CITY OF BRADENTON – City officials are considering the sale of the City Hall administrative building after receiving two unsolicited $10 million offers.
“If not now, when, now is the perfect time,” said Mayor of the City of Bradenton, Gene Brown.
The City of Bradenton has received two unsolicited but significant offers of around 10 Million dollars from developers who want to purchase the City Hall and the police headquarters property to redevelop the land.
“The important for us, is the excitement of what we can do for our urban core and bring development downtown,” said Mayor Brown.
The City Hall building, which was built nearly 22 years ago, sits on the waterfront, along the Riverwalk. Beyond, expanding downtown Bradenton, City officials say this could bring more jobs and boost the city’s economy
“Whether its luxury condos, luxury rentals, workforce housing, 50 thousand square feet of retail where it needs to be, in your urban core to develop it, that’s going to bring restaurants, that’s going to bring people,” said Mayor Brown.
City Administrator, Rob Perry says 250 people work in the complex now. A space study performed by the city showed the building is not suited to for its needs.
“The police station was never designed to be a police station and overall the building is obsolete, it would need a great deal of repairs and a costly investment in that,” said City of Bradenton Administrator, Rob Perry.
Perry says the city is open to other offers for the property
“And really see with the folks in the development business think is the best and highest use for this site,” said Perry.
“Do you spend millions of dollars or do you figure out a way to develop our urban core and bring in direct and indirectly millions and millions of dollars to our city that will help us grow,” said Mayor Brown.