The city is also planning to refinance the building, said Gary Burkholder, community development director for Riverside. That’s because the building, which was built in 1985, needs repairs to attract more tenants, he said.
“We want to be competitive with the other space on the market, so the city’s making a commitment to improve the overall quality of those buildings,” Burkholder said.
The community development department has been managing the building, Burkholder said, and hiring Colliers to do that work would free the department up for other tasks.
The city bought the buildings in 2013 for about $2.6 million. Riverside uses about 11,000 square feet of the total of 165,000 square feet to house city staff. The rest of the building is rented out to anyone who wants to rent it. Some Air Force contractors work out of the buildings, Burkholder said.
The buildings are run on money generated through rents and aren’t subsidized with taxpayer dollars, he said.
Burkholder said in the past, the building has generated funds for the general fund, but the two funds are separate.
“It needs to be run like a business,” Burkholder said. “And that’s the approach we’re taking and that’s why we want more tenants to generate more revenue to support the operations of the building.”
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