Docking demolition? Topeka leaders wonder about effect on city

As the Joint Committee on State Building Construction prepared to meet Thursday, a slew of Topeka power brokers descended on the Statehouse to hear a proposal to raze the Docking State Office Building.

There were familiar Statehouse faces like Rep. Annie Kuether, D-Topeka, and committee members like Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, and Rep. John Alcala, D-Topeka.

But the standing-room-only audience also included Topeka Mayor Larry Wolgast, City Councilwoman Karen Hiller, city manager Jim Colson and Shawnee County counselor Rich Eckert.

Wolgast said the city is in a unique position, with the Capitol Complex just a block off a key drag, S. Kansas Avenue, and a downtown revitalization project in the works.

"Anything that's done here, it just affects us considerably," Wolgast said.

Kansas Department of Administration officials say there are currently no plans to relocate 4,000-some state workers out of the downtown area. But the Kansas Department of Agriculture's impending move to Manhattan was announced last year, and Department of Administration Secretary Jim Clark has plans for a major shakeup of downtown property ownership.

Wolgast and the others heard a presentation Thursday from administration department officials who said years of neglected maintenance have left the Docking building, at S.W. 10th and Topeka Boulevard, in such disrepair that the state's best option is to tear it down and disperse its employees to privately owned office space.

Mark McGivern, director of the Department of Administration's Office of Facilities Management and Procurement, said the seven-story building needs between $75 million and $100 million worth of deferred maintenance and is only about 75 percent full.

"Like those before us we can kick this can down the road and do nothing, or we can make a very reasonably priced investment that pays for itself," McGivern said.

Department officials plan to introduce a bill this session that will include razing Docking, a move McGivern says will pay for itself within 10 years.

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Docking demolition? Topeka leaders wonder about effect on city