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NEDERLAND — The city of Nederland is looking to sell a former bank building on Boston Avenue that was previously earmarked for use for emergency management.

The building, once home to Bank of America at 1308 Boston Ave., will be listed with Coldwell Banker Commercial Arnold and Associates with a price of $650,000. The city council will have the discretion to review any offer made on the property, whether greater or lower than the listing price and could potentially make a decision to accept the offer, city manager Chris Duque said.

Some background

The ownership of the property has changed hands several times over the past four years. The Nederland Economic Development Corporation bought the property from Ploutti, Inc. in 2021 for $520,000. 

During that October of 2021 transaction period, there were smaller leasers operating at the location.  At the time, Nederland EDC leaders floated the redevelopment idea of turning the location into an event center, business incubator or bed and breakfast. Those were merely preliminary ideas and not a complete list of what ultimately was considered, but none came to fruition.

The city of Nederland bought the building from the NEDC for $558,415 in 2023 with the plan of moving emergency management operations there. 

“(It was) the need for an area for our employees to stay and sleep during a disaster, namely a hurricane,” Duque said of relocating staff from the Bob Henson Building on Atlanta Avenue which holds the city’s inspections department, code enforcement and IT. 

The idea was to have a place for these employees to go so they could resume operations as soon as safely possible as opposed to waiting for them to return to town following an evacuation. Duque said the city of Port Neches has a similar plan where their employees will utilize a safe city building.

The idea of the city using the upstairs for emergency management was a possibility back when the EDC owned the property. 

“We started exploring that as an option,” he said. “Council hired PGAL, an engineering firm, to assess the building and determine what, if any improvements need to be made to harden the building to withstand up to a category 4 (hurricane) and know we could safely keep our people in that building.”

In November 2022, council hired PGAL to perform architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection and landscape architecture work for the upstairs portion only for a cost of $299,000. 

PGAL was hired again, this time in January 2024 after the city took ownership of the property, for work downstairs for a cost of $225,000. The cost of the 2024 architectural fees was likely lower because much of the field work had already been performed and because the layout was different. In addition, there is the need for a commercial kitchen upstairs in order to prepare food for the employees during a disaster.

There was also thought given to having an open area for training and large meetings for the essential employees and emergency management on the first floor. 

The plan to use the building for emergency management didn’t pan out as expected. The price tag for asbestos abatement and hardening of the building to withstand a major hurricane comes at a cost that wasn’t economically feasible. 

The city has acquired more property that could be used for a new facility for emergency management. The city approved the purchase of two pieces of property, 204 N. 13th St. and 212 N. 13th St. from First Methodist Church for $160,000 at a February 2024 meeting. 

Construction of an emergency management facility for this location has been discussed by Nederland council members several times, the latest was at the Feb.  10, 2025  meeting, Duque said.

No decision has been made on construction of a new facility.