Buying most of Dawson Hall would ease space crunch, manager says
By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
Town Manager Roger Stancil expects to have a plan ready within 30 days on the town’s use of space in an office building off Weaver Dairy Road near Timberlyne.
The Chapel Hill Town Council held a hastily scheduled special meeting Friday to discuss buying part of Dawson Hall, a 73,000-square-foot office building that’s part of Chapel Hill 40. The building, completed in 2007 by an affiliate of Southern Village developer Bryan Properties, has sat vacant since it was completed.
The council discussed specifics of the deal in closed session. (State law allows a government entity to discuss land and property negotiations in closed session.)
Stancil said he is negotiating the purchase of about 53,000 square feet of space in the building. He declined to say how much the town is willing to pay for the space, but said discussions include the price as well as the timing of the sale.
Officials with Bryan Properties declined to discuss details of the sale. The company’s website lists the purchase price of space in Dawson Hall at between $145 and $155 per square foot, putting the list price of the space between $7.8 million and $8.2 million.
Although he’s not divulging the price, Stancil said that with a surplus of office space in town and an interested seller he hopes the town can strike a deal that would allow it to avoid a tax increase to pay for the new space.
“This opportunity exists because of the current economic situation,†he said.
If purchased, the space likely would be used as a new police headquarters and for office and multi-use space for the town’s Parks and Recreation Department. It also could play a key role as a temporary location for the Chapel Hill Public Library during next year’s planned construction of a library addition.
“It’s an option we’re seriously considering,†Stancil said. “It would save us money during construction if we could move the library to a place we owned rather than having to rent something.â€
Moving the library rather than doing the construction while trying to use the space, he said, would likely make the project quicker and less complicated.
Another positive of the additional space is that it would allow the police department a quicker exit from its aging building on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
“A top priority has been space for the police department,†he said. “They are really cramped in there.â€
The roughly 19,000-square-foot building the department now uses has been costly to maintain and doesn’t have room for training facilities. A town space-needs study said the department needs about 30,000 square feet.
The Parks and Recreation Department would likely use the space for offices, meeting space and to expand offerings in areas like dance and studio arts.