New Palm Coast City Hall Opens in Town Center

The 41,309-square-foot facility includes a two-story office building connected to a one-story Community Wing, with entrances from both the road/parking lot and Central Park.

Palm Coast – October 26, 2015 – The new Palm Coast City Hall is open for business! City Hall is located at 160 Lake Ave., Palm Coast, in Town Center. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The 41,309-square-foot facility includes a two-story office building connected to a one-story Community Wing, with entrances from both the road/parking lot and Central Park. It was designed with customer service in mind – with Customer Service for paying utility bills and managing utility service, permitting, zoning, code enforcement, business tax receipts and the Business Assistance Center all located on the first floor. In addition, residents will still have the option to pay their utility bills and manage their utility service at the Utility Department at 2 Utility Drive, Palm Coast.

City Hall was built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards (certification pending), with energy-efficient features including LED lighting throughout, insulated and tinted windows, a highly efficient HVAC chiller system and preferred parking for energy-efficient vehicles. (More details below.)

Everyone is invited to a City Hall Grand Opening celebration on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Tours will be offered 4-8 p.m. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will begin at 5:15 p.m., and the Palm Coast City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Wing section of the new City Hall.

Here is an overview of the new facility:

Size: Two-story office building connected to one-story Community Wing. Total square footage for these first two phases is 41,309. The breakdown is: office building first floor is 16,693 SF; office building second floor is 16,638 SF; Community Wing is 7,978 SF.

Location: 160 Lake Ave., Palm Coast, FL 32164 – located in Palm Coast’s Town Center, our future downtown area; neighbors to Central Park, the City Centre office building, Epic Theater, and the newly completed Bulldog Drive roadway and landscaping improvements.

Architect: C.T. Hsu + Associates

Builder: construction manager is Gilbane Building Company based in Jacksonville

Local sub-contractors: 4C’s Trucking & Excavating; Austin Outdoors; Ocean Flooring; and Universal Engineering

Cost: $9.15 million, includes construction of both phases plus primary furniture, fixtures and equipment

Employees and Offices: 135 employees will work in the facility. The new Palm Coast City Hall will be a full-service facility for the public, with Customer Service for paying utility bills and managing utility service, permitting, zoning, code enforcement, business tax receipts and the Business Assistance Center all located on the first floor. City departments/divisions housed at City Hall include Finance, Administration, Community Development (Building, Code Enforcement, Planning, Construction Management & Engineering), Information Technology, Customer Service, and the BAC.

Features of the design: clock tower; small-town feel for the scale of the building; energy-efficient (see details in next bullet); customer-service-oriented; entrances from both the road/parking lot and the Central Park lake; many joint work spaces for collaboration between employees/teams; technology includes wifi throughout (including for public) and extensive use of tablets and cloud computing that allows flexibility for working throughout the facility and also emphasizes “paperless office.”

Energy-efficiency features: built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards (certification pending); also seeking DEP Energy Star Label for Buildings; LED lighting throughout; insulated (air-filled with Solarban Low-E coating) and tinted windows; highly efficient HVAC chiller system; low-flow plumbing fixtures; highly reflective, white, single-ply TPO roofing to prevent solar heat gain on the roof; occupancy sensors will automatically control lighting to improve energy efficiency; and preferred parking for energy-efficient vehicles.

Colors: Exterior is terra cotta/tan/beige stucco finish; Interior has light turquoise, gold, gray and chocolate. Colors were selected to complement the Palm Coast brand.

Community Wing: The one-story Community Wing on the west side of the facility has one large community meeting room and two smaller community meeting rooms for events with community interaction such as public meetings, rentals and events. The wing also includes the Waterfront Room, a food service area that connects to Central Park. Palm Coast City Council meetings, as well as the meetings of various City advisory boards, will be held in the Community Wing.

Conference Rooms: The office building portion of the facility has 11 conference rooms named for Palm Coast’s original neighborhoods. The Community Wing has three community meeting rooms, plus the Waterfront Room that opens onto Central Park.

History: City Offices have previously been housed in five different locations: the Palm Coast Community Center, the former Flagler County Library when it was at the Palm Harbor Shopping Center, at One Corporate One (former ITT headquarters), the building on Commerce Boulevard now occupied by Palm Coast Data, and at City Marketplace Shopping Center on Cypress Point Parkway.

Future phases: Two additional future phases of City Hall are planned, dependent on future funding. One phase will be an expansion of Central Park to connect to the building to create a large plaza for outdoor events. The other phase is at the front of the building, to create a promenade leading to the main entrance with fountains, landscaping and a public plaza.

Room to Grow: There is space for short-term growth, and the site allows for additional wings to be added should they be needed in the future. Any additional wings would be added on the east side of the office building.

More Fun Facts:

• Construction schedule completed in 10 months and 10 days
• Over 75 percent of construction waste was diverted from the landfill by recycling
• All low VOC (low emitting) paints, adhesives, flooring, and wood products were used for improved indoor air quality
• 167 parking spaces (46 are for fleet parking, 36 for the Community Wing, City Hall 85)
• 105.1 tons of structural steel
• 7¼” thick cast concrete tilt panel walls
• 1,500 cubic yards of concrete
• 36 tons of rebar

For more information, contact Communications & Marketing Manager Cindi Lane at 386-986-3708.