Hopkinsville City Council has agreed to spend up to $330,000 in reserve funds to renovate a portion of the old First City Bank building at Ninth and Main streets. After the renovation is completed, about half of the first floor will be leased to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for a regional REAL ID licensing office.
Council members voted unanimously at their Thursday Committee of the Whole meeting to forward the project to the next council meeting, Feb. 2, for approval.
The city owns the 1930s art deco-style building, which most recently housed the Kentucky Probation and Parole office until it moved to another city property, the old Williams Chevrolet property on Clay Street. The bank building is managed by the Local Development Corp., a real estate arm of city government that promotes downtown projects.
Downtown Renaissance Director Holly Boggess outlined the project for council members.
The state will rent the renovated portion of the first floor for $37,062 annually for eight years with an option to renew the lease, she said. The interior renovation will meet the state’s requirements for its new licensing operation.
Nationwide, the REAL IDs will be required by Oct. 1 for anyone taking a commercial flight or going into federal facilities and military installations.
Mayor Wendell Lynch told the council it makes sense for the city to borrow the money from its own reserve fund rather than taking out a bond because it is a relatively small project. The rent payments, which go to the city, will pay for the project in about nine years.
Boggess said LDC will seek another tenant for the other half of the building’s first floor.
The building became vacant in the mid-1970s, when First City Bank moved to new offices at 10th and Virginia streets. The city purchased the building by 2003 and later constructed several apartments on the second floor.
The renovation budget includes a $30,000 contingency, so the project might cost the city slightly less than the amount council members are willing to pull from reserves.
In other matters, the council balked at hearing a report on the financial condition of the James E. Bruce Convention Center from Darrell Gustafson, who chairs the convention center board for the city.
Chuck Crabtree, the newly elected Ward 4 council member, quickly made a motion to delay Gustafson’s report because it had been added to the meeting agenda Tuesday. He and others agreed the council should have more time to review the report in their packet before hearing Gustafson’s presentation, while Natasha Francis, Ward 1, said she they were ready to hear the report.
Gustafson said he wanted to go ahead with his presentation and said council members could follow up with him later if they had additional questions.
“I’m not here to ask for any money … you guys own this, it’s your deal, I just run it,” Gustafson said.
Councilman Tom Johnson, Ward 8, countered that the council needed to discuss it in an “open forum.”
Gustafson, a retired banker and member of Christian Fiscal Court, had prepared a report to show the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Bruce Center. According to a profit-loss sheet included in the packet council members received, the convention center operated at a net income loss of $355,000 from March, when the pandemic began, to this month.
The convention center’s rental income since March has been $48,584, according to the profit-loss sheet. Rental income between April 2019 and February was $211,962. Alcohol beverage sales declined from $139,306 to $3,198 for the same two time frames.
The council voted 9-2 to table the presentation until the next Committee of the Whole meeting on Feb. 18. Francis and Kimberly McCarley, Ward 2, voted against tabling the presentation.
(This story has been updated to correct reporting on how the council voted on tabling a presentation about the convention center’s finances. An earlier version incorrectly reported how council member Alethea West voted. She voted “yes” to table the presentation.)
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
