JAMES CITY COUNTY – James City County is moving forward with the transformation of its government operations after supervisors this week approved the final construction agreement for its $177 million centralized government center.
With a 3-2 Tuesday vote, supervisors authorized the next phase of the project on Longhill Road, with Powhatan District Supervisor Tracy Wainwright and Stonehouse District Supervisor Barbara E. Null voting against the measure without comment.
The final agreement tasks the joint team of Henderson, Inc. and Gilbane Building Company with constructing the new center, which is designed to consolidate most county departments under one roof.
The project, which began its design phase in early 2024, has been a subject of local discussion during public hearings, with some residents raising concerns about the project’s impact on the county’s debt.
The county administration maintains the new building is necessary to accommodate a 60 percent surge in population in the last two decades, according to the county website. While renovation of existing offices was considered at an estimated cost of $140 million, that would not solve the issue of decentralization.
The project, which began with preliminary designs in 2024 and proceeded through several phased agreements in 2025, now advances from the planning stage to active construction, with project timelines to be determined by the construction schedule, county staff said. The center is slated for completion in mid-2028.
According to county documents, the administration’s total office space now sits at about 120,000 square feet, falling short of the estimated 210,000 square feet that will be needed by 2043.
Rather than continuing to operate out of multiple buildings, the county plans to bring the Commissioner of the Revenue, county administration, treasurer, social services and several other departments into one campus. The consolidation aims to trim the footprint needed to approximately 180,000 square feet by sharing common amenities like conference rooms, storage and break areas.
While the Board of Supervisors greenlit construction of the government center, a proposed 25,000-square-foot Williamsburg Public Library branch and associated off-site road improvements remain on a separate track and are not included in the $177 million price tag. Both are expected to return before the board later this year or in early 2027.
As the new center moves into the construction phase, officials are also turning their attention to the future of the current government campus off Mounts Bay Road.
County Administrator Scott Stevens said the board’s focus should be avoiding vacancies and noted he has spoken with Williamsburg-James City County Schools officials regarding a potential renovation for their central office.
“At the end of it when we vacate this campus, these buildings shouldn’t sit vacant too long as they then will fall into disrepair,” Stevens told the board Tuesday. “They’ve been well maintained, we’ve outgrown them but I think they do have some useful life left.”
