Should This Be The Home Of A New Ellisville City Hall?

Amid the drama surrounding the Ellisville City Council meeting Wednesday and a vote on rescinding the April impeachment vote was the announcement that the city has an agreement in place to purchase Tri-Star Motors' property to house a new city hall and police headquarters in a renovated building.

Tri-Star is leaving Ellisville for a new facility on the former site of FOX2 News in the city of St. Louis.

The deal is contingent on Ellisville issuing $5.5 million in special obligation bonds to cover the $3.2 million purchase price of the property and the building, along with more than $2 million in renovations to the Tri-Star building.

District 1 Council Member and Mayor Pro Tem Matt Pirrello said you could walk out of the existing City Hall and into the new building and immediately accommodate 300-400 people. Pirrello said Tri-Star came to the city within the last two years and asked if there was interest.

While the council voted 5-0 (with District 2's Mick Cahill abstaining) on a resolution "authorizing the offering for sale of special obligation bonds" officials said the move allows the city to begin the process of marketing the bonds, with the goal of closing the deal August 1. Council will get another chance to decide on the actual sale of the bonds.

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District 2's Linda Reel initially pushed for a delay to hear from constituents about the proposal. Other council members had questions about what was known about energy costs associated with the move to a building of more than 40,000 square feet. District 3's Cindy Pool wondered if any study had been done to compare the costs of tearing down the existing City Hall and rebuilding on the same site.

The city's bond underwriter said a delay "would make it very difficult if not impossible to market the bonds." The actual bond sale wouldn't take place until July, giving city leaders time to answer questions raised before a final decision.

If the deal moves forward, the city would sell the existing city property.

Tell us what you think. Should city government relocate to this property or another, rebuild on the existing site, or do nothing? Sound off in the comments.