by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
The Police and Fire Pension Fund has issued a Request for Proposals for the Bisbee, Marble Bank and Florida Life buildings.
Fund administrator John Keane said an RFP for phase one of the project was issued last week, making its way to more than 50 architectural firms nationwide.
“All I can say,” said Keane, “is that we are anxious to move forward with this project. We want to see it through.”
Keane is expecting a quick response to the RFP, followed by a three-week review by fund administrators.
“As much as we want to see this happen, we’re going to take our time and do it right,” he said. “We’re going to cross our t’s and dot our i’s before any major work happens inside of those buildings.”
Some work, he said, could be underway by the first week of November.
“That’s our tentative goal,” said Keane, “but again, we’re still deciding on how we’re going to approach this project. The devil is in the details, but we believe in this project and we want to be the ones to make it happen.”
Recent efforts to renovate the buildings have met with little success.
Signet Development had an agreement with the City to renovate the buildings for office space, but the City ended that deal in June, saying market conditions downtown had changed and it preferred residential units at the site.
Keane said he is prepared to work within those development guidelines. But if engineers and contractors deems the venture too expensive, he said the crumbling buildings will be returned to the City.
“It’s too early to tell, but, like I said, we want to do it and we’re hopeful we can,” said Keane.
City Council auditor Richard Wallace told the Council last month the project wasn’t impossible, but the cost could be prohibitive.
“We’d like to see the buildings restored,” said Wallace, “but history tells us that to return buildings like these to their original condition is a very, very expensive endeavor.
“Look at the Roosevelt Hotel, the City put about $17 million into a building that, when it’s finished, will be worth about $9 million. That’s the kind of thing we need to consider.”