Thursday, March 14, 2013

Goodbye Old Federal Building, Hello City Annex II



The beautiful, historic "old Federal building" directly across from Jarvis Plaza will soon belong to the City of Laredo if everything proceeds as planned. Under the Historic Surplus Property Program, the US Government cedes certain "surplus" federal properties to local and states governments at no cost. Before doing so, an application process must be followed and approved by National Park Service. Once approved, the NPS then makes a formal recommendation to (in this case) the General Services Administration (GSA).

Following the practice of namimg the former Paul Young Dealership on Loop 20 as "Laredo City Hall Annex", it follows that the old court house/post office will probably be named the Laredo Downtown City Hall Annex- or something like that. Let's hope it's put to good use.

9 comments:

  1. Cuanto que it's gonna be a pawn shop? :P

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  2. On the bottom floor si, pero arriba van a ser maquinitas!

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  3. Actually, it would be great if the city took over the building, gets the money from the county they are spending on the Farias house, and takes the money from the Becklehymer(sp?) house and use it to build a first class museum for Laredo.

    Having museums all over Laredo is as wasteful as having 44 city parks.

    A large, downtown museum would be an attraction and a great place to house the arts.

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  4. PS, there is room for expansion on this property also.

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  5. This would be a wonderful location for a children's museum. It is centrally located, and is walking distance from two plazas. The city could take the lead and create a mixed public/private partnership with the Imaginarium of South Texas.

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  6. I agree that these are definitely good ideas that should be at least seriously looked into. It would draw more people into the downtown and not just on Saturdays. Those are already involved in such things (children's attractions,history/local museums should approach the city since they (city) are more likely to listen to them-I would think.

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  7. I meant "those who are already involved"- typo.

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  8. I thought the city wanted to make it the new council chambers? It was one of the discussions at the council retreat held last year. Que Fregados

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  9. things never get BETTER when government gets BIGGER..
    more room for technocrats earning bloated wages leeching off the poor taxpayers.

    for example.. WHY DO WE NEED A CITY TAX OFFICE..all other cities bill your property taxes through one property ID issued by the county of record.. close UISD tax Office, and City Tax OFFice save millions

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