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Workers lay the floor of the Development Services Center on the first floor during construction of the new North Las Vegas City Hall building Tuesday, February 8, 2011. The building is expected to be open to public by fall 2011.
By Paul Takahashi (contact) 
Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011 | 8:10 p.m.
New City Hall
Sun archives
- North Las Vegas breaks ground on city hall (6-4-2009)
Beyond the Sun
Eighteen months after it broke ground, a gleaming new City Hall is rising in downtown North Las Vegas.
City officials are hoping the $142 million City Hall and civic plaza project will not only consolidate most city departments but pave the way for downtown redevelopment.
“It’s a great sense of accomplishment,” said Robert Huggins, the city’s engineering construction manager overseeing the project scheduled to be finished in October. “We’ve had a lot of challenges come up on this property, but it’s a great project for the city.”
Impetus to build a new City Hall, 2250 Las Vegas Blvd., arose from North Las Vegas’ rapid population growth during the last decade. From 2000 to 2010, Nevada’s third largest city nearly doubled its population, and with the boom came the need for more services and larger city departments.
The current City Hall — a short walk down Civic Center Drive from the construction site — was built in 1966. The 40,000-square-foot building, topped with a large, flat roof, was designed with expansion in mind, but concerns about asbestos ruled out the possibility of building up, said city spokeswoman Juliet Casey.
So North Las Vegas constructed modular buildings around city hall and leased out nearby office buildings, creating a campus of city departments around 2200 Civic Center Drive.
“(The modular buildings) were supposed to be 10-year buildings. We’ve kept them for 20,” said Michelle Bailey-Hedgepeth, assistant to the city manager. “They have really outlived their lifespan.”
The nearly half-century-old City Hall is also showing its age, Casey said, remarking how her windowless office has only two electric outlets.
“It wasn’t meant for heavy electrical use,” she said, recalling having to play musical chairs with her chargers and plugs.
That will not be a problem at the new City Hall, a nine-story, glass-encased building that city officials hope will become the cornerstone for downtown North Las Vegas.
The 210,000-square-foot building is expected to be the city’s first LEED-certified building, Bailey-Hedgepeth said.
“This is a very frugal, very economic design,” she said, pointing out the natural and energy efficient lighting, solar panels and recycled building materials during a media tour of the construction site on Tuesday.
The new City Hall will be much larger than the current one. The expanded council chambers will seat 318 people, more than double the 150-person capacity in the
existing chambers.
It also features 3,000 square feet for about three retail shops. Outside, a grassy civic plaza — funded by a $6.3 million Bureau of Land Management grant — will have a splash pool for children and host outdoor events such as Taste and Tunes.
On the first floor, a large lobby with counters for various departments will allow residents to apply for a business license or pay their water bills. “We wanted to bring all the resources together so we have one central location for everything,” Bailey-Hedgepeth said.
The new City Hall is expected to serve the city until about 2030, the year North Las Vegas’ population is expected to reach 500,000. In that time, city officials said they hope the new City Hall will anchor their vision of a flourishing downtown district.
On Tuesday, looking at the downtown redevelopment district from the top floor of the new City Hall, one could glimpse evidence of the vision city planners have long pushed: a new El Super supermarket and a revamped Jerry’s Nugget casino.
But also visible is a large expanse of empty desert just across the street, where construction on the $120-million Las Flores Shopping Center is stalled, the victim of the economic downturn.
“Hopefully, we’ll grow again,” Bailey-Hedgepeth said, echoing Mayor Shari
Buck’s State of the City address. “When the economy is ready, we will be ready. We will be open for business.”
The city leaders would brag that it was safe - it is not!
Then the slogan was " friendly North Las Vegas" - it is a hostile local government to work with and within.
Now they say "this is a frugal and economical design". - have you seen this monstrosity. Frugal was not part of the planning.
