Photo by George Lauby The three-story federal building.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is preparing a move into the federal building downtown at 300 E. Third.

FREE Mobile Banking NOW AVAILABLE!

The building will be completely renovated during the next year. Suspected illegal immigrants will be held on the first floor.

Preliminary construction could begin in September or October, spokesman Charlie Cook said Tuesday. Full-scale construction is expected next spring.

Vacant space on the first floor of the building will be converted to temporary holding facilities for immigrants, where they will stay as long as 12 hours at a time. A sally-port for delivery vehicles could be added to the building.

In the process, the entire federal building will get new utilities and other upgrades, Cook said. The total cost of renovations is $6.2 million, of which $1.2 million is for architecture work.

The federal building currently houses the U.S. Postal Service, the Social Security Administration, a U.S. District Court and an Internal Revenue Office. All of those services are expected to continue throughout the construction, Cook said.

ICE currently keeps detainees in the old K-Mart building on Eugene Ave., south of Interstate-80. ICE leases part of that building for $100,000 a year, owner Mark Wilkinson said. The former K-Mart building was subdivided and partitioned to meet the ICE needs 10 years ago.

Wilkinson and ICE have discussed a new lease off and on for more than a year, Wilkinson said.

“Some higher power is forcing it (the move),” Wilkinson said. “We discussed upgrading the building a year ago and again 4-5 months ago. The wanted to explore expanding the size, and we did some design work on that.”

Cook said the General Services Administration, the agency that oversees federal buildings, started looking at possible new locations as the lease with Wilkinson was expiring, as required by federal policies.

Then, when the federal recovery act (stimulus act) became law in February, it motivated ICE to move to the federal building.

The stimulus act intends to make federal government buildings more energy efficient, and to combine federal offices and help downtown urban areas if possible. Those intents sealed the deal for the federal building.

Wilkinson is not happy about losing his tenant.

“The existing location is close to major highways (Interstate-80 and U.S. Highway 83),” he said. “We’re happy to have them here. It will cost a lot for us to retrofit and remodel the building for another use.”

Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture of Omaha is designing the remodel. The construction manager/general contractor will be Boyd Jones Construction of Omaha.

According to the federal business opportunities website, the project involves “new energy management system, new plumbing fixtures, restroom renovations, new cabinet unit heaters and cooling tower, ceiling system replacement and wall painting, carpet, floor base, stair covering and floor tile replacement, repair basement water damage, sidewalk replacement and landscaping, new boilers, building shell and tenant improvement work, asbestos abatement, and window replacement.”