Legislative Plaza to become parking space under plans for redo of state-owned structures

Much of the office space in the Legislative Plaza, used by the General Assembly before Lawmakers relocated to a renovated Cordell Hulll building, will become parking space for state employees under plans for overhaul of state government facilities in Nashville, reports the Nashville Post.

The Plaza plan was outlined to the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday, along with a move to sell the Citizens Plaza building. Officials say 459,288 square feet of state-owned real estate downtown will be vacant by the end of the year and, with Citizens sold, that number falls to 214,331 square feet.

The state hopes to sell the building by October, but no estimated price was given. One appraisal has listed the site at $43 million.

The underground offices at Legislative Plaza will be turned into parking for state employees, providing an additional 150 spaces above the two levels already there. A few large general purpose meeting rooms could be constructed out of some of the remaining office space. Meanwhile, employees from the Attorney General’s office will move into WMB (War Memorial Building), leaving the John Sevier Building to undergo significant renovation. That latter project will start this summer and is expected to be complete in the summer of 2019.

After 2019, officials said, War Memorial would be entirely renovated and the staff of the AG’s office that is currently leasing space in the UBS building would move in.

In the James K. Polk Building, the Tennessee Performing Arts Center has said it would like to move into the Tennessee State Museum’s space, once that agency moves into their new building this fall. TPAC will split the preliminary design cost with the state to develop an estimated cost of renovations before any actual work is done on the site. However, no final approval has been given to allow TPAC to have that space.