Oh, and my favorite one yet, The mayor keeps saying "Open for business" - if the track record of BS holds true, the city will be closed soon!
It sounds like at least this new city hall was actually needed, with the present one bursting at the seems. Still this $150 million dollar piece of debt is only supposed to be in use until "about 2030??" Just 18 or 19 years??? What a gyp! What a crock! Is this shameless, planned obsolescence? Of course, NLV population may very well have crested. Notions that the irrational days of zooming growth are soon to return have no present basis in fact or justified expectations.
But boy, between the half a million dollars for model of the city to use for PR, and this $150 mil extravagance, NLV's city council sure is playing around with its citizens tax dollars.
I realize that Michelle Bailey-Hedgepeth is probably well paid to make the City look good, but calling this $142 million palace "a very frugal, very economic design" is really stretching things. Time for a reality check - the City has a $35 million budget deficit this year alone, and more red ink every year hereafter for the foreseeable future. They can't even afford to buy new furnishings for the new City Hall, and some of the unoccupied floors may be rented out! No, Ms. Bailey-Hedgepeth, this marble-clad City Hall is anything but "frugal and economical." It is an awful example of wasteful extravagance at taxpayer expense and at a time when North Las Vegas cannot afford to staff and maintain existing buildings and facilities. Who really cares if the building is energy efficient if you can't repay the bonds that were issued to build it? There were other "frugal and economic" options for accomodating City services that did not include a building of this size and expense.
I agree with other commentators, this new city hall looks frugal, only when compared projects like City Center.
I read some older articles about this City Call, and reasoning behind this project looks.... not too reasonable.
few quotes:
-2005
Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sharon Powers said :
"That (old) building is tired," Powers said. "It doesn't depict the image of what we want our City Hall to look like. The justice center there is an incredibly beautiful building, and City Hall needs to mirror that."
Hopefully taxpayers will like this new image of City Hall.
-2005
City Councilman Lawrence Weekly said
"A brand new City Hall is much needed," . "We've gotten a little too big for this building."
Cutting bureaucracy is not an option?
The Sharon Powers quote is accurate. However, Lawrence Weekly is a Council member in LAS VEGAS. Let's check our facts.
I am sure that the new city hall will be a beacon for new development in "downtown" North Las Vegas. The city leaders had the wisdom and foresight to border it on one side by a jail and a drug store, on another side by an aged and worn casino, on the third side by a Food-4-Less grocery store, and on the remaining side by a 7-11 convenience store. Which intelligent entrepreneur would not want to move his/her business into such an inviting and eye-catching environment?
But you have to look at the long-range picture. They intend to vacate this structure in about 10 years to build a new one, and thus can entice Zappos to take it over.
north las vegas got lucky by geography.
all that development in the last decade west of mlk on craig road, cheyenne, 215, etc. just happened to fall inside their city limits that were drawn back when nobody thought anyone would ever live that far from the strip or downtown.
The impetus to build a new City Hall, arose from North Las Vegas' budgetary incompetence. The last time I checked, cities get most of their revenue from taxes collected from real property improvements generated through private-sector investments, not publicly-owned buildings. The city doesn't pay taxes to itself? So, how is this monstrosity going to increase tax revenue for the city? It's not! It just raises the city's already unmanageable debt, while removing even more tax generating property off the tax-rolls. Someone needs to take some remedial courses on public finance?
This is the Planning and Zoning for their "Downtown", just imagine the job they do with the rest of their jurisdiction. A Prison at their I-15 Gateway Entrance, more corner garages and Junk Yards than you can count, strip shopping centers planned for every corner, take a look at Las Vegas Blvd to Nellis AFB where you immediately lock your car doors to get out of there. Parks and Rec Centers with no funding to open them. A Police Department where You have to drive in to report a crime, even a Racially motivated Hate Crime in a Senior Community. Yes "Heck of a Job" officials. This "town" should be merged into Clark County and quit wasting money on buildings and duplication of services.