Why not Linn County at Westdale?

Audrey Hill first visited Linn County's temporary offices at the old Steve & Barry's last month.

Never ever had her experience with government bureaucracy been so, well, pleasant.

"I am a senior. It was easy to park my car. Easy to go in the big doors. Everything was posted, lighting was excellent, plenty of room," Hill said. "It was so slick. We were just in and out."

The June 2008 flood sent water into the basement at the county's Administrative Office Building, 930 First St. SW, forcing Linn County offices to settle at Westdale Mall. Most of those offices moved last spring and consolidated in what used to be Steve & Barry's, a department store on the mall's east side.

As the county Board of Supervisors moves forward with $12 million plans to renovate, expand and return to the old facility, a wave of popular sentiment has risen in favor of keeping county offices where they are.

The supervisors remain committed, however, to the Administrative Office Building. They argue it is the most fiscally responsible and sensible long-term solution as they try to find homes for dozens of county departments displaced by the flood. They see Steve & Barry's as a money pit attached to an obsolete mall.

"Most people who come through this building and most people who see this building don't have all the information that the board has," Supervisor Linda Langston said.

What those residents and county employees see is the mall's huge parking lot, spacious offices and hallways, all on ground level. Praise from the public has been nearly unanimous. Comments left by residents like Hill - and collected by the Auditor's Office - are almost 10 to 1 in favor of keeping county offices at Steve & Barry's, dubbed Linn County West.

County workers like the facility, too. An informal Gazette survey last week of 95 county employees, managers and elected officials in the Recorder's, Auditor's, Treasurer's and Supervisors' offices showed they would prefer to stay, 60 to 15, with another 20 favoring some other option.

Recorder Joan McCalmant, Auditor Joel Miller and Treasurer Mike Stevenson wrote a column for The Gazette arguing that the county should not renovate the Administrative Office Building.

"While others contend it's important to reoccupy the Linn County Administrative Office Building, we contend it never was a good building for county offices," they wrote. "And pouring upward of $12 million into it (as the Board of Supervisors is considering) is not wise."

Value judgment

The old Steve & Barry's and large sections of the surrounding parking lot were appraised at $2.4 million before the county moved in. In an April letter, the owner, City Gate LP in California, expressed interest in selling the mall to the county "at a fair and reasonable price," acknowledging that it is "not a seller's market, but a buyer's."

The supervisors say, however, more needs to be considered.

The Administrative Office Building is a solid building and, despite taking damage last summer, is not in the flood plain. The county already owns it, supervisors argue. The county applied for $8.8 million in I-JOBS money to remake the building in the wake of the flood, which caused $2.2 million in damage.

The remodeling and expansion would add 24,000 square feet, reorganize the offices and make the building more energy efficient. The county expects a response in early September on its I-JOBS application.

"It's a building that we can still get 40 years of use out of," Supervisor Ben Rogers said.

The supervisors argue that Steve & Barry's, in contrast, is an aging structure, with millions in hidden repair and remodeling costs. It's also connected to Westdale Mall, a struggling retail behemoth with an uncertain future.

While Linn County Community Services and other offices occupy the top floor of the Steve & Barry's building now, I-JOBS will fund a new building in southwest Cedar Rapids to combine Community Services and Options of Linn County, leaving the top floor of Steve & Barry's empty.

There's also the question of what to do with the Administrative Office Building if offices don't return. Nearby Penford Products Co. has indicated it's not interested, Rogers said.

The Steve & Barry's roof needs repair, and the current setup is temporary. Wires and phone lines hang in offices, and walls don't reach the ceiling, the supervisors say.

"(The public) sees a building that makes sense in the short term," Rogers said. "This isn't in our long-term strategic interests to occupy this building."

Money issues

Cost is the linchpin in the supervisors' argument. They say it will cost upward of $14 million to buy and renovate Steve & Barry's, with the building's purchase price around $3 million.

Renovations at the Administrative Office Building will cost an estimated $100 per square foot.

The supervisors apply that figure to Steve & Barry's, which is 110,000 square feet, and calculate an $11 million price tag. That would cover cutting windows in the brick facade, extending walls to ceilings, rewiring electrical, adding plumbing and rerouting sprinklers and heating and cooling ducts that were designed to serve a big, open space.

Auditor Miller and Supervisor Brent Oleson, the

only supervisor who thinks the county should look more closely at staying in Steve & Barry's, challenge the $11 million estimate.

Miller said renovating Steve & Barry's so far has cost less than $6 per square foot, and the cost of more renovation depends to a great extent on design.

Oleson said every square foot in the store does not have to be renovated, and the supervisors have never settled on specifics or conducted a serious cost analysis.

"Nobody's ever been tasked with looking at this building," Oleson said. "It's never really been an option."