The Bank of America branch in Reedley closed in August. The City of Reedley plans to purchase the buildilng. Photo by Estela Anahi Jaramillo

Reedley will have a new city hall after purchasing the building where Bank of America operated until this summer.

 At 936 G. St., the two-story building was one of nearly two dozen Bank of of America financial centers in the Central Valley. The branch closed in August.

The building is around 12,000 square feet and will cost Reedley $1.3 million — nearly half of the $2.5 million appraised value.

The news was first reported by Mid Valley Times.

The original city hall was built in 1960, when the city population was just 6,000. Over 60 years later, Reedley’s population has more than quadrupled to 26,000. The increase in population means that the nearly 65-year-old city building has grown more crowded.

“There is literally not one unused space in the current facility and our staff is jammed close together,” Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba said in an email. “In addition, we brought in a mobile home a decade ago, adjacent to our current facility that is housing our Detectives, Police Victim Service Advocate, and staff analysts. It’s not a long-term solution for our staff.”

An expansion has been in discussion for over a decade. There were even talks of a new city hall being built behind the current one, but the city official felt the $16 million construction price tag — financed as high as $30 million over 30 years — was too much to spend.

Zieba said that $1 million of the investment came from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARPA) following coronavirus.

“Instead of giving lavish raises or spending it on pet projects like many cities did, our Council wisely squirreled a portion of our ARPA dollars away for a future City Hall expansion,” Zieba said. 

The new building will undergo multiple renovations to meet the demands of staff and the public and won’t be completed for a few years.