Huntersville moves forward to build NEW Town Hall

During our Town Board Meeting this week, the Town Board approved adopting Resolution “Resolution Determining Design-Build is the Appropriate Method of Contracting for New Town Hall Project and Establishing Criteria Under Which the Design-Build Method for Contracting is Appropriate.”  In short, we are moving forward toward building a new Town Hall Building.

Some History …

The current Town Hall along with the old Police Station (Blythe Building) was constructed back in 1997.  Both were built without a vision for future growth.  The Huntersville Police moved out of their building in 2012 due to a lack of space.  The current Town Hall only has room for about a dozen employees.  Most of our employees are across the street at the Town Center Building (Parks & Rec, Engineering, Planning, IT).  Unfortunately, that space is not big enough to put everyone under one roof.  Future headcount will exacerbate that situation further.

The current Town Hall’s Board Chamber is too small to hold meetings or conduct larger community gatherings.  Even before COVID-19 which requires social distancing, the Monday night Town Board Meetings had folks spilling out into the halls due to lack of space.  There is also very limited parking at the current location and many who attend meetings have to park across the street and at our parking deck.

The Future …

The new Town Hall will be built in the grassy area in front of the Town Center Building which currently leases space to Discover Place Kids (DPK).  The town owns this land.  There is no need to incur the additional cost of purchasing land.  An additional benefit of this location is the town-owned parking deck adjacent to this property.  We don’t have to pay for or pave additional space in our downtown.  With the new space, we could provide space for county services, become a voting location, provide community space, and many other activities.  This new building along with the current Town Center Building means we will have an appropriate amount of space for the future population projections of Huntersville.

When built, the current Town Hall site will be sold.  In addition to the property that the Town Hall sits on, the town owns the property just behind it (the old Car Quest building).  A developer recently purchased an adjoining that property which makes the combined properties attractive for redevelopment.

With this approval of this new Town Hall and sale of the current Town Hall site, Huntersville will no longer have government buildings on the corner lot in our downtown.  This will allow for private development dollars to create new opportunities for economic growth and additional amenities in our downtown.