City to buy utilities office for $275K; Deal includes four acres of land

Published 10:19 am Tuesday, January 6, 2015

The city of Austin is set to buy City Hall from Austin Utilities.

The Austin City Council voted Monday to move forward an agreement to buy the Austin Utilities office, which the company shares with the city, for $275,000. The city will also give four acres of land near the city’s Cooke Farm development.

Though the deal still has to be worked out, city officials will purchase all of the office space at 400 Fourth St. NE, as well as nearby parking by Riverside Arena and a backlot.

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Austin Utilities is preparing to build a new $18.7 million central administrative facility at its Energy Park site near Todd Park in northeast Austin. Since the project would house all of Austin Utilities operations and customer service functions, the energy company had looked to sell its downtown office space to the city, which occupies half of the Utilities building.

Finance Director Tom Dankert said the city would likely review the deal during its next work session once the terms of the agreement have been worked out.

Utilities staff won’t move out of the building until the new facility is complete.

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.