After more than a year and a half of construction, the city of Gahanna is wrapping up its $59 million project to renovate a former office building and turn it into a civic center that will house city hall, police headquarters and senior center.
Kevin Schultz, the city’s senior director of operations, gave an update to Gahanna City Council on Feb. 9 as the city enters the final weeks of the project to transform a former three-story office building at 825 Tech Center Drive off Morrison Road into the new home for Gahanna City Hall, Gahanna Division of Police headquarters and the Gahanna Senior Center. Those three are all currently located in three separate buildings on a 5-acre, city-owned site along Hamilton Road and Rocky Fork Boulevard.
Construction to renovate the former office building started in May 2024 and is now wrapping up as the city plans to move into the Tech Center Drive building. Schultz told council members that the city is about 60 to 75 days away from operating out of its new facility.
The building is slated to open in April, with a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony tentatively slated for late April, Schultz said.
As of now, the city is still in the process of installing all the public safety technology systems for the police division’s communication center to move into the building, he said.
The city has a detailed move-in plan, which Schultz said will happen over a four- to five-week period.
Gahanna bought the nearly 100,000-square-foot Tech Center Drive building for $8.75 million in 2022 to address city facility needs as all three current buildings were all tight on space. City officials said in 2022 it would have cost $99 million to build a new facility, This Week News, which was part of the USA TODAY Network, reported at the time.
Prior to the city buying the building, it was vacant as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Tech Center Drive building is located on a 7.14-acre site immediately east of AEP Ohio headquarters, and was originally built in 1998 by Daimler, a regional developer. The city’s building renovation is extensive, having gutted the building over summer 2024.
The cost of the project is covered through the city’s income tax collections. Voters in 2019 approved increasing the city’s income tax rate from 1.5% to 2.5% and increased the tax credit from 83.33% to 100% for those who pay municipal taxes elsewhere. The funds generated by the increase are enough to cover the Tech Center Drive project without the need for additional taxpayer money.
Schultz told council members the project is within budget, and that he’ll have a final finanical recap in May.
Delaware County and eastern Columbus suburbs reporter Maria DeVito can be reached at mdevito@dispatch.com and @mariadevito13.dispatch.com on Bluesky and @MariaDeVito13 on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: April opening expected for Gahanna’s $59-million civic center
Reporting by Maria DeVito, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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