Advice needed. Being evicted by city. Involve lawyers and put them on the defensive, or wait and preserve goodwill?

I have a small business that leases a suite. The building the suite is in was purchased by the city. They’re going to demolish the building. We signed an agreement that we will be out of here by the end of September unless there’s some sort of hardship and then we might be granted an extension. Well, my business requires a lot of electricity, so our new suite needs to have the wiring built up to support our equipment. This job will likely cost over 300,000 usd.

The city has agreed to pay for any upgrades that directly support the equipment. They can either reimburse my business or pay the electricians/contractors directly. My business can not afford to pay the 300k and wait to be reimbursed, so we are trying to have the city pay the bill directly. Well the city is dragging its feet approving the quote for the renovations. We’ve been trying to get approvals since the start of last month but it takes a week or more to get a response from the city and they keep wanting the contractors to elaborate on why certain renovations are necessary.

At this point I do need an extension on my move out date. In past communications they’ve expressed an extreme reluctance to grant any sort of extension on my lease.

Would it be better to draft a letter asking the city for extension myself or should I hire lawyers to draft it? I’m afraid the letter requesting an extension will be declined if I don’t have lawyers draft it. But also, if they decline it I’d like to sue the city so that the courts pause my eviction until the case is settled. If I have the lawyers draft it, the city might catch on to my plan to file a law suit for more time.