St. Joseph County officials say they’ve learned it will cost too much to move county government to a former Studebaker building, at least for now.
County Commissioners President Carl Baxmeyer says they have a developer who’s interested in buying the County-City Building and helping the county estimate the costs to move into the former Studebaker 113 Building. That’s further south on Lafayette Boulevard. But Baxmeyer says the costs to renovate both buildings now are just too high.
”We have reached a decision not to move," Baxmeyer said. "Financially it just will not work at this time.”
Baxmeyer said he didn’t have the cost figures in front of him Wednesday because he was down at the Statehouse to meet with lawmakers and the governor about the upcoming session. But he said the move could happen at some point later.
”We might still because they understood why the timing wasn’t right at the numbers that we were looking at, and indicated that there was some additional information that they would like to put forth to the county, and we have agreed that we would receive that additional information," Baxmeyer said. "But the three commissioners are committed to moving forward with a decision as soon as possible.”
