SAN JUAN — The city of San Juan held a soft groundbreaking ceremony for its new city hall and transit terminal on Thursday, offering a new look to the city’s brand in the process.
Elected officials from the surrounding communities joined the city at the future site of the new city hall and transit terminal Thursday morning to help commemorate “a city on the rise.”
The new facility, located kitty-corner to the current city hall at 524 S. Nebraska Ave., will be a two-story structure and has been described as a one-stop shop for all city functions. The property was an in-kind donation of $235,000.
“Basically, it’s showing growth, and growth is good in any community,” Mayor Mario Garza said after the ceremony. “If I’m not mistaken, we’re probably hitting close to 40,000 in population. With that being said, building a facility like this is going to make it a lot more comfortable not only for our employees, but for our citizens that come in and take care of their city business.”
The new city hall will be roughly 32,000 square feet. It is expected to accommodate every department from the city including the Economic Development Corporation, the information technology department, utilities, sanitation, and others. The facility is anticipated to open in the summer of 2022.
According to City Manager Benjamin Arjona, this day has been in the works for the last three-and-a-half years due to budgeting in order to accommodate for the right funding. He said that the new facility will not cost any money to the taxpayers.
San Juan was awarded $2.4 million from the Federal Transit Administration through the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council. The city also received a certificate of obligation for $1 million in 2017 and another CO for $4.3 million in 2020. The city is also utilizing a local match worth $480,000.
The total funding for the project is about $7,455,000. The project is being overseen by ERO Architects out of McAllen.
“This brings tremendous joy,” Arjona said. “It brings a lot of unity. It brings the growth that we’re seeing here in the city of San Juan. It has a lot of meaning because of the fact that it’s growing, and as you can see from the old city hall to the new, you’re all going to see the difference.”
With the new city hall also comes a new city logo. During the ceremony, Mayor Garza unveiled the logo which features the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle at its center. The Basilica is surrounded by five stars on each side representing the mayor and the four city commissioners. The phrase, “The Friendly City” rounds the top of the logo, and the year of the city’s establishment at the bottom.
“The plan there is that we wanted to do something different,” Garza said. “The previous logo — we’ve had for many, many years, so coming in and building a $7 million-plus city hall, we kind of wanted to change up the logo.
“It’s a new day, a new future and new progress.”
