It will cost $6.8 million to get Fayette schools’ new Central Office ready by summer

It will cost an estimated $6.8 million above the building purchase price to get the new Fayette County Public Schools Central Office ready to open by the summer of 2020, district officials said Monday.

The Fayette County School board voted in May to to move the school district’s Central Office out of the 93-year-old building at 701 East Main Street to the Lexmark campus in north Lexington.

In May, the school board authorized the purchase of a 187,000 square foot office building at 450 Park Place from Lexmark for $10 million. Constructed around 2002, the building has been vacant since 2013. The cost of renovating the existing central office at 701 East Main Street would have topped $27 million. Constructing a comparable office building would be more than $46.6 million, officials said in May.

The total costs including purchase and renovation for the Park Place building will be $16.8 million, said Chief Operating Officer Myron Thompson.

Thompson said 250 Fayette County Schools employees will be moving to the new Central Office building on Park Place.

Thompson on Monday said the district is acquiring the modern office building at 450 Park Place on the Lexmark campus to support the administrative, service and training needs of schools, families and community stakeholders for the foreseeable future.

Project cost estimates include: building construction and site development costs; design fees; furnishings; surveys; and other miscellaneous costs. The project design must begin immediately in order to be ready by the summer of 2020.

“We are excited about getting our employees in one building from three and sharing a campus with Lexmark as a community partner to support public schools,” Thompson said. The location on Lexington’s Northside is centrally located to neighborhoods and low performing schools that most need the school district’s help

The parking situation is much improved from the current East Main building. Parking spaces will increase from 128 to approximately 400. There are over 200 offices and approximately 20 conference rooms of various sizes.

One very large conference room will be able to handle 200 people and accommodate meetings that are currently being held in private facilities at an expense.

After the move, the current Central Office building, the original Henry Clay High School constructed on Main Street in 1926, will become available for an academic program. Thompson said a study on how to use the Main Street building is occurring now and is expected to be finished in November.