New City Hall takes shape

John Bourne's legacy as North Charleston mayor is a five-story City Hall on LaCross Road.

Mayor Keith Summey plans to leave behind a new City Hall as well.

"My goal is to leave the city in a position for the next 20 or 30 years so future mayors will not be caught needing so much space," North Charleston's third mayor in 36 years said Thursday as he strolled through the vast open space of the new building on a tour with The Post and Courier.

The four-story building across the street on Mall Drive dwarfs the current City Hall's 56,000 square feet by nearly three times.

Built as an office building, the spacious edifice caught City Council's eye earlier this year. The city decided to buy and retrofit it for up to $37.5 million to move all departments except one under its roof and provide extra space for the 1,024 full-time employees who are cramped into the LaCross Road facility and others scattered across the city.

"This gives us an opportunity to bring the majority of government to one building," Summey said.

Only the city's Public Works Department will not be housed in the new facility. It eventually will move from its outdated quarters on Aragon Street to what is now the City Annex off Remount Road.

Summey and staff assistants Ray Anderson and Ryan Johnson beamed as they climbed the stairs from floor to floor, pointing out the extra space and a yet-to-be added 100-foot skylight on the top floor and a proposed spacious lobby jutting out from the what will become the main south entrance.

"It's really a great building," Summey said. "But we have to do some upfitting that will last a lifetime."

The bottom floor will be a secured employee parking lot beneath the upper three floors of office space. With 90 parking spaces under the building, 500 more surrounding it and space for others in a nearby theater parking lot, the city will have more than 1,000 parking spaces. It currently has 220.

"Oh my God. If the courts were there (inside the current City Hall), we couldn't make it all," the mayor said.

A holding cell, interrogation room and video conference room will be added on the southwest corner under the new building so police can bring suspects in without interaction with the public. An elevator also will be added on the west side to move suspects to four courtrooms on what will be the first floor of office space above the parking deck.

Part of the police department, including the duty officer, crime scene evidence, detectives division and administrative support, will be on the same floor as the courtrooms. That will make it easier to access evidence and move personnel for court functions, Anderson said.

Bathrooms will be in the center of each floor, and a central staircase will be added. The building currently has four stairwells on each side of the 165,000-square-foot building. Each department head also will have a sink and toilet, and each department will have a conference room or training area.

A workout center could be added inside the parking deck as well, Summey said.

On the second floor above the parking deck will be the administrative offices of the police department, including those of the police chief, head of juvenile crime and victim's advocate. The floor will be shared with fire, code enforcement, cultural arts and recreation departments. None of those are currently inside City Hall.

The top floor will house the mayor's office, council chambers and departments for legal, personnel, building, finance, planning, purchasing, zoning and information systems.

The city plans to move into the new building by mid-2009.

"This will meet the needs of the city for years to come," Summey said.

Reach Warren Wise at 745-5850 or wwise@postandcourier.com.