The city of Bend is moving forward with plans to build a new public works facility on city-owned land at Juniper Ridge, consolidating a number of departments under one roof.

The new facility, expected to be operational in 2025, will house five city departments on a single campus in northeast Bend. Kirby Nagelhout Construction Co. and Hennebery Eddy Architects were selected to construct the new campus, the two firms announced this week.

The new facility will house departments currently at four city properties, including its current 5-acre public works yard on Boyd Acres Road in the north part of town.

Grant Burke, the city’s facilities manager, said the project is way overdue. The facility on Boyd Acres Road was built several decades ago, he said. The city of Bend plans to sell the current facility and recently sold off another adjacent 5-acre lot. The new public works yard at Juniper Ridge off Cooley Road will be a significantly larger — 26.5 acres.

“Currently, our utility folks are over at our Boyd Acres (Road) property. And they’re outgrowing that space,” Burke said. “Our transportation mobility team is at the Pilot Butte campus, and they are outgrowing that space. And then we have our engineering infrastructure planning team that is currently located at the downtown space.”

Burke said bringing multiple city departments under one roof at the new Juniper Ridge facility will increase efficiency, and make the city a better steward of the public’s funds.

The five departments at the new site are: the engineering and infrastructure department, the planning department, the utilities department, transportation and mobility department, and fleet services, where the city’s rolling stock of vehicles and equipment will be stored and serviced by mechanics, Burke said.

Jo Wells, the principal project manager for the city, said the project is in the beginning phases.

She said the city is considering the needs of its departments, and how fast Bend is expected to grow over time in order to properly size the new facility. She said the city is also considering how it will afford the new facility and how to offset costs.

“It is a unique opportunity to co-locate a number of departments that work closely together that are currently separated,” Wells said. “So, we will be able to gain a lot of efficiency by them working together.”

Wells said the city is still working to determine a ballpark figure on how much the new facility will cost, and said she expects it will cost more than the $60 million dollars previously estimated, as the needs of the city have since changed.

“We want to make sure we are being fiscally responsible with taxpayers’ money. Right now all of the departments have outgrown their space,” Wells said.

“They have made due with spaces that were not purposely built for them for many years. Grant (Burke) has done an amazing job keeping buildings and sites functioning well past their useful life.”