April 26, 2024
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Cary’s new municipal center to open to public Dec. 17

The village will host public tours of the space on Dec. 14.

By Cassie Buchman
The new Cary Municipal Center is seen at dawn on Monday, Nov. 22, 2021 in Cary. Village officials and police have not yet moved, as the building is not finished, but the construction fencing surrounding the new building are gone, allowing for a better view of the building.

The new Cary Municipal Center is seen at dawn on Monday, Nov. 22, 2021, in Cary. Village officials and police have not yet moved, but the construction fencing surrounding the new building are gone, allowing for a better view of the building. (Matthew Apgar)

Cary’s new municipal center, which started construction in 2020 after years of discussion, will open later this month to the public.

The new municipal center, which will house both the village hall and police station, officially opens to the public on Dec. 17, but Cary officials will host public tours of the 21,000-square-foot space at 4 p.m. Dec. 14.

“I know that our staff are really excited to move into this new building,” Village Administrator Jake Rife said. “It’s just a beautiful building. We are excited about showing it off to the community and letting our residents see the project.”

Part of this excitement is because building a new municipal building for Cary is something that has been talked about for almost 30 years, Rife said.

The new facility, at 755 Georgetown Drive, is being built because the old one, Cary Mayor Mark Kownick and Police Chief Patrick Finlon said, is not “purpose-built” and caused various inefficiencies and confusion for village staff and residents because of the way it was structured.

In the new municipal center, people will be able to walk through the front door and see the village’s finance, administration and development office on one side, with the police department on the other. The village board room, where meetings take place, would be in the center.

Although much of the construction happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, “the stars really did align for this project to be able to get it done,” Rife said, adding the project was completed on time.

For the municipal center, the village issued $11.2 million in general obligation bonds, which it expects to pay off in 30 years. Rife said Cary’s interest rate on these bonds is less than 3%.

No tax increases were necessary for the design and construction of the building. Cary is using existing revenue sources to help make the debt payments.

Everyone – including the architects, the construction management company and village staff – all had the same goal and mission when it came to what they wanted to do with the municipal center, Rife said.

“We were all working well together through the whole process and the product shows [that]” Rife said.

On Monday, village staff started the process of packaging items up and moving them over to their new Georgetown Drive workplace, but “there’s still a lot more that we have to do,” Rife said.

Because of the move, the village staff is encouraging residents to complete any necessary business they have with Cary by Dec. 14 or wait until the week of Dec. 20, there will be some “shuffling around” as village staff go through the moving process, Rife said.