Kannapolis to consider renting office space

By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com

KANNAPOLIS — City Manager Mike Legg will ask Kannapolis City Council for approval to rent additional office space for city staff.

Kannapolis, which incorporated in 1984, does not own a city hall or police station and rents space from David Murdock, the founder of the N.C. Research Campus who owns most of downtown Kannapolis.

The city’s 2011 budget includes

$60,000 for lease payments and related expenses for an office expansion into Castle & Cooke’s former accounting office, next door to the current city administrative offices at 230 Oak Avenue.

While the city does not need all of the new space immediately, “we need 60 percent to 70 percent,” Legg wrote to council.

“Making th

is move now would delay the need to construct a new city hall for several more years and allow the focus to be placed on a new police headquarters and new/renovated fire stations,” he wrote.

The fixed rent for the space is proposed at $4,273.83 per month, or $51,286 annually, for 4,229 square feet. That equates to a blended rental rate for the basement and finished first floor of $9.76 per square foot.

By comparison, the lease for the police department is $8.25 per square foot and the current city offices is $7 per square foot.

The budgeted $60,000 would cover rent, construction of a connector between the existing and new spaces, minor upfits and moving expenses.

The new space is furnished and was recently remodeled.

Current city offices cannot accommodate “even one more person,” Legg wrote.

The finance department, where some employees have desks in the hallway, would move to the new space.

Council will meet at 6 p.m Monday at the train station.