Editorials

Tulsa’s New City Hall

Posted by: Robert Town on July 17, 2007 10:30:17 AM (1404 Reads)
The City of Tulsa has approved a measure to buy and move City Hall and other City offices to One Technology Center the former Williams Communications  building.

On the Plus Side:
This is a historic move for the City of Tulsa, not only will the new be a huge leap in technological means it will also let the city move most if not all services into one building.  One Technology Center was constructed in early 2002 for an estimated cost of more than $200 million, but along with its parking garage and furniture fixtures and equipment, was listed on the market for $80 million. Financing for the purchase will come through tax exempt bonds repaid by revenue from third party tenant leases. The bond payments will not impact the city’s operating budgets.

This move will give Tulsa one of the most state of the art facilities for all of our cities services. Making Tulsa one of the most competitive cities of its size.  Getting all city services in one building will make it easier for all citizens to not only receive services but be part of the process. It will now be easy to find the offices of any given department in the city. Not only that it  should make interdepartmental work easier for all City of Tulsa employees.

The Drawbacks:
It could be said that there are some drawbacks to the new City Hall, mainly the city being a “real estate” company, but I argue the city already is one. Look, the City of Tulsa and Tulsa County share responsibility of the Convention Center, Expo Square, and The Fair Grounds so they already have experience contracting out and renting/leasing land. One Technology Center is no different, in truth it could be an asset.

Since the bonds paying for the new building would be paid back via revenue for the extra space they will be renting  and will not affect the cities overall operating budget I don’t see any draw backs. What if they can’t rent the space, well that’s just silly, First and foremost the city can rent/lease some of the space to the county, state, and federal government.

Considering the building will have City services in it that will attract businesses with complimentary services. All that fails hiring a company that specializes in property management, let them take a percentage of the finical responsibility of the building and they will be very motivated to get the spaces rented and leased out.

The other major concern is parking, again a non issue, yeah a paid parking garage, so the same arrangement they already have at the current City Hall.  Add to the fact there is covered walkways to the parking garages, and there is street parking, parking will be easy in the new building then the old.

The Future:
To be continued...

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