Evanston City Council Votes To Lease New Civic Center Space Downtown

EVANSTON, IL — The Evanston City Council approved a plan to enter into a 15-year lease for several floors of a downtown office building.

The deal could see city offices relocate from the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center at 2100 Ridge Road to 909 Davis St. as soon as June.

As part of the deal negotiated with the property owner by city staff and the commercial brokerage Jones Lang La Salle, or JLL, the city will receive 16 months of free rent, as well as a $5.9 million tenant improvement allowance to build out the space.

Councilmembers voted 6-3 in favor of the plan. Alds. Clare Kelly, Devon Reid and Tom Suffredin voted against it.

Before Monday's final vote, a motion to reduce the lease term to 10 years was rejected by an identical vote, while a motion to table the matter to a meeting next month was denied in a 5-4 vote, with Alds. Krissie Harris and Bobby Burns joining Kelly and Reid in the minority.

The Morton Civic Center was first built in 1901 as a Catholic school before it was repurposed as Evanston's city hall in 1975. In 2007, voters overwhelmingly approved a non-binding referendum to stay in the space.

But thanks to decades of deferred maintenance, the building now needs so much work it would likely need to be brought up to modern building codes, according to city staff.

Laura Biggs, chief of the city's engineering and capital planning bureau, said maintance staff have had to come up with innovative solutions to deal with HVAC system failures.

In one instance, the hot water tank cracked and, because the city could not get a new tank for months, staff had to inflate a basketball to stop water from leaking.

"So they went through several basketballs over a several months period. If they had not come up with that solution, we would have had to shut down the Civic Center," Biggs said. "So these HVAC things are not a small thing, and I don't know when the building is going to fail. But at some point, we will just not have heat in this building."

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Kelly said it was problematic to move forward on the vote because the City Council had agreed to a execute a contract contract for exclusive representation with JLL during a closed session meeting. Mayor Daniel Biss denied that any violation of the Open Meetings Act had occurred.

"With one fell swoop, as a special order of business, we're going to embark on one of the most expensive projects in Evanston history. This isn't fiscally responsible. I'm very concerned about this, it feels very reckless and unnecessary," Kelly said, arguing councilmembers have yet to receive complete information about the plan.

"It's like saying let's just get in a car and then we'll figure out where we're going," she said. "This is not a plan for success with our taxpayers' money."

Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma, whose 4th Ward includes the new downtown site, said he was excited for the benefits to the area's economic development.

"This is not the long-term, forever solution, at least I don't think so. Is it a 15-year solution? Probably not. If that's what makes sense mathematically, to execute a 15-year lease knowing we can get out of it potentially at some expense, but potentially that expense will be offset by subleasing the building, then I'm comfortable with that," Nieuwsma said.

"In terms of this building, it totally makes sense to me that even if we do decide to stay here long term, we need to move out while this building is renovated," he said. "This is not a do-it-yourself project."

Burns said the new location would be more appealing to younger employees, citing its proximity to two public transportation hubs and the Evanston Public Library.

"And if you really try to understand that group," Burns said, "I think if they were to choose where they want to work, it would not be in a former school couched between two very quiet residential blocks. Period."

Councilmembers also got a presentation from the construction consultancy AECOM Monday about possible options for a new, permanent civic center combined with a new headquarters for city's the police and fire department. The possible price tags ranged from $120 million to nearly $160 million.

In addition to the option of renovating the current, 100-square-foot center, the consultants evaluated scenarios including a rebuilt police and fire headquarters at the site of the Evanston Farmers Market site or the acquisition of 906 University Place from Northwestern University.

Watch: complete presentation and discussion leading to the Evanston City Council's Jan. 22 vote to lease office space downtown: