BRADENTON – At Wednesday’s Bradenton City Council workshop, council members received five responsive proposals from builders for the proposed sale and redevelopment of city hall, which sits on a valuable piece of land on Bradenton’s downtown riverfront.

The current location was selected more than two decades ago and city leaders faced immediate criticism for taking such a valuable parcel of land off the tax rolls. Efforts to relocate the complex–which contains city administration, BPD headquarters, and a historic auditorium–were often mentioned, though a cost-feasible solution proved elusive.

Now, city officials say that the various departments have simply outgrown the campus and are planning to build replacement facilities for city government and the police department at separate locations. Presently, most commissioners seem to favor locating the new city hall facility on the southwest corner of 14th Street W and 14th Ave W, where an outdated BPD substation currently sits, while the new police headquarters seems most likely to be placed across the street from Wawa on U.S. 41 and 6th Ave W, at the site of a defunct city water treatment facility.

Both locations are in somewhat blighted areas of the urban core, and the hope is that the construction of new city properties could be a driving force for redevelopment in those areas. The cost for the new properties is estimated to be around $40 million, with $20 million most likely coming from reserves, while the city bonds out another $20 million.

With a supposed appraised value of $10.46 million for the city hall property and bids in the $11-15 million range, the replacements will likely cost a great deal more than the sale yields. Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown told council members that they had to remember that, unlike the sale of a house, in which all of the value is recognized upon the sale, selling the property would return ad valorem tax revenue "forever."

City Councilman Bill Sanders asked City Manager Rob Perry whether any of that would be lost to tax abatements included in a sale, to which Perry responded that there absolutely would not be any such tax incentives included in a potential sale of the property.

Sanders, who has been lukewarm on the idea since it began moving forward in the fall of 2021, told TBT after the meeting that he is not against selling the property if that’s what is best for the taxpayer, but that he has not yet been convinced of that idea. Sanders, who is up for reelection in November, said that he would like to explore the potential for a public-private partnership, in which the city could participate in the property’s redevelopment in such a way that could finance most or even all of the cost for the new facilities.

The five responsive bids/proposals given to council members Wednesday are listed below. Click on each to see a PDF of the associated proposal.

• Red Apple Real Estate (NY developer John Katsimatidis): $12.75 million
• 941 Prime Development (AMI Developer Shawn Koleta): $1 million above highest bona fide offer
• L&L Development Group (David Levinson in partnership with NDC): $14.1 million
• Silver Hills Development (Ohio developer Seth Mendelsohn): $11.6 million
• Opulence Realty Group (Sarasota developer Sabrina Payton-Turner): $13.5 million

Public Needs to Keep an Eye on City Hall Sell Off