$72,500 OK’d for Las Vegas City Hall squeeze study

Is Las Vegas using all of its City Hall space effectively? City leaders have decided to pay a contractor five figures to find out.

City Council members have commissioned a $72,500 “space utilization” study aimed at overhauling office space across 70 percent of the building, one that could see City Hall accommodate additional classrooms for employees and students attending the College of Southern Nevada.

The study contract, which was unanimously approved without comment as part of the consent agenda Wednesday, calls for a near-comprehensive report on available space at 495 Main St., including a floor-to-ceiling digital review of existing office space arrangements and an economic feasibility study on potential “space utilization improvements.”

CSN, which first opened its City Hall campus in August 2013, pays the city $5,000 in monthly rent for classes and training on the third floor, which currently houses 20 full-time college employees.

Consultants at Steinman Facility Development will look into changes that would “support work flow” and provide space for up to four additional classrooms at the 310,000-square-foot building.

That could mean consolidating “work groups” now split between floors and redrawing existing cubicle configurations to help resolve space deficiencies across 14 city departments.

City Hall offices occupied by elected officials and the city attorney — as well as the city’s print shop and information technology data center — are not included within the scope of the study.

Human resources staffers could be consolidated on the same floor as part of the effort. Ditto for purchasing, contracts and finance department employees. Parks and recreation and neighborhood services staffers could be split up under the move.

Employees at all departments affected are likely to see empty cubicles removed while offices shrink by as much as 17 percent. City Hall is currently designed to house 570 employees. Officials say the 3-year-old building is at or near capacity.

City leaders hope contractors will wrap up work on the study by the end of November. It remains unclear why the city couldn’t conduct the study in-house.

Deputy City Manager Orlando Sanchez said contractors don’t plan to knock over any walls as part of the effort.

That said, he wouldn’t mind if they happened to find enough room to welcome additional tenants from outside agencies.

“It’s a good business practice to go out and get (a space study) every five years,” Sanchez said. “The cost is nothing to sneeze at, but we can make that back in efficiency.

“If we have other opportunities for tenants like CSN, for example, or if they need space for future growth opportunities.”

College officials, for their part, would be happy to fill as many rooms as the city can provide.

CSN Workforce and Economic Development Director Dan Gouker made it clear that while the space study wasn’t the college’s idea, it’s certainly not one students would object to.

“Yes we’d definitely like to be able to expand, provided we have more access to existing rooms or new access to different rooms,” Gouker said. “What we intend to do is offer business-specific classes so that Zappos, for example, can send their employees for training.

“We’re tickled with (City Hall). … It’s truly one of the premier sites among the 50 that I operate.”

Contact James DeHaven at 702-477-3839 or jdehaven@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JamesDeHaven on Twitter.