New Elk Grove Village hall to open in 10 weeks
The new $29 million Elk Grove Village hall will be open in less than three months, Mayor Craig Johnson said Monday while giving a guided tour to local media.
While the outside of the hall is largely finished, construction crews are still working on much of the inside by adding the finishing touches such as carpeting and paint.
"This is the biggest project in the history of the village," Johnson said. "We want to do it once and we want to do it right."
The village will hold a grand opening Saturday, April 11. The exact time is still being determined, village officials said.
The hall, which combines reworked existing space with new construction, will almost double in size from 55,000 square feet to 104,000 square feet.
By September, the village hall should be up and running with all the major departments working out of the hall at 901 Wellington Ave. The fire administration building at 901 Brantwood and police station at 321 Bond St. will be moved into the new building. Also, various departments will move to other locations within the three-level building.
During construction, the police department moved to a building that the village bought for about $1.3 million. The village will be selling the building when the department moves out.
The police area will be completely reconfigured in the new building. In the old station, prisoners, although handcuffed, were escorted to jail cells past a set of gun racks. That was because the only appropriate way to bring them into the building was by a side employee entrance.
"That reminds me of Mayberry, but we are now going up to CSI," said Johnson on the tour.
The mayor is particularly pleased that the village spent an extra $2 million to be environmentally friendly.
The village hall is expected to be the first in the state to win LEEDS Gold certification, he said. LEEDS stands for Leadership in Energy and Environment Design Green Building Rating System. It is a nationally accepted program for building construction.
The building will also have what's called a "living roof." It'll be largely covered with sedum, a perennial plant that blooms in the fall. It acts an insulator and retains water to prevent stormwater runoff, Johnson said.
The environmental components will pay for themselves after five years and will then start saving the village money, he said.
Johnson said the hall will come in about $3 million under budget, partly due to the flagging economy, which held down construction bids.