After the county spent more than $7 million on the design of a new government campus, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman wants to scrap plans for the project.
Instead, he is proposing to renovate Howard?s existing office space, abandoning an office-consolidation plan officials have discussed for a decade.
“The county has growing space needs, [and] we believe they can be more affordably accommodated,” Ulman said.
Ulman proposed a major overhaul to the main George Howard office building, replacing its aged heating and air conditioning systems, ceilings, lights and bathrooms.
The plan also would include building a warehouse near the county?s Dorsey building in Columbia to free up space, upgrading the Dorsey and Gateway buildings, and purchasing space in Meridian Square, a proposed office building in Oakland Mills.
The news comes as the County Council is considering an amendment to the budget to allow the county to buy the space in Meridian Square for $4 million. Ulman said he would request that the County Council withdraw the measure and propose a new item in the fiscal 2009 budget outlining his new plan.
The cost for the first phase of the initial project, including a government building and parking garage, had swelled to nearly $130 million, Ulman said.
Renovations, a new warehouse and the Meridian Square purchase will total $35 million to $40 million, Ulman said. Selling unused county-owned land could further offset the costs.
Last year?s budget included $16 million for the campus project, about $10 million of which would go toward renovations.
County officials had wanted to consolidate offices, and the George Howard building was considered too small, Public Works Director Jim Irvin said.
The county has paid Corporate Office Properties Trust $7.4 million so far for the plans, but tight economic times and a new look at existing space prompted the new direction, Ulman said.
Council Chairwoman Courtney Watson, D-District 1, said although it was “not ideal” that the county had spent money on the plans, a new building could be revisited in the future.
“What the new plan represents is a short-term solution to the county?s needs,” she said.
