Austin Utilities is going ahead with a plan to build an $18.6 million central administrative facility.

The Austin Utilities Board of Commissioners voted Thursday to approve proceeding with the construction of a new central facility.

The board put a cap on the project at $18,677,000 for a full-service operational facility with all utility operations and customer service functions located at the utility company’s Energy Park site, just south of Todd Park.

“AU staff has done an excellent job of presenting a sensible solution to a long time problem the utility has had in efficiencies. The completion of this project will carry the organization well into the future,” Board president Geoff Baker said in a press release. “The completion of this project will carry the organization well into the future.”

The project will likely mean an average increase of $8.18 in utilities payments per month for residential customers and a 1 to 3 percent increase per month for commercial properties.

Those rate adjustments will take place in January 2015, according to general manager Mark Nibaur.

Utilities officials will work with TDKA and the Joseph Company to finalize construction plans and place them out for bid in early 2015. If all goes well, construction will start in 2015 and wrap up by late summer 2016.

Those plans need to be approved by the Austin City Council, however. The council is expected to approve a special bond issuance to finance the project over the next 20 years.

Utilities officials are looking to consolidate office operations, including customer service, staff operations and administrative duties, from the seven buildings utilities workers use. Though Austin Utilities has for years looked at options to improve its efficiencies — utilities officials bought 23 acres south of Todd Park in 2009 to potentially host a new building — Nibaur previously said the time wasn’t right to move forward until utilities officials decommissioned the downtown power plant and looked at its options.

A new building would solve several safety and regulation issues for the utilities company. Austin Utilities doesn’t have enough space to store essential supplies like water and gas pipes indoors, according to Nibaur, and there are numerous inefficiencies throughout utilities operations that could be eliminated through a new facility. Utilities officials estimate the company could save $2.5 million over the next 10 years with a new facility. The new plans would also disaster-proof utilities operations, which Nibaur said was an important improvement.

“It’s very exciting,” Nibaur said.

According to Nibaur, Austin Utilities does not plan to have a customer service office in downtown Austin after the facility is built, but utilities officials could have a payment dropbox stationed downtown. Nibaur said utilities officials were still working out those details.

Staff presented the initial concept of a central facility to the board in 2012 with a conceptual design was presented in June 2013, a schematic design in August 2014 and final costs were presented Thursday by TDKA, Joseph Company and AU staff.

In July 2014, Joseph Company was selected to work with TDKA as Construction Manager to determine the guaranteed maximum price of two design options. One option was a central full-service utility with all operations and customer service functions consolidated under one roof and the second option an operations center with customer service and administration remaining in downtown Austin.