BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON -- City offices will move into a $15 million office tower to be built at High Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, officials announced Wednesday.
After construction begins on One Renaissance Center, "Hamilton, Ohio, will be the location of the largest concentration of office construction . . . in the Tristate," said Mayor Tom Nye.
Mr. Nye heralded the rebirth of downtown, where construction and renovation projects totaling $75 million -- and more than 400,000 square feet of new space -- are in the works.
The city plans to lease 80,000 square feet of One Renaissance Center, which is expected to be completed in about two years. It will be built next to the under-construction $36 million Government Services Center. That building will house a number of county and state offices.
Mr. Nye said city operating costs should decline significantly. The Municipal Building suffers from inefficient heating and cooling ducts and an electrical system that is pushed to its limit by computer use, he said. The city's annual $500,000 in building operating costs should drop to $320,000 in the new one, Mr. Nye said. But some residents question whether it's wise for the city to move.
"Why build city offices when you already have them?" asked Councilman George V. McNally, who did not attend the news conference. Later in the day, Mr. McNally expressed support for the relocation, but Ann Antenen, a former city councilwoman who was mayor in 1978-79, remained skeptical.
Citizens like to think of City Hall as a building, she said, "not several floors in a big office tower."
Others worried about preserving the Municipal Building, built in 1935 and considered one of the region's best examples of Art Deco architecture.
Mr. Nye, who lives in a renovated home and works in a renovated office, said he advocates preserving historic structures and is strongly committed to seeing the Municipal Building put to its best use.
"We have a rich tradition of history and I'm not going to see that thrown away," he said. Mr. Nye said several organizations have expressed interest in moving into the space the city is vacating. But he wouldn't disclose their names.
Mr. McNally, however, was doubtful.
"Show me," he said. "We offered (the building) to the board of education and they wouldn't give us a dollar for it."
The current Municipal Building has significant limitations. Its architectural features, such as ornamental stairways and labyrinth-like hallways, have earned it the nickname "the puzzle palace."
Those features also waste space. Only about 60,000 square feet of the 72,000-square-foot building are useable, said Dan Evers, city development director.
The city has not said which departments will relocate to One Renaissance Center, but officials said citizens will enjoy the convenience of having a number of governmental services in one place.
Because the city will occupy about two-thirds of One Renaissance Center, construction may begin soon after the city reaches an agreement with the project manager, Corporex Development Services Inc. Tom Banta, senior vice president of Cincinnati-based Corporex, said the project is an important step toward making Hamilton a hot spot for development in the future.
