With an $11 million check freshly signed and delivered by the state, the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District is seeking contractors to begin construction of permanent headquarters.
The state money, awarded to the district as part of the Proposition 1B funds, will allow for the construction of a three-story office complex at Metro’s River Street yard in Santa Cruz.
The new building, said General Manager Les White, would not only replace the need for rental facilities, but also allow the district to retire the office buildings there that had been designed only for temporary use — in 1979.
The temporary buildings, adjacent to the bus-washing facility, will be demolished, and the land will be used for more parking for the district’s bus fleet.
According to Dene Bustichi, a member of the SCMTD board and Scotts Valley City Council, the new construction would create about 300 jobs over a 2½ year span. It could begin as soon as this summer.
“We’re ready to go,” Bustichi said. “We just needed the funding.”
He said the often cash-strapped district could only benefit by moving its offices from rented space and into a centralized facility owned by the agency. Renting and leasing office space regularly cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.
“It redirects the amount of general fund monies that we spend on rent and leases and allows us to put that back into (bus) services,” Bustichi said.
