Plum officials approve 'town center' plans, need state permit before seeking contract bids

Plum officials are seeking developers for a proposed municipal center.

The so-called town center would house a police station, municipal offices, gym, a plaza and a community center — essentially an all-in-one government service center — near the public works and EMS buildings along Old Mine Road.

The current Plum Community Center is located at 499 Center-New Texas Road.

Council approved the town center land development plan and authorized the project to go out for bid at Wednesday night’s meeting.

“It’s definitely coming along faster than anticipated, which is a good thing,” council President Dave Odom said. “Given the age of this facility and some of the ongoing issues that we’ve been having relative to space, it’s going to definitely be a good thing for us to move into a new facility as soon as possible.”

Borough Manager Michael Thomas said the borough still needs a permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection to move forward, and having council’s authorization allows the administration to seek contract bids as soon as the permit is awarded.

“DEP could technically make us change some of the design,” Thomas said. “It wouldn’t be fair to put it out and DEP come back and say, ‘We want to change this.’ It’s the permit for the new building.”

Thomas said DEP officials have not informed the borough as to when they would make a decision on the permit.

Borough officials have been working on the project for the past several years.

The center would be built on a 110-acre lot near the Renton Volunteer Fire Department station and aforementioned buildings.

The hope is to sell or lease the current borough building and lot to retail developers and use that money to help pay for the center construction. A retailer has not been announced.

Massaro Construction of O’Hara was tapped as the project’s construction manager.

Massaro has worked on multiple borough projects through the years, including as the construction manager for the public works and EMS buildings along Old Mine Road.

Plum took out a $15 million bond. Of that, $12 million would go toward the town center, $2 million for stormwater projects and $1 million for parks and recreation.

The borough’s bond counsel is Ron Brown of Cohen & Grigsby. Its bond underwriter is Piper Jaffray.