By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD – Marshfield city government will begin its move to a new location late this summer.

At the Sept. 9 meeting of the Marshfield City Council, Public Works Director Dan Knoeck told council members that the city’s move to the current Forward Financial Bank building at 207 West Sixth Street should start in August, and the renovation of the 24,000 square-foot space will start in early April.

Knoeck said that reconstruction bidding would take place during the month of February, with recommendations reaching the Board of Public Works on March 5.

“We are targeting (April 2) to begin demolition in the building,” Knoeck said. “We are looking at a construction period that would run from, basically, April through the end of August and then we would be planning on moving.

“We do hope that, because there is not as much work in the basement, that the Engineering and IT folks can start moving in by early to mid-August and do a soft moving of those folks as time allows; and then our primary move is going to be right after Labor Day in this time period between September 4-7, including that weekend after Labor Day, would be a heavy push to finish moving, and then our first week open to the public would be the week of September 10.”

The purchase price of the Forward Financial building comes in at $2.6 million. The news comes as city officials continue to look for a buyer for the current City Hall Plaza. City Administrator Steve Barg said last night that he and other city officials met this week with a potential local developer who is looking to buy the building. A previous deal with Gorman and Company of Milwaukee, to provide workforce housing in the downtown, fell through. The Council will get an update on the latest proposal in closed session at their Jan. 23 meeting.

Meanwhile, Forward Financial is nearing completion on its $16 million facility on the city’s north side, near Burger King.