New City Hall opens with room to spare in cash-strapped North Las Vegas

Monday was move-in day at North Las Vegas' new City Hall, which to some has become a symbol of a boom that went bust.

Some employees spent the morning unpacking boxes delivered over the weekend from the old City Hall just down the road.

Others were undergoing last-minute training on new computer systems to make sure they were up and running for the building's afternoon opening to the public.

Visitors to the $127 million facility will enjoy a more streamlined experience with municipal services consolidated under one roof, said Qiong Liu , director of public works.

Previously, various city departments were housed in separate modular buildings.

"You used to have to go to three or four buildings to take care of business," Liu said. "Now, you can get all your business taken care of before you leave the building."

The new nine-story City Hall, which sits on 12 acres at 2250 Las Vegas Blvd. North, near Civic Center Drive, includes City Council chambers that seat more than 300 people, twice the capacity of the old chambers.

The 210,000-square-foot building houses municipal services including building safety, economic development, human resources, finance, public works and city management.

It also has self-service kiosks and a centralized "development services center" on the ground floor where people can take care of most of their city business, from paying utility bills to getting building permits.

Upper floors of the building have spectacular views of the city, with the Strip visible to the south.

The building's opening does not come without controversy in the cash-strapped city. