Few are looking to build new office buildings amid soaring vacancy rates and construction costs, but the Georgia government is about to.
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The Georgia General Assembly on Monday approved $392M in spending to refurbish the golden dome of the state Capitol and build a 260K SF legislative office building, along with a 500-car parking deck, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
The spending is part of the $68B state budget package that was approved and still needs to be signed by Gov. Brian Kemp. Rep. Matt Hatchett, a Republican who also chairs the House Appropriations Committee, told fellow representatives Monday that the budget is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to fund the full cost to refurbish the gold dome, built in 1889, and expand and modernize legislators' offices, according to the AJC.
Lawmaker offices are in the Coverdell Legislative Office Building on the south side of the Capitol, a structure built originally for the state health agencies but refurbished in the 1980s for legislators, according to the AJC. The building is insufficient to house offices and needs meeting rooms and new heating and mechanical systems, Gerald Pilgrim, the deputy executive director of the Georgia Building Authority, told the AJC.
“We’re bursting at the seams in this Capitol and across the street in the CLOB,” Hatchett said.
Instead, the state will develop an eight-story office building on the north side of the gold dome on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive that will also include a skybridge to the Capitol. If signed into law, construction would start in October and wrap up by the end of 2026.
The Capitol would also get improved heating and air systems, a new layer of gold over the curved roof and a restoration of historic features, including the restoration of the grand library, which has become offices.
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