Montgomery's New City Hall in the Old Jim's Hardware Is Now a $16.6 Million Job. In December 2025 the Estimate Was About $10 Million.
By The Magnolia Standard · November 13, 2026
The hardware store closed in 2025 and the city bought the building. Turning it into City Hall and a police station now has a price, and it is well above the first one.
Montgomery plans to move City Hall and its police department into the former Jim's Hardware building on Liberty Street. On Monday night, November 9, the city's contractor gave the council a number for the job: $16.6 million.
That figure comes from Tellepsen, the contractor, and it covers renovating the 32,000-square-foot building plus expanding and replacing the parking lot. Construction is expected to start by March and take about a year.
What the first estimate said
The council got its first look at the idea on December 9, 2025. Jon Stevens, a representative of the McFate Group, showed a two-story layout of about the same size with an estimated price of $10 million. The drawings were preliminary then, at what he called a test-fit stage.
The concept put the council chamber at the center of the building, gave the police their own entrance, and kept public offices apart from police work such as booking and evidence. It also added windows and a canopy, so the place would read as a civic building and not a store.
Between the two numbers is about $6.6 million. The new figure includes the parking lot work. The reports we have do not say how much of the difference that accounts for, so we are not going to guess.
Mayor Sara Countryman has said the building should be planned for a city staff that could reach 100 people. The reporting on Monday's meeting describes it as able to hold more than 100 employees eventually.
The drainage question
More pavement means more water running off the property. Countryman raised it at the meeting. "The people down the hill from this property do not need to take on the additional water and the dissipation of their property values," she said. "There needs to be improved drainage."
A fire department hub, too
The same night, the council approved a $10,000 escrow agreement with Montgomery County Emergency Services District No. 2. The district has bought nine acres off Plez Morgan Drive and plans what it calls a "hub for administration, training, logistics, and support services" for the Montgomery County Fire Department.
The escrow repays the city for the cost of overseeing that development. Zachary Timms of WGA, the city's engineering consultant, said the site will have a detention pond and that the city is watching the area as drainage work goes on.
What comes next
Work on the hardware building is due to begin by March. Montgomery City Council meets in public, and its agendas post ahead of each meeting. The next figure worth watching is the construction contract the council approves before that start.
Editor's note: we chose straight reporting because these are figures given to the council in public and a vote it took. Nobody at the meeting disputed the numbers; the question of whether the project is worth its cost is one Montgomery residents can weigh for themselves.
Sources: Community Impact's November 10, 2026 report on the November 9 council meeting, by Michael Slaten, for the $16.6 million figure, what it covers, the schedule, the building's size and staffing, the closing and purchase of the store, Mayor Countryman's quote and the ESD No. 2 escrow agreement; and Community Impact's December 15, 2025 report on the December 9 presentation, by Nichaela Shaheen, for the $10 million estimate and the design. The city had not posted the November 9 agenda packet where we could read it when this went to press. Corrections: editor@themagnoliastandard.news.