By Steve Stockmar | Daily Independent
The $100 million downtown campus renovation project is soon to begin, with City Hall in the midst of vacating all employees to temporary off-site workplaces.
The project is expected to take two years, with a timetable to have personnel moved back in for a grand reopening in early 2025.
The 215-plus employees who call City Hall home on the downtown campus will be set up at various city-owned properties around town to keep the business of municipal government functioning during the sprawling renovation. In addition to the entirety of the 39-year-old building itself, the adjacent parking garage, Council Chambers, Murphy Park, and the E. Lowell Rogers Amphitheatre all will also undergo major renovations.
Earlier this spring Glendale City Manager Kevin Phelps expected “intense” construction to begin by September.
“We’re trying to look for ways to minimize impact to downtown,” Phelps said at the time.
While city operations will continue during the renovation, the manner in which at least one of those operations – City Council communication – is off to a dubious start.
