Bradenton may sell its three-acre city hall property

The City of Bradenton may sell its three-acre city hall property amid a surge in downtown real estate development.

Bradenton’s city hall was built on the late 1990s at a cost of $9.1 million and is currently appraised at $5 million, the Bradenton Herald reported.

The Bradenton municipal government has not formally listed city hall for sale, but the city council wants to sell the building for enough money to pay for a new city hall.

A new city hall location  may be smaller than the existing one, which houses the city’s police and fire departments. A new city hall probably won’t  house the police department, which has outgrown its space.

Within a year, a new Spring Hill Suites hotel and restaurant will open across the street from city hall. Also scheduled to open within a year is a new parking garage with built-in retail space and a $12 million expansion of the South Florida Museum.

Those and other downtown Bradenton real estate developments may heighten developers’ interest in the city hall property.

So far, “it’s just been a lot of kicking of the tires,” Carl Callahan, the city administrator, told the Bradenton Herald. “We’ve had some interest, but nothing serious.” [Bradenton Herald] — Mike Seemuth