State workers on the move. Raleigh buildings slated for demolition. See what’s coming.

Thousands of state employees will move offices in the next few years, with two buildings in the state government complex slated for demolition and a new education campus to be built where one of them is now.

But as in other areas of North Carolina politics, what the legislative branch wants and what the executive branch wants stand in stark contrast.

Last year’s state budget, which put the Legislative Services Office in charge of the planned building demolitions and construction, calls for the demolition to take place by this fall.

A leader at the Department of Administration, which is one of Gov. Roy Cooper’s Cabinet agencies and which previously controlled those buildings, says not so fast — calling the budget’s demolition timeline “dangerously aggressive.”

Here’s what we know, and what we don’t.

The plan for the state government complex

Legislative Services Officer Paul Coble told The News & Observer in an interview that the plan is to try to shrink the footprint of state government buildings, most of which were built in the 1960s.

Coble, a former Raleigh mayor and Wake County commissioner, oversees some state government buildings, with more added in the past two state budgets. That shifted control to the Legislative Services Office from the Department of Administration regarding the Capitol dome replacement and the demolition of the Bath Building and Administration Building, as well as for constructing the new education campus that will go where the Administration is now on Jones Street.

In the 2021 state budget, Senate Bill 105, the Legislative Services Office was tasked with developing a long-term master maintenance plan for the Capitol, focusing on the roof and potential work that needed to be done. The result of that will be a full replacement of the roof, including the blue-hued copper dome, and moving HVAC utility boxes off the roof. That work should start this summer, Coble said.

North Carolina’s blue Capitol dome will change colors this year

The 2022 state budget slated the Administration and Bath buildings to be demolished by the end of October this year. But one of the top officials at the Department of Administration says that timeline is “unrealistic.”

Bath Building

The Bath Building, a North Carolina state government building that contained office space for the Department of Health and Human Services, will be demolished this year. Unlike the Administration Building, this demolition was also requested by Cooper in his 2022 budget proposal.

The Bath Building has sat mostly empty for years and has been considered an eyesore.

The land will be turned into green space, complementing North Carolina Freedom Park which is under construction across the street.

Coble said the building will be the first to come down and the easiest to empty, as fewer than 50 people are working there now. Some floors haven’t been used in years. Coble said the demolition could start this summer.

Mark Edwards, chief deputy secretary of Administration, said that the Bath Building demolition will start in the fourth quarter of the year.

Administration Building

Edwards said a series of dominoes have to fall in order for the moves to take place.

The State Auditor’s Office, which is now in the Old Revenue Building across from the Capitol on Salisbury Street, will move to the fourth and fifth floors of the Albermarle Building. That building, which houses the Department of Insurance, was renovated in 2018. Work should be complete in the coming months for the office, currently led by Auditor Beth Wood, to move into that space.

Coble said the auditor’s move will be the guinea pig for how state government office space is shifting. Buildings designed half a century ago don’t fit today’s office workplaces.

Edwards described the Administration Building as a “tank” and “bomb shelter.” Its basement is the former home of the state’s Emergency Operations Center, which moved into a new building in West Raleigh in 2011.

Now the basement holds significant IT equipment for state government. Other floors are the Governor’s Office, Administration offices, the Office of State Budget and Management and the Office of State Human Resources. Everyone is going to have to move out.

But exactly when is still unknown. The budget, which is state law, says it comes down by the end of October.

In a January interview, State Budget Director Kristin Walker said she thought they’d be out of the building by July.

Coble said the governor’s office would move into the Albermarle Building by July, and the rest of the Administration Building moves would be decided by that agency.

Edwards said there’s no timeline for an Administration Building move.

He said the agency found out about the building’s demolition plan when everyone else did: when the budget came out. And he said the budget’s 2023 timeline for demolishing Administration was “dangerously aggressive” and that the agency is doing the “best job we can” to start the process.

He said repeatedly they are moving at “all deliberate pace,” but that they have no plans yet to clear out of the building.

The changes will mean the loss of some parking spaces, Edwards said. He said 96% of Administration’s parking spaces are allocated, and most employees work in person, although the reserved spaces are not tracked by whether someone partly works remotely.

Upcoming state agency office moves

▪ Auditor’s office from Old Revenue Building to Albermarle Building, fourth and fifth floors.

▪ Governor’s office from Department of Administration building to Albermarle Building, third floor.

▪ Office of State Budget and Management from Administration building to Old Revenue Building.

New education building

Once the Administration building is demolished, a new education campus building will be built in the same spot. That new campus will include:

▪ UNC System Office. The office was told in a previous budget to move from Chapel Hill to Raleigh. It’s currently in rented space in The Dillon building in downtown Raleigh.

▪ Community Colleges Office. This office is currently nearby in the building at 200 W. Jones St.

▪ Department of Public Instruction. DPI is currently in its own building on Halifax Mall behind the Legislative Building, which some call the “Pink Palace” for the color and size of the building. Once the agency leaves the building, it will need to be renovated or eventually demolished, according to Coble.

▪ Department of Commerce. Commerce is now in the Department of Public Instruction building.

What’s next for other state government buildings

Coble said a recent study of other state government buildings showed that the Dobbs Building, aside from a water problem being fixed, is structurally fine. However, the Archdale Building, where the Department of Public Safety is housed, could eventually be demolished.

Coble acknowledged that the architecture of the oft-maligned Bath and Archdale buildings “just didn’t age well.”

Coble said the Archdale is “under heavy scrutiny to just be eliminated,” but there’s no plan for that yet. Nor has there been discussion about another part of the 2022 budget, which looked at constructing a building just for the governor’s office, on land that is now the surface parking lot across from the N.C. Museum of History.

Edwards, who is working with Coble on the planned employee shifts and building changes, said state employees should “be patient” as plans move forward.

There are a lot of moving parts, Edwards said.

Coble said building changes are in flux, as they are dependent on funding.

The 2023 state budget is moving along quickly, with the House’s version expected to be voted on in early April, the Senate version to come out in May and a compromise budget to go to Cooper’s desk in June.