potentially for more than $14 million, the police station for $3.5 million.
The staff memo, from Economic Development Manager Paul Zalmezak, suggests not moving forward at this time with a phase two consulting contract with JLL to develop more detailed valuations of properties that might be sold because of the impact of COVID-19 on the city budget.
Instead, Zalmezak recommends revising plans for that phase two study to require less work from the consultants to reduce its overall cost.