State seeks one site for its offices

When Missouri officials sought bids to provide for new quarters for two state agencies operating out of a building at Southern Expressway at South Sprigg Street, the owners of the Marquette Tower thought they had found a tenant for the Marquette Center on Fountain Street.

Prost Builders of Jefferson City submitted the lowest bid, offering 19,780 square feet of space for $169,000 annually for five years. The state Division of Facilities Management, Design and Construction received five other bids, including an offer to renew the lease on the current building for $184,493 a year.

But last week Prost was told that any plans to move the agencies are on hold, said Bill Whitlow, agent for the Marquette Tower and Center.

"What I have heard is that there is a state directive out to try to own buildings rather than lease them," Whitlow said. "They want to build a building in Cape Girardeau and move everybody into it."

The Department of Social Services has an administrative office of its Child Support Enforcement program housed at the 710 Southern Expressway office. The Department of Health and Senior Services has its area office there for workers providing case management for elderly and disabled clients and inspectors in its Bureau of Child Care.

State agencies are scattered around the city, with Department of Social Services, Department of Health and Senior Services and Department of Revenue offices housed in the Marquette Tower, disability and vocational rehabilitation offices on Blattner Drive and the attorney general's satellite office on Mount Auburn Road.

The lease to house state offices in the Marquette Tower expires in 2014. It is, however, a year-to-year contract that allows the state to opt out at the end of any year.

"The legislature can't bind future legislatures on any expenditure," state Rep. Nathan Cooper, R-Cape Girardeau, said. "So the typical lease is a one-year lease with 14 options."

But no building owner with a long-term lease should worry about the state moving out soon, he said. "No one is going to break one of those leases," Cooper said. "But the long-term goal is to bring them all together in one place."

Despite the assurances, the state has broken leases recently. Last year, the state backed out of a lease on a 65,000-square-foot office building in St. Louis. The lease had 10 years to run and was on a building that had been built to state specifications.

When the Marquette Tower was renovated, Prost relied on state tax credits for preserving historic buildings and a contract to house state offices to make the deal work, Whitlow said. State leasing policies give preferences to historic buildings and downtown locations, an advantage that Whitlow said he thought gave the Marquette Center the edge for housing the agencies now on Southern Expressway.

"Right now we have to find another tenant," Whitlow said. "If you look around Cape Girardeau, you will see that there is 100,000 square feet of empty office space. We have 15,000 square feet in the tower that isn't rented."

Most of the Marquette Center is open space, ready to be divided into offices. The exterior and entrance have been recently renovated. The Marquette Center is a 20,000-square-foot building, Whitlow said. "Finding tenants for the whole space is going to be a problem."

The state contract for putting agencies in the Marquette Tower was signed before Prost began renovations, Whitlow noted. The state in 2003 provided $785,000 in tax credits for removal of asbestos and lead from the tower. In 2004, the state provided $500,000 in tax credits for the same work in the center. Historic preservation tax credits also played a major role in financing the renovation.

State offices moved into the Marquette Tower in 2003. Prior to the renovation, the building had been vacant since 1971.

If the state moved out early, Whitlow said, "it would mean we wasted the state of Missouri's tax credits for a building they aren't going to use."

David Mosby, director of the Division of Facilities Management, Design and Construction, could not be reached Friday for comment.

The idea of putting state agencies under a state-owned roof makes sense, Cooper said. Leasing office space costs the state $50.3 million annually and owning buildings where possible will save money in the long run, he said.

"Where it is feasibly possible and where it makes sense economically, the state will consolidate leases and own its own buildings," Cooper said. "This is being done by the division to provide better usage of taxpayer dollars."

Rich Chrismer, a spokesman for Gov. Matt Blunt, declined to comment on specific plans for Cape Girardeau offices. Whatever action is taken, he said, will be in the best interests of all taxpayers.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126