London’s city hall is more than 40 years old. That’s not a long time for a building to survive, but it is past the point where many such structures would have received a major makeover.

Recognizing this, and responding to the reality that the building at the very least needs to have its asbestos removed, council voted $1.5 million to gut and rebuild the 11th floor.

But to what end?

City estimates are that it will cost $20,000,000 to redo the entire building, but we know how accurate such predictions generally are. It could easily climb several million beyond that.

But lets suppose, just for fun, that it does not. Let’s work with the $20,000,000 figure.

There are 700,000 square feet of empty office space downtown. Filling some of them with city hall departments would be a huge step forward in the renaissance of the heart of our city. And such space can be leased for as little as $7 or $8 per square foot.

To spend the $20 million the city will have to borrow the money. At a nominal rate of 5%, that would cost $1,000,000 a year in interest costs. At $8 per, the city could lease 125,000 square feet for the cost of the interest alone, never mind paying off any of the principle!

I recognize that as the loan is paid down the interest costs will decrease, but you still have to come up with $20 million.

And yes, doing so would mean the city would eventually own the building free and clear again, but not likely in less than 20 years, and at a cost which will have grown far beyond the value of the building at that point.

The bottom line is this: the existing city hall is too small now and is not going to get any bigger. There are several major landlords with appropriate space available downtown, including Sifton, Old Oak and Farhi, and other smaller ones, too.

Instead of wasting tens of millions of dollars to refurbish a building that was badly designed to begin with, council should do the smart thing and put out a tender request for as much space as they need.

Take the best deal (which will be significantly less than $10 per square foot, for sure), move the staff out over the next little while, then look at selling the old building.

If you look at the piece of land that includes City Hall, Centennial Hall and Reg Cooper Square, it is the most prime parcel left in the downtown. It should bring a premium price, and council could include terms in the sale that would ensure development that would be complementary to Victoria Park and the other buildings that surround it.

And the substantial amount of money that would be realized could be used to the betterment of the city, rather than wasting tax dollars on interest costs for borrowed money to fix up an outdated building.

If there ever was a no-brainer for council, this is it. But we’ll wait and see.