This is a project that has been known of for a while, but more information is coming out. The Clarence Lightner Public Safety Center will be the future home of administrative personnel for Raleigh’s Fire and Police departments. Additionally the building may house some other city offices. Preliminary plans call for a 15 story building with 260,000 sq ft of office space. The building will be built next to the Avery C. Upchurch government complex on Hargett Street (Site currently occupied by a police station). More information as it becomes available.
Thoughts about the project so far
I’m a little disappointed with the size. In my opinion Raleigh really needs to take this opportunity to build a true city hall that holds all city offices. While its great that Raleigh stepped in to occupy One Exchange Plaza, its time to consolidate all the city offices. Also at the rate that Raleigh is growing city government is only going to expand. This building should probably be bumped up about 5-10 stories of office space AND incorporate at least a few levels of parking.
Overall this would free up another parcel adjacent to Nash Square. Also if Raleigh what’s an “iconic” building a 25 story building in this location would REALLY stand out on the skyline.
I definitely agree with you. This is a unique opportunity to create an impressive and iconic City Hall, with all the administrative offices housed in it. The biggest challenge will be to finance a 25+ story building, especially if a 15-story version of it is hard to pay for. Ideally, the city could co-develop the entire block with some private entities. Then again we have a problem: There are many projects currently under way and having another major office tower would oversaturate the market.
There is another possibility. We could potentially raze that uninspired low-rise currently used as City Hall and build something much bigger on that site. We can only hope that the city officials will come up with the best plan for using such valuable space. That block deserves something along the same lines with The Edison.
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!