Fort Lauderdale approves plan to build a new $200 million city hall

Broward County admin July 3, 2026 0 Comments

Fort Lauderdale approves plan to build a new $200 million city hall

The City of Fort Lauderdale is building a new city hall after all.

A majority of city commissioners said they were in favor building a new City Hall for $217 million instead purchasing and renovating an existing building at Thursday’s meeting. The commission voted 3-2 to sign an interim agreement with City Hall Partners, a team that includes CORE Construction, Stiles Corp., Plenary Americas U.S. Holdings, PGAL and the PALMA architectural firm, to begin the process. Commissioners Ben Sorensen and John Herbst dissented.

“I’m of the belief that we should move forward with new construction,” said Mayor Dean Trantalis. “I always am hesitant to buy something used because it’s always going to anticipate unexpected expenses.”

The city commission reached a major step forward on the project after months of delays and disagreements over the best way to replace the old City Hall, which was damaged beyond repair by the historic flooding of April 2023. The commission deferred the decision to sign the interim agreement twice in the last three months.

Last December, a majority of commissioners voted for their favorite design by FTL City Hall Partners, with Herbst as the lone dissenting vote. Sorensen changed his mind months later after learning that two building owners were interested in selling for a fraction of the cost.

But at the April 21 meeting, commissioners unanimously agreed to pump the brakes on construction plans because they were not happy with the project’s financing, in which the developer would finance a portion of the project by lending the city $24 million, which the city would pay back at 11 percent interest post-tax. Herbst called it “the worst financial deal I have ever seen in my life.”

The commission deferred the interim agreement vote until June, and deferred it again to Thursday. In the meantime, the commission asked city staff to analyze three buildings as potential new homes for City Hall: Tower 101, at 101 NW Third Avenue; 1 E Broward at 1 E Broward Blvd; and the old federal courthouse, at 299 E Broward Blvd.

City staff presented an update on the City Hall options at Thursday’s meeting. Several changes were made to the interim agreement with City Hall Partners: the project delivery cost was decreased by $50 million to $217 million, the annual cost of the building was decreased from $24 million to about $15 million, the developer equity was decreased from 10 percent to zero and the $12 million developer fee was eliminated, too.

City Hall Partners also offered two more City Hall design options, both costing around $200 million. Commissioners voted to approve the interim agreement without deciding on which design they wanted, which irked Herbst. “If we’re not going to choose a design, then I have to vote no… I need to know what I’m voting on tonight before I vote to approve an agreement. This is not an agreement to agree later,” Herbst said.

Rehabbing an older building

Kevin Regalado, the principal architect from Jacobs Project Management, which conducted the analyses on the existing buildings, shared his findings, as well. (It became abundantly clear during the presentation that the courthouse, a four-story building built in 1978, had far too many issues to be considered a viable contender.)

Regalado said Tower 101, which has components built in 1987 and 2001, and 1 E Broward, built in 1983, could be suitable City Hall locations, but not without costly renovations. The Jacobs study estimated that renovating Tower 101 and 1 E Broward would cost $157.9 million and $208.5 million, respectively. That would include exterior, mechanical and electrical replacements.

Herbst bristled at the idea that the existing buildings truly needed that many renovations to safely function as a city hall. “Why do we have to replace the windows? These windows made it through Wilma and Katrina and every other hurricane,” he said.

“I reject the entire premise of this entire study,” Herbst said. “I’m not faulting the work you did. I’m faulting the underlying premise that says we have to do a study about how we bring a 20-year-old building up to brand-new Cat. 5 status.”

Though the city rents office space at 1 East Broward, Commissioner Steven Glassman said he had his reservations for retrofitting an existing building.

“I saw a sign here today in 1 E Broward that said, ‘Do not use the microwave and the toaster at the same time,’” Glassman said. “Is that what we want for City Hall?”

Commissioner Pamela Beasley-Pittman said she was not convinced that purchasing a building was the right financial move considering the future maintenance.

Representatives from 101 Tower and 1 E Broward told the commission they disagreed with the analysis of their buildings. Cynthia Rich, the senior vice president at IVY Realty, which owns Tower 101, said the building was in sound condition.

“The city spent the past several weeks along with thousands of taxpayer dollars evaluating what it will take to make Tower 101 equivalent to a new building. That approach doesn’t appear to make sense as it was not the directive given by the commission…. Of course that analysis would be more expensive and of course it would make new construction appear more feasible.”

Jordan Paul, the CEO of NAI/Merin Hunter Codman, which owns 1 E Broward, said the $200 million projected renovations were “grossly overstated.”

“I’m not sure what the problem is with the microwave, but I can assure you that there are dozens of toasters and microwaves running all the time,” he told commissioners.