More Funds Sought for Work on Old City Hall

City officials, worried they could lose a deal to lease one of two former City Hall buildings, are scheduled tonight to ask for another $764,000 to renovate it.

Ed Johnduff, the city’s special projects manager, said he will ask the council to approve a $1.65-million bid from Alpha Construction Inc. of Van Nuys so renovations can begin in two weeks and be complete by mid-February.

The bid is $350,000 more than the current construction budget of $1.3 million.

In addition, Johnduff will ask the council to spend another $414,000 for future improvements to be made at the tenants’ request and a larger project contingency fund.

The increases would raise the total project budget from $1.86 million to $2.62 million, with the additional cost to come from the city’s general fund.

The tenant, the National Park Service, was originally scheduled to move the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area headquarters into the renovated building in December. But the council’s decision last month to seek new bids, after the first round came in over budget, delayed renovations by two months.

“If we keep putting them off, they have the option of walking out of the lease” in December, Johnduff said. “We’ve rebid it and gotten as good as we are going to get.”

At least one council member, Mike Markey, said he would likely vote to accept Alpha’s bid and the budget increase.

“I think it’s very important that we move forward,” he said. “We have a new tenant that’s going to be in there for a minimum of five years.”

Both buildings in the former City Hall complex, which were built in 1970 and vacated in 1988 for asbestos removal, are concrete shells with no internal walls.

The Park Service wants to move into the 18,000-square-foot south building. Plans call for a 2,300-square-foot addition to the building, as well as installation of walls, restrooms, mechanical and electrical systems, and waterproofing of the roof.

The complex is at 401 W. Hillcrest Drive, across from the The Oaks mall. The council dedicated it as a city landmark earlier this year.

The General Services Administration, the federal government’s purchasing arm, has a five-year lease on the building with an option for three more years.

The rent will be $411,000 per year for the first five years with a possible increase for the next three years, Johnduff said.

Despite the delays in renovations, the Park Service has no intention of seeking an alternative location, said Catherine Saunders, a Park Service spokeswoman.

“We’ll just take it in stride,” she said.

The recreation area headquarters has been in an Agoura Hills office building for eight years, first jammed into one suite and now in two non-connecting suites.

Its 74 employees want the more spacious old City Hall building so they can add exhibits and possibly a small theater to the small visitors’ center already operating in the current building.

Council members last month put the project out to bid a second time after the lowest first-round bid by Target Construction Inc. of Los Angeles came in at nearly $1.9 million--$585,000 more than city planners had budgeted for the project.

Since 1988, the buildings have deteriorated as squatters and vandals smashed windows and destroyed the interior.

City officials voted in July to fix the 33,000-square-foot north building so it too could be leased. That work, however, has not begun.