VIRGINIA BEACH — City hall at the Municipal Center and the technology inside is beginning to show its age.
Asbestos in the building isn’t hazardous to its guests and staff, but it’s keeping crews from replacing things like piping, a 48-year-old main electric board or air handling units, according to Thomas Nicholas, public works facilities manager.
“The challenge we have is we have a building where those systems will eventually fail, and I can’t do anything about it without emptying out the building, cleaning the asbestos and replacing those systems,” Nicholas said.
Additionally, Nicholas said only about 62,000 square feet of the 80,000 square-foot building is usable.
“There’s some space shortages,” Nicholas said. “The purchasing department cannot co-locate with finance … the council chambers, mayor, city manager spaces and staffing areas don’t meet today’s needs.”
Nicholas weighed eight different options to address the issue with city council Tuesday afternoon.
A study conducted by Moseley Architects found that a 123,000 square-foot building would be the standard for the departments that operate in it currently. Nicholas also said the study found that it would need to expand to 149,000 square feet to support city government 50 years from now.
Tony Bell of Moseley Architects said the firm then created seven options to address the space deficiency based on its findings, with Armada Hoffler-Clark Nexsen sending an eighth proposal to the city last week.
The first option would be a $56.8 million renovation and addition to the existing city hall, expanding it to 149,089 square-feet.
Advantages for this option include keeping city hall familiar to people who know it, and no need to supplement parking. Disadvantages include that it will take the longest to build out of the other possibilities and would also involve constructing a structure directly next to the building.
Options two through six include erecting a new building somewhere at the Municipal Center. The prices range from $55.6 to $57.1 million to construct a 149,089 square-foot building.
All of the options above would feature a similar Georgian-style architecture city hall already has, according to Bell.
The last two options involve relocating city hall to Town Center. One possibility would be to move it to city-owned land where a Circuit City used to stand. This could cost the city about $66 million, which also includes the price of a parking garage.
The last option would be to enter an agreement with Armada Hoffler-Clark Nexsen for a land transaction to have city hall where Regal Cinemas currently stands. The building could be 140,000 square-feet at a cost yet to be determined, which would also include parking.
“I think an essential key ingredient of this whole process is going to be the civic engagement from day one,” Council member Robert Dyer said.
“I think we have to make this part of an overall strategic map about all the problems we are contending with in the city, whether it be stormwater, maintaining public safety, any type of infrastructure, pension liability and everything else.”
City Manager Dave Hansen will present additional details of the Armada Hoffler-Clark Nexsen proposal to city council at its meeting Tuesday, June 6.
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