City seeks approval for additional State Street garage spending

As the State Street garage nears completion a month behind schedule, city staff is proposing a series of adjustments that would increase the cost of construction nearly $800,000.

On Monday, the City Commission will consider whether to approve the changes. Two of those proposed changes — streetscape improvements on the northern side of State Street and the instillation of a new water main — would bump up projects scheduled for completion in 2016, an attempt to minimize the impact on businesses near the garage. A third would allow the developer of an adjacent parcel to use a stairwell in the garage as a secondary exit.

Commercial real estate firm Hembree and Associates is the high bidder for the garage's "pad site," a city-owned parcel at State Street and Lemon Avenue on which a liner building will be constructed in front of the garage. Hembree and Associates has made a number of requests to make the 5,041-square-foot site easier to build on — most notably, the group hopes to purchase an additional tract of land from the city — and is seeking approval to use an existing stairwell within the garage as a point of egress for the private development.

That access wouldn't come cheap: The city would have to spend an additional $180,000 to ensure the linked-up stairwell meets fire safety guidelines. Altogether, the proposed changes would cost the city roughly $790,000, bringing the total cost of construction up to $9.9 million. The original budget for the garage project was $7.3 million, although the new construction price would still represent a decrease from the $10.6 million guaranteed maximum buildout cost approved in April 2014.

In addition to the additional expenses, the city will consider selling land near Pineapple Park to Hembree and Associates to expand the pad site project on Monday. The commission has expressed some skepticism about the expansion, although a new appraisal paints the developer's proposed purchase price in a more favorable light.

The city originally targeted February for substantial completion of the garage, with the final completion expected to come in March. Now, the city hopes to have the project complete by late April.

The full agenda for Monday's commission meeting can be found on the city website.