SALISBURY — The Rowan County Board of Commissioners is still waiting on bids to be opened regarding the planned renovation of West End Plaza for the Health Department, but with the recent unveiling of the plans the total cost has been made clear.

The money to renovate the building for the agriculture center that is planned has already been spent. According to previous reporting, the agriculture center renovations cost a total of $30,509,385. This is broken down into the construction cost of $25,630,800, the contingency cost of $1,922,310, the design cost of $1,287,025, the soft costs of $1,524,500, and the closing cost of $144,750.

The money to purchase West End Plaza in the first place has also already been spent. In 2013, the commissioners bought the old Salisbury Mall for $3.4 million.

The latest piece of the renovations would move the entire operations of the Health Department into West End Plaza as well. The county is still waiting on bids to be returned to find out the final cost of this stage, so the price tag can still change in the future.

The Health Department plans are broken down into alternates. The base plan of the renovation would be the necessary renovations to move the Health Department in, including exam rooms and waiting rooms as well as office space for all of the different branches of the department, such as substance use and mental health, health education and the women, infants and children programs. The base renovations are projected by ADW Architects, the firm handling the planning for the county, to cost $14,571,146.

The first alternate would be a renovation of the exterior of the building for just the Health Department portion of the old mall. The alternate is projected to cost $1,275,254. The second alternate would extend the exterior renovations around the building all the way to the end of the Board of Elections offices and is projected to add $1,581,055 to the bill.

The third alternate would renovate the parking lot in front of West End Plaza, adding tree islands, a brick roundabout in front of the entrance, and overlaying and re-striping the parking lot. The third alternate is projected to cost $2,106,152. The fourth alternate would provide the same parking lot renovations to the drive east of the building and behind the building and projects to cost $100,778.

If the commissioners choose to do all the alternates at the project at the projected prices, the Health Department renovations would cost the county a total of $24,263,963, including the soft costs and designer fees. When the board discussed the price tag, they also looked for ways to finance the project with as few local tax dollars as possible. They discussed using Medicaid reimbursement funds and leftover American Rescue Plan Act funds to pay for the project without going into their own budget. That money would be difficult to spend elsewhere due to the conditions placed upon it. Medicaid reimbursements have to be invested directly into the department within the Health Department that received it and the ARPA money has to be committed to a project by the end of 2024 or be lost.

The total costs of the two projects and the purchase of the building adds up to $58,173,348.

The renovations will allow for the entirety of the Health Department to move their offices into the West End Plaza as well as multiple local agencies that full under the agricultural umbrella such as the Rowan County Cooperative Extension, Forestry Service and Soil and Water Conservation. The county also has a lease agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for office space in the center that would bring in around $244,000 a year to somewhat offset the costs.

There has also been conversations about moving other departments into West End Plaza. One, which was brought up during the Health Department’s update, centered around whether the Department of Social Services could move into the building as well to remain close to the Health Department. The two are currently located in the same building on East Innes Street.