By Ken Esten Cooke —
Directors for the Gillespie Central Appraisal District will consider a new location for its upcoming tax collection services.
Representatives from the county’s taxing entities met Thursday morning at City Hall to consider an offer to lease soon-to-be-acquired land from the City of Fredericksburg, adjacent to its warehouse facility on Friendship Lane.
The GCAD called the meeting after public outcry when taxing entities chose to use the Law Enforcement Building (old county jail), built in 1974. Estimated renovation costs to make the jail compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act rose significantly.
GCAD directors were presented with a scenario from the city where it leases enough land to hold a new, 6,000-square-foot building and roughly 30 spots for parking on a two-acre site on Friendship Lane (south of the Friendship Lane and South Adams Street intersection).
Chief Appraiser David Oehler said he visited a modular building manufacturer in Navasota that could construct the building within a tight time frame. He said a price of $125-$150 per square foot would be expected and showed examples of bank and retail locations using this type of construction.
That would put the project in the range of about $800,000 to $1 million, less than out-of-town contractors had quoted the agency.
GCAD Chairman Tim Dooley said the board would consider that plan as well as one to use on-site construction.
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