A plan is now in place for Danville’s current City Hall building, in existence since the 1950s, to perhaps be torn down along with Bresee Tower and the County Annex building to make more room for something brand new in Downtown Danville. The City of Danville recently made the winning bid of $425,000 to purchase the Old National Bank building across the way at 2 West Main Street. That building is younger, built in 1976.
Prior to the City Council’s vote Tuesday (Aug 20th) evening, Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr explained that the city will be compensated for their purchase with a $1 million dollar, previously negotiated check, coming from the Golden Nugget Casino. The remaining money from that check will go into a new fund called “2 West Main City Hall.” Williams says, pending county approval of the intergovernmental agreement for the Bresee Tower and Annex Building tear down; down the road, once asbestos is removed and it’s really time to take Bresee Tower down, the contractor hired by the city just might be able to take the old city hall down as well.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: Actually, we are sometimes able to amend the purchase order, if we can get a reasonable price, and work with that same contractor, when there is an adjoining project such as this.
Bresee Tower and the County Annex Building, both located along Main Street east of the current Danville City Hall.
Yes, substantial renovation work will need to be done inside the Old National Bank building. Mayor Williams said another creative thing that could be done is that when the time comes for the planned building of new fire stations, a bonding package combining the fire station work and the Old National Bank renovation work could be very feasible.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: Absolutely, especially with our ratings improving because our financial positions has improved so much. We could get a really good rating. And at that time, we would be able to do all the projects, both at fire stations and at City Hall, at a lower cost to the taxpayers.
For now, Mayor Williams says the actual purchase of the Old National Bank building should be closed in a couple weeks. Once the city owns the building, they will be receiving rental payments from Old National Bank, who has a lease for continuing to operate there until 2029.
The Vermilion County Executive Committee will be meeting at 5 PM Thursday (Aug 22nd) to discuss the intergovernmental agreement concerning Bresee Tower and the Annex Building.
