The city of Stephenville has entered a preliminary development agreement with North 94 Land Development LLC. to begin work on the first phase of a new city hall.
City Manager Jason King detailed the project and the history leading up to the decision at the Tuesday, April 7 city council meeting.
King said the agreement would be to potentially build a new city hall on city owned property on Columbia Street that dead ends into the City Park.
The city discussed being out of space in the current facility three years ago. The plan at that point was to renovate a current cityowned building on Green and Belknap. The city began work on the expansion project including design and went out for bids.
“The bids really seemed excessive. You could construct a new building in that range,” he said.
At that point, city council directed the city to sell the building (Castle Furniture building).
Another reason for the move was to allow private market to take over the current downtown building, adding another viable retail or restaurant space.
The project will require extensive preliminary development work to determine the scope including design, entitlements, preliminary engineering, sources and uses of financing, and pre-construction planning and estimating before the city can make a determination as to whether to proceed with the project.
In the agreement, a formal relationship between the city them performing preliminary development activities such as developing the general design, construction, financial, budgetary, management, and scheduling parameters that will serve as a guide for the project.
“The developer’s willingness to self-fund and incur costs relating to the Preliminary Development Activities is based on the City’s willingness to reimburse the Developer for such costs as provided in this Agreement,” the agreement states.
The estimated cost of Phase I is $550,000.
By entering into the agreement, the city is starting a public/private partnership.
“This is a legal way to do this project,” City Attorney Randy Thomas said. “It’s a good, approved, efficient way.”
Councilmember Alan Nix stated that just because they are entering the preliminary development agreement does not mean they are required to take the next step to build the building.
Councilmember David Baskett clarified that the city did not have to build the new city hall on Columbia Street, that it could be build on any city owned property in the future.
On the second part of the project, if they move forward, a lease agreement would take place where the city will lease the building over a period of time. Once that time is finished, the city will own the building.
“This method is used a lot,” Thomas said. “I’m satisfied it’s a legal way of doing business.”
After phase 1 is completed (expected in August), the city will own that work and can use it if they decide to go in another direction.
“It does not impact any of your operational funds,” King stated about a potential lease agreement.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, resident Mark Ellis stated the following: “One year ago, in a public city council meeting, Councilmember Gerald cook stated we had $45 million in street repairs. I’d really be interested to know what that amount is now, and how a new city hall moved to the top of that list without a feasibility or needs assessment.”
The agreement was unanimously approved by council.
Council also approved a development plan for a five story, student housing called The Rider with Alex Bryant, representing TSU Catholic, LLC. and Barefoot Equity Partners, LLC and Christ and DeAnne Martinelli.
The 208 total unit (524 bedroom) project will located on Washington Street. There will be 597 off-street parking spaces with 540 of them in a gated parking garage and 47 ungated surface parking spaces. To address P&Z concerns, the parking garage has been located internal to the building and will be shielded from view. The garage entrance has been moved off McNeill to an internal drive lane to minimize traffic impact to neighbors.
There will be no retail space in the project in order to support the surrounding retail establishments.
Councilmember Nix asked the developer how long they planned to be involved in the project.
“I don’t have a crystal ball, but we did underwrite it to build it and sale it. We hear the concern and we are focused on the longterm,” the developer stated.
If everything goes according to plan, construction would commence in Summer 2026 and be complete by Summer 2028.