photo by: Eric Ayres

Beginning Tuesday, city of Wheeling offices located on the third floor of the City-County Building downtown will be temporarily relocated to the first floor space previously occupied by the Wheeling Police Department.

WHEELING — Several city of Wheeling offices in the City-County Building will be relocating today as the multimillion-dollar renovation project of the downtown facility continues.

City offices located on the third floor of the City-County Building at 1500 Chapline St. will remain in the same building — they will just be relocated to the first floor through the end of the year to allow work to proceed on the third floor.

“Most of those renovations include new heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, new lighting and new ceilings throughout the building along with some other masonry improvements, etc.,” Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said. “As a result of that, the third floor will need to be relocated beginning on Tuesday.”

Herron noted that the affected offices will set up a temporary home in the former Wheeling Police Department Headquarters, which is located near the main entrance on the first floor of the City-County Building.

“That’s the flex space that eventually all departments and all offices in this building will be relocated to,” Herron explained, noting that county offices in the building will also utilize that space when renovation work reaches other floors in the facility. “The third floor will be the first floor that will be part of the ceiling, lighting and ventilation system improvements.”

Additional “swing space” for temporary storage of equipment and relocations of county offices is also available on the fourth floor of the building in the former law library.

The majority of the city offices located inside the City-County Building are on the third floor. They will all be affected by this temporary move, the city manager said.

“That includes the City Manager’s Office, HR (Human Resources), Community Development and Planning, Building and Zoning, Engineering, the City Clerk and the Legal Department,” Herron said. “We anticipate being in that space for six to eight weeks.”

Plans for the City-County Building renovation project have been in the works for years. Cattrell Companies of Toronto, Ohio, was hired by the county to serve as the general contractor for the $12 million project. Work to replace the HVAC systems began in November of last year, and it is expected that the overall renovation of the building could take up to three years to complete.

The project involves replacing the existing boiler system and the chiller system on the roof of the City-County Building and replacing them with a water source heat pump system. The heat pumps will be placed in ceilings throughout the building, with each office having its own zoned heating and heat controls.

Herron noted that visitors to city offices will still be able to find the temporarily relocated departments.

“The public will access the space the same way they did when the police department was there,” Herron said. “But all of the third floor offices will relocate there as of Tuesday. We anticipate being there through Jan. 6.”