HOWELL — The Township Council has hired an architect who will assess conditions at Howell’s newest acquisition — the Global office building on Route 9 north.
Howell officials recently purchased the building for $5.2 million from a private owner and are planning to move some municipal operations to that location.
At a recent meeting, the council awarded a contract to architect Wayne Allan Neville for interior and exterior architectural services at the Global office building.
Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Filiatreault said the cost of Neville’s services is not to exceed $53,000 and is to facilitate an inspection of the building.
The money to pay the architect will come from $6.9 million the council set aside to pay for the building and for the costs that will be incurred in preparing the building for occupancy, according to Township Manager Helene Schlegel.
The $6.9 million was left over from a previous municipal bond issue.
In addition to hiring Neville, the council passed a resolution for an emergency appropriation to fund the operating and maintenance costs for the Global office building for the remainder of 2011.
Filiatreault said the emergency appropriation of $114,000 will be covered by $123,000 in rent that Howell will collect from the current tenants of the building.
However, for budgetary reasons, the funds will be taken from Howell’s surplus (savings) account. The surplus account will be paid back with the rental income.
“The income’s pretty certain,” Filiatreault said, “but the process of doing that in a budget, when you did not budget for it, is to do it by emergency.”
Howell officials closed on the purchase of the Global office building on Sept. 26, according to Schlegel.
Plans put forth by the mayor and council call for municipal offices to be moved from the existing municipal complex on Preventorium Road to the office building on Route 9 north near New Friendship Road.
Mayor Robert Walsh has said he believes the Global property will benefit the township in the short-term and in the long-term while providing efficiency by having many township departments under one roof.
The Global office building was constructed in the early 1980s as the headquarters of the Union Valley Corporation, a development firm.
— James McEvoy