City Hall Royal Oak's Latest Sizzling Development Property

“The Star Dream” – crafted by a famous Royal Oak sculptor, the late Marshall Fredericks – overlooks the municipal plaza, where Royal Oak city and police offices are located. The building could be redeveloped. (Photo: Getty Images)

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As a government building, the one that houses city hall and the police department is inefficient and doesn’t have much going for it beyond location, location, location.

That could make it Royal Oak’s next sizzling development property.

The Royal Oak City Commission voted Monday to give Birmingham developer Jeffrey Surnow a chance to transform the three-story building into either a stand-alone office building or a mixed-use development with offices, retail spaces and possibly a boutique hotel, The (Royal Oak) Daily Tribune reports.

Mayor Jim Ellison said the building, which has housed City Hall since 1955 and the police department since 1964, is located on prime development land better suited for use by a tax-paying entity.

“The City Hall building is extremely ineffective in terms of cost savings,” he said. “I’d rather see us in a new single-story municipal building.”

The Surnow Co. has 90 days to complete market and site studies, and also has exclusive rights as the designated developer should his plans for the building be accepted. The city library and memorial plaza, which are part of the municipal campus, will not be affected.

Several companies have approached Royal Oak officials about developing the property after it was identified in a task force’s assessment of the city’s downtown assets as a desirable development property. The Surnow Co. was the first to request exclusivity, the Detroit Free Press reports.

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Todd Fenton, Royal Oaks’ economic development director, said Surnow has an impressive track record, including the conversion of an old Birmingham post office into a commercial building.

The city isn’t bound by Surnow’s proposal, but can’t market the City Hall property for three months.

“Let’s see what he has to offer,” Ellison said. “If we like it, fine. If we don’t, we’ll move on to something else.”