Palatine Approves Full Village Hall Renovation with New Fire Department

The Palatine Village Council Monday approved initial plans to move forward a full renovation of village hall.

The total cost of the project would be $10.6 million, and would include gutting the current building and replacing all mechanicals. An additional $2.5 million would cover the expense of moving Fire Station #85, 39 E. Colfax Street, to the village hall location in a new space.

The village council authorized $1.1 million on Monday; the first-phase cost for schematics is $130,000 – and will be completed by Palatine-based Wold Architects.

“After the village council reviews those plans, which should be complete by September, then is when they would vote to release the remaining amount,” said Reid Ottesen, Palatine village manager.

Ottesen said when contemplating different options, which included moving village hall to downtown Palatine in the former Harris building at Smith and Wilson streets, rehabbing the present location was the most economical choice.

“Previously, we were looking at $7 million to address mechanical issues at village hall, including heating, cooling, electrical and asbestos abatement,” Ottesen said.

The initial plan for the fire department addition would be to locate it at the west end of village hall adjacent to the Cutting Hall parking lot. Ottesen said a portion of the back of village could be knocked down as well to make way for the addition.

The building where village hall is now was built in the 1950’s and 1960’s and was previously Palatine High School. The high school moved to its current location in the 1970’s.

The rehabilitation of village hall would begin in the summer of 2014, and Ottesen said village hall offices would be relocated to the building at Wilson and Smith for roughly 12 months.

“This move would provide significant cost savings for the project so construction work could be continuous,” Ottesen said.

As far as how the project would be paid for, Ottesen said the goal is to cover as much as is possible with a reserve the village has been building over the last several years for the project.

“We plan to do this without impacting the property tax levy, we didn’t raise property taxes when we constructed the new police headquarters,” Ottesen said.

Once completed, the rehabbed building would be the equivalent of a brand new building, and should have a minimum life of up to 50 years with regular maintenance,” he said.

Other options considered were to relocate village hall to downtown Palatine, but that would have required construction of a separate parking garage, tacking on an additional $5 million on the total project cost. 

If approved by the village council, the project is expected to be complete by the summer of 2015.