Vancouver envisions new City Hall

The sudden availability of a six-story downtown office building is prompting Vancouver city officials to reconsider a plan to build a new City Hall.

Columbian Publisher Scott Campbell announced Wednesday that the newspaper will move its business and newsroom operations back to its former facility at 701 Eighth Street after just 10 months in the new building.

The newspaper building at 415 W. Sixth St. could be an ideal resolution to the city’s decade-long effort to consolidate city operations under one roof, said Eric Holmes, the city’s economic development director. He said the building is the right size, in the right place and the price is in line with the $35 million to $40 million the city expects to spend redeveloping the Esther Short Building into a new City Hall.

“We’re actually very close to issuing a request for proposals for development teams to look at that site,” Holmes said. “But with this new information about The Columbian building being listed, the responsible thing for us to do would be to look at it.”

The newspaper moved into its $30 million building in January, but a severe downturn in advertising revenue and high building costs are forcing the company to move back to Eighth Street.

Holmes said the city has put away $9 million in cash reserves as a down payment on the anticipated redevelopment of the Esther Short Building, which is just west of Esther Short Park and cater-corner to The Columbian. He said the city would save money over the long run by consolidating operations currently spread around five offices -- four of them under lease.

He said The Columbian building, with 118,000 square feet, meets the city’s criteria for 100,000 to 120,000 square feet of office space to accommodate long-term growth. Tenants in the upper two floors would be unaffected in the short term if the city acquired the building, he said.

“It’s important we respect the investments that tenants have made in that building,” he said.

With the economy on wobbly footing, Holmes said the city is concerned about the “highly volatile” market for raw materials that could drive up construction costs.

Holmes said he could think of no obvious downsides to The Columbian building, though the city is a long ways off from the close scrutiny that would be required of such a purchase.