$17 million initial estimate for new "public facilities" in Davidson.

At Tuesday's 4pm pre-meeting, Davidson Commissioners received an update on the so called "public facilities" project being driven with a consulting team made up of Creech & Associates and Stantec.

After 30 minutes going over a plan that includes renovating the existing Town Hall for public safety operations, building a new 3-story Town Hall on Main Street, and making updates to the public space around the building including modest additions to parking, Commissioners (and citizens) got a glimpse at the price tag - $17,005,740

Yes, you read that correctly.  The town is looking at a bill of just over $17 million if it built out this entire plan as presented.  That number did include a roughly 30-35% contingency, but that still means a $12.6 million base estimate.

Additionally, it would be hard to scale this back much without a wholesale redesign and reduction of the largest portion - the $9.2 million, 25,000 square foot new Town Hall.  The new Town Hall was estimated at costing $360/sqft which may sound high.  However, it was mentioned for comparison that Kannapolis recently completed a new Town hall building that cost $320/sqft and that project was much bigger allowing for significant economies of scale.

So, the obvious question is how to pay for all this if it goes forward.

Crickets...that will be discussed at the May 9th meeting with a possible vote to move forward on any plan as soon as May 23rd.

Remember, aShortChronicle told readers about Town Manager Jamie Justice saying a bond vote was "not recommended"?  Well, not a single Davidson Commissioner even asked about that at the Tuesday meeting.  The Board is looking at the largest spending item since Mi-Connection and not a mention of putting this before the voters.

You can read the whole presentation here and watch the video of the meeting here.  You can email your town Board at board@townofdavidson.org.