During Tuesday’s city commission meeting, Coral Gables officials were presented with a preliminary timeframe for all the renovations and repairs City Hall will need to be fully operational. They did not act on the information. Development and construction completion for the historic Coral Gables City Hall would be more toward the fall of 2029, José Gómez, the assistant city manager, told city officials. “We anticipate, if everything falls into place in funding, to move forward with construction, which would start in the summer of 2027,” he said, “and we are anticipating about 30 months of construction, and completion sometime in the fall of 2029.” To clarify, Mayor Vince Lago asked if it would really take about two years and nine months before construction developers break ground on City Hall for renovations. “To wait two years and nine months and to be out of the building before you can break ground is a very long time,” he added. There are two paths, Mr. Gómez clarified. “One of them is the path of doing critical repairs for the purpose of recertifying the building. That’s separate and apart from the full design assessment for the total restoration of the building,” he explained. “Now some of those, obviously, the repairs that we’re doing will be incorporated as part of the final construction. So again, once the assessment is done, it will be accounted for in terms of that. Mayor, to answer your question, the assessment and the design alone is going to take almost two years – 23 months – and again, very preliminary.” Repairs will take about 180 days, ending about February 2026, the mayor said, but nothing is going to be done to the building until basically a year and six months. The building is just basically sitting empty and in preparation for the construction to commence, he said, because design documents are still being sorted out. “We don’t need to spend a million dollars in rent when there are many other options,” the mayor said. After safety concerns were raised about City Hall’s structure last month, commission meetings have been held at the city’s police & fire conference meeting room as the city manager looks for a single place to move all the city hall offices early next year. “For me, it’s extremely important the environmental safety, but while looking at the schedule, I think we should separate this in phases based on whether it is safe to be there, or is it a time to vacate,” said Commissioner Melissa Castro, who wants to focus on the first six months of repairs. “I see right now that repairs are going to happen, but from now to June, maybe we could be there if there are no environmental concerns.” Agreeing with Ms. Castro, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson advised that the commission should gather more information as opposed to trying to decide on the fly with inadequate information. “We can bring this back in our next meeting,” Ms. Anderson added, “and have a more comprehensive discussion.” Related Posts:Coral Gables manager vows to evacuate city hall for safetyPiece by piece, historic city hall restoredCoral Gables sends mobility hub back to drawing boardCoral Gables elected officials getting raises of 53% and upCoral Gables shuns search for manager, hires sole candidateThe post Coral Gables City Hall repairs won’t be done until 2029 appeared first on Miami Today.