The City of Spartanburg and Spartanburg County will share space in a new 180,000 square-foot building one block from Morgan Square after Spartanburg City Council’s recent 6-0 vote to approve the current City Hall site on W Broad Street for construction of a new city-county government complex.
Council member Rob Rain was absent from the meeting.
The site was previously approved unanimously by Spartanburg County Council at their meeting on April 18. First approved by Spartanburg County voters in 2017 as part of the one percent sales tax increase that also funds construction of the new Spartanburg County Judicial Center, the new facility will stand between 4 and 6 stories and include an adjacent parking deck with around 500-600 spaces.
Located one block from Morgan Square, the W Broad Street site beat out nine other sites in the downtown area and met County and City criteria for the new facility including size (greater than 2 acres), walkability to Morgan Square, and the ability for public use of parking infrastructure during non-operating hours. The current City Hall site was the least expensive of all nine options as well, with a net cost of $600,000-$700,000 to prepare the site for construction, which includes demolition of the current City Hall and a deeper, more secure foundation than would often be required due to poor soil conditions on the site.
With the site receiving approval from both Spartanburg County Council and Spartanburg City Council, City Manager Chris Story said that the next step for the project will issuing a request for proposals for architectural and engineering services to plan the site and design the building. Construction on the project will begin once City Police and Fire department operations relocate, with the Fire Department headquarters moving to the former Integral Solutions building at 450 Wofford Street after that facility’s renovation is complete, and the Police Department moving to a new facility that will be constructed at the intersection of St. John Street extension and Wofford St. Construction on the new joint city-county complex is expected to be completed in 2025.
For more from the recent meeting on Monday, April 25, see the full video below.
Spartanburg City Council meeting, April 25, 2022 from City of Spartanburg on Vimeo.
Prepared by the City of Spartanburg.