The Redlands City Council is venturing another $16.1 million in taxpayer money toward converting the former Citibank building into a new City Hall.
The $16.1 million in construction and professional service agreements it signed off on are $100,000 more than the $16 million it appropriated in June 2021 to purchase the six story structure, which was formerly known as Citrus Center, located at 300 East State Street.
Since acquiring the building at what city officials said was below-market price, city officials in the community development and public works departments and the building and safety and planning divisions have focused on the internal improvements to the building that will need to take place before the lion’s share of city departments migrate from their current offices at 35 Cajon Street onto the various floors of the 92,000 square foot structure, which was erected in 1982.
The city began renovations to the sixth floor in 2023 and was set to begin moving some offices into it that fall, but it has taken longer than expected to clear the existing tenants out than was anticipated. At that time, the city tentatively awarded a design contract on the conversion work to Miller Architectural Corporation and retained Tilden-Coil Constructors in 2024 to provide construction management services on the comprehensive conversion project.
In January 2024, the city council unanimously supported a termination agreement with Citibank to allow the company to leave the 300 East State Street address and relocate to 333 Orange Street. The city is reimbursing Property One, LLC $1,100,000 to facilitate tenant improvements for Citybank’s move, clearing the way to do the City Hall conversion.
Of the $16. 1 million appropriated by the city council on December 16, 2025 for the renovation, $15.43 million is to cover 15 construction contracts including those involving concrete, masonry, steel, electrical, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing and interior walls and drywall work. In addition, the council approved a $533,315.95 contract with Western Audio Visual & Security to install audio, video and broadcasting systems into the new council chambers. Hilltop Geotechnical, Inc. was awarded a $180,000 contract to carry out inspections and tests on the construction.
According to the city, a bidding process was conducted, which attracted 80 bids from different providers.
An incomplete tally of the cost of making the move from the current City Hall to the new one, one which has certain items missing, is $33.2 million. Not included in this is the cost of the contract with Miller Architectural Corporation and its principal, Gary Miller, along with the contract with Tilden-Coil. Further costs are anticipated, including those for renovating flooring, carpeting and furnishing the offices, at least those which will not see desks, chairs, conference tables and the like currently in place at the Cajon Street City Hall simply moved to the new quarters.