Board unanimously votes to hire architect for $15-$20M project

The Austin Utilities Board of Directors unanimously voted Tuesday to move forward on a potential $15-20 million central administrative facility.

Utilities staff will look into hiring an architect to design a potential building over the next few months.

“It’s very exciting,” General Manager Mark Nibaur said. “Because of the way we’ve been scattered and operating for years, we’ll be able to really change how we serve our customers.”

Utilities officials will set aside $900,000 for the design phase of the project. Austin Utilities will ask an architect to create two building designs — one with operations and customers service offices, and one with just operations — to be built at Austin Utilities’ 23-acre Energy Park property near Todd Park.

The two designs are necessary, not only to determine a final cost for the project but to take residents’ wants under advisement. Utilities officials said during the meeting that many customers have come forward asking for a continued customer service presence in the downtown area. Utilities staff now must figure out whether to continue keeping its customer service office at its current location off Fourth Street and Fourth Avenue Northeast.

“The board has heard very loud and clear that a downtown presence is very important to our customers,” Board President Geoff Baker said during the meeting.

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 a lot of 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.

Moreover, the utilities company will need to create solutions to upcoming security regulations. A new facility would involve security measures for much of its operations that aren’t already in place, and Nibaur said a “hardened area,” which would be storm- and bomb-proof and would protect backup power generation for the city, which isn’t in place now.

If all goes well, Austin Utilities could have a finalized design on its building by the end of the year, with a request to bid the project out in early 2015, according to Nibaur.

The decision doesn’t mean a new building is a certainty, however. Directors vowed Tuesday to save as much money as possible on a potential new building and may decide to scrap the project if the cost is too high.

“There will be some opportunity, once we get the designs back, to look at opportunities to take some money out of the project,” Director Jim Schroeder said.

That was welcome news to some residents like Charles Mills, who asked the board during the meeting Tuesday to explore cheaper options to become more efficient and meet regulations.

“I would say let’s back off, let’s think about this a little more and ask what can we do to get by with what we have?” Mills told the board.

Directors said they hope to see a building built for less money, rather than more, after discussing a new building for several years.

“We’ll never know the exact cost unless we try to bid the project,” Board Director Jeanne Sheehan said during the meeting.

Baker declined to comment on the board’s decision after the meeting.