Change in moving plans for Metro Council

After an 18-month search for new office space, the Grand Valley Metro Council agreed last May to a 10-year lease for 7,500 square feet on the third floor of the Riverview Center at 678 Front Ave. NW.

Now, as it turns out, the council isn’t moving there. But no one at the regional planning agency is all that disappointed.

Instead of moving to the third floor at the Riverview Center, the Metro Council will set up shop on the building’s second level.

The U.S. Postal Service occupies the third-floor space the council was supposed to lease and was scheduled to move down to the second level and take over the space the Internal Revenue Service recently vacated. But the postal service has to cut expenses by 10 percent this year so it decided to stay put and save the moving costs.

Metro Council Executive Director Don Stypula said his agency has to reconfigure its offices to meet a different layout on the second floor. But he added that the council will still have the same amount of space, and dropping down a floor has reduced its moving expenses.

“We will save a substantial amount of money from where we are,” said Stypula of savings that could run as high as $50,000 annually.

The Metro Council has been in the Trust Building, on the southeast corner of Ottawa Avenue and Lyon Street, for nearly two decades. The agency had hoped to be in the Riverview Center in March, but it may be a few more months before a move can be completed.