Getting the Plum Town Center built hinges on selling or leasing the borough building on New Texas Road and developing that area into stores, offices and restaurants — a project that will help pay for construction of the new municipal digs.

And officials are ready to roll on the first mission so they can get going on the other — though they consider the two projects intricately linked as one $21 million venture.

“The sooner we start the better because, well, who knows where the markets are going to be after this election,” Plum Mayor Richard Hrivnak said last week.

In a seven-person, casual roundtable discussion Nov. 9, Hrivnak and other officials said the best plan would be finding a company to work with the borough to develop the 13 acres on New Texas Road that includes the municipal building.

“We need to partner with somebody that can bring something to the table in order to fix this chicken and egg problem that we have,” said Michael Thomas, borough manager. “We have done all the homework and have gotten the necessary baseline information on the property. We have every bit of information that a developer or purchaser would want to know about it.”

Thomas said last week that one thing that has to be decided is whether to move government offices while both sites are developed simultaneously and then transition to the town center, or build the new municipal facilities built first and move after the property is developed.

“You can't do anything ... until you have a plan for your municipal operations,” he said.

A request for proposals is expected to be sent out to developers by early January. Council should be in a position to accept proposals from developers by April or May, Thomas said. Developing the New Texas property would be an estimated $11.8 million of the overall project cost.

The plan is to put revenue from that business venture toward the Town Center development on 110 acres along Old Mine Road in the Renton neighborhood, which already houses fire and emergency services buildings. Officials have said they want to build the Town Center without increasing taxes.

The Town Center, a roughly $9.7 million project, would house a police station, municipal offices, gym, a plaza and a community center — essentially an all-in-one government service center.

Architectural drawings for the projects were made public in early October and can be viewed in the borough office lobby. Despite its recent debut, the development of these two properties was a concept officials have been mulling for more than a decade.

“This building here ... besides the fact that it's old and dilapidated, we have completely outgrown it,” Hrivnak said.

Christine Manganas is a freelance writer for the Tribune-Review. Staff writer Mike DiVittorio contributed to this report.

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