Bradenton city officials hearing from residents regarding possible sale of city hall property

BRADENTON, Fla. (WWSB) - Bradenton residents heard a pitch from city officials Thursday on the possibility of selling City Hall to make way for housing on the prime downtown property.

At a workshop on Thursday night, city officials said they’ve outgrown their current space and the building is aging out.

“It’s on a very prime piece of property right on the riverfront,” said Mayor Gene Brown. “And also we want to vitalize, it’s already been revitalized and just really grow our urban core.”

Three developers have shown interest in tearing down City Hall and the police department, and building housing on the four acres that would include luxury condos or rental apartments.

Former councilman and Bradenton resident Bill Sanders isn’t sold on the idea. He’s concerned about the finances and he would like to see something like restaurants and shops.

“It leaves the city and citizens with traffic problems and leaves them with other problems,” said Sanders. “They have to pay, I think that’s a concern to them, our city is maybe growing a little too fast.”

The police department would relocate to a property on 6th Avenue and Third Street. It’s not yet known where City Hall would go.

Brown says any project would still be a few years away. He’s happy to see people coming out and hearing what they have to say.

“When you do collaboration, things work out better for everybody, and it’s important,” said Brown. “We have our council meetings and people can come, they are open public meetings but we felt like going out in the community at night, and different times of day would be better and getting people’s input.”

This was the second of 10 workshops over the next week. The next one is all lined up for Friday afternoon.

“It’s absolutely a good thing, I would like to see them in bigger venues so more people can attend, and I would like to have a little better notice.”

More information can be found on the city’s website.