Salt Lake County will issue $125 million in bonds to fund its move to a new building in Midvale.
After nearly four decades at its complex on State Street, the County Council voted in December to purchase Overstock’s former headquarters for $52 million. The county’s current government center, which is on its “final leg,” will likely be redeveloped by a private developer, according to Darrin Casper, Salt Lake County’s deputy mayor of finance.
The council approved the issuance of the bonds on July 1 and took additional public comment from residents Tuesday.
“When considered together, the decision to move to a new government center represents a substantial savings to taxpayers given the facts,” Casper wrote in an email. “With regard to the current government center, the county is assessing opportunities including but not limited to a redevelopment or a sale of the property.”
The $125 million in bonds will be issued in August or September, Casper added. The funds will reimburse the county for its purchase of the new building and will pay for a retrofit of the facility to accommodate government operations, a new election operations center and services like Meals on Wheels.
The county will shell out about $8.7 million a year to pay off the debt, Casper said. The cost will be mostly offset by the sale or lease of the existing County Government Center, whichever “yields the most money back to taxpayers,” he added.
Costs will also be offset by property tax revenue that the county will be able to collect once the existing complex is under new ownership or control, Casper said. Any remaining debt service — an estimated $3.2 million at this point — will be funded by sales tax revenue growth each year.
The move to the new site will not happen until 2026 or 2027, a county spokesperson said in December.