Beverly City Hall Projection Rises $2M, 'Within Reasonable Range' Of Authorization

BEVERLY, MA — A $2 million increase in projected costs for the long-planned renovation of Beverly City Hall is "within a reasonable range" of the initial debt authorization of $25 million, City Finance Director Bryant Ayles said during an update on the project at Monday night's City Council Meeting.

Ayles said that while the final figures will not be available until the completion of the design and development — scheduled to happen over the next six months — the updated projection rose to $27 million based on inflationary costs and potential tariffs compared to when the project was proposed three years ago.

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"The design team has been really good about trying to engineer things that get the most effective use within the project but also trying to contain the costs," Ayles said. "We feel in this next phase, the design and development, that there will be further opportunity to refine those figures. But we still feel that we are within the (cost) target.

"We feel we are within a reasonable range compared to where we were targeting 2 1/2 years ago to three years ago when we first started this process."

That cost does not include money needed — estimated at about $1 million — for the relocation of City Hall staff and services during the two-year renovation.

Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill said exploration of moving staff to the former Family Dollar location — which the city purchased for $8 million along with the adjacent parking lot two years ago — proved infeasible with a price tag of about $2 million.

He said a public hearing will be held in July to explore the city's sale and potential reuse of the Family Dollar location, while retaining the parking lot, and the city will look elsewhere to temporarily house staff.

"We've already been looking around and inquiring just to get a sense of cost," Cahill said. "Our preference would be to try to stay in the downtown. That's been the preference all along. If that's not possible, we'll have to look a little farther out to some of the industrial space.

"Hopefully, it won't come to that."

Cahill said that the project remains vital given the age and lack of modern amenities in the current building.

"I certainly hope we will," he said of ultimately moving forward on the project. "This is a building that has not been significantly improved since 1939. ... We have no real HVAC system in this building. The first and second floors have none. The third floor has a very substandard one.

"All of that is going to be needed."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)