ST. JOHNS, Mich. — Well, it's official. The city of St. Johns will sell its space on the first floor of the Clinton County Courthouse and move its city offices across the street to the Rodney B. Wilson Center, the former high school and junior high built almost a century ago.
"I went here, my dad was a principal here, my mom was a teacher here for a little while," St. Johns City Manager Dave Kudwa said. "Just to be part of this process is really exciting."
For just under $1 million, the city purchased the office space, auditorium and gymnasium from Dymaxion Development, the development company that is restoring and converting part of the 100,000-square-foot building into 50 apartments.
"It kind of permanently preserves the public uses of those spaces," Principal of Dymaxion Development Jeff Deehan said. "As a private developer, us doing our best to preserve those public uses is great, but the city itself doing it—it's much more likely that for a long period of time, those spaces will be able to be preserved and well-used by the residents of St. Johns."
Kudwa said they have big plans for the space, for both municipal and public use.
"We really want to use the gym to expand our recreational opportunities, especially in the winter time," Kudwa said. "We have volleyball, there's a rock-climbing wall in there, and used for baseball and softball—we're looking at putting a batting cage in there. Of course with the auditorium, we're looking to have more performances."
As far as the city's budget for renovations, Kudwa said it's still too early to tell.
"We're still working alongside the city of St. Johns through the design process here, because we still have to make sure all the different uses play well together and that we can create something that's a good asset for the community," Deehan said.
Kudwa said the priority is getting the gym and auditorium up and running as soon as possible. Then, in about a year, they will start work on the city offices.
"We're excited about the opportunity to maintain green-space, to add sidewalks, new lighting—and it's right downtown, so it couldn't be a better opportunity for us as a community to work on a building that's almost 100 years old," Kudwa said. "It's just exciting to think back at what the leaders of St. Johns thought when they actually built this auditorium—built this space—and it's really cool for us to kind of envision what that's going to look like for the next 50 years."
Everyone should be moved in and settled in about two years.
Want to see more local news? Visit the FOX47News Website.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.
Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox.
Select from these options: Neighborhood News, Breaking News, Severe Weather, School Closings, Daily Headlines, and Daily Forecasts.
