Renovations to the third floor of the old Levee Street Depot for Vicksburg Main Street’s offices are expected to begin in December.

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen Wednesday approved a $105,660 change order with Kenneth R. Thompson Jr. Builder of Greenwood, the depot renovation contractor, to build the Main Street offices on the south end of the third floor.

City buildings and inspection director Victor Gray-Lewis, the renovation project coordinator, said the work should begin early next month and is expected to take at least three months.

“The first and second floors of the depot are completed,” he said. “The third floor is pretty much the same as it has been, but the air conditioning and sprinkler systems have been installed.”

Plans accompanying the change order show two offices and a workroom for Main Street and a conference room that Main Street will share with the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors. The VCVB’s offices will share the second floor with a portion of the transportation museum.

Main Street and the VCVB in 2010 agreed to lease space in the depot from the city for 20 years at $500 a month for rent and utilities. The VCVB also agreed to pay $150,000 toward the city’s match of a $1.65 million Mississippi Department of Transportation grant to renovate the building.

Mayor Paul Winfield said the $150,000 will be used to pay for the third-floor renovations.

VCVB executive director Bill Seratt said the bureau is ready to move into the building as soon as the details are worked out with the city.

“We are looking forward to moving into the historic depot,” Seratt said.

Work on the depot restoration began in 2010 and was halted in the spring when the Mississippi River dumped 4 feet of water into the building as it reached record heights in Vicksburg, cresting on May 19 at 57.1, 14.1 feet above flood stage and nine-tenths of a foot above the Great Flood of 1927.

The depot became the backdrop for media coverage during the flood, and work resumed in June.

The flood forced two amendments to the original contract to repair flood damage. The board in September approved a $33,000 amendment to repair flood damage that was not covered by the contractor’s insurance. In August, it approved a $23,000 supplemental agreement with Kenneth R. Thompson Jr. to repair flood damage to the depot that was not covered under the original agreement.

City officials said the flood repair work had been filed with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for reimbursement.