Prescott Seeks Proposals for City Hall Redevelopment

By Cindy Barks for Daily Courier

What Could the Prescott City Hall Property Become?

More than a dozen developers, architects, and construction companies have indicated interest in answering that question, and possibly taking on redevelopment of the prime downtown Prescott real estate.

The question is a part of the city’s months-long process of determining how best to use its land on South Cortez Street.

Central to the issue is where the city should relocate its offices, should a developer come up with a viable proposal for buying/redeveloping the City Hall parcel.

In early 2019, the ad hoc Mayor’s Commission on Facility Optimization and Property Usage (FOPU) spent several months discussing options for a new city hall location.

The premise was that the current city hall is too small to meet city needs and is largely inefficient and outdated.

Recommendations

The commission’s findings were summarized to the Prescott City Council in March, with a presentation by Commission Chairman Justin Scott.

Among the recommendations of the commission was that the city should compile a request for proposals (RFP) for city properties “to determine possible interest of third parties.”

In July, the city released an official RFP, asking for plans for redevelopment of the city’s 1.56-acre parcel at 201, 221, 223, and 225 S. Cortez Street.

Initially, the deadline for proposals was set for August 1st.

But after the city conducted a site visit at the property in mid-July, Prescott Community Outreach Manager John Heiney said the feedback from potential proposers was that more time was needed.

That prompted the city to push back the proposal deadline until September 13th.

Until the proposals are opened, Goodman said the city will not know what the interested companies have in mind. But a common idea that arose during the July meeting was that the city buildings would be razed to make way for some other sort of business or mixed-use space, he said.

Still to come would be discussion about where City Hall should move to, if the city were to receive a viable proposal for the Cortez Street land.

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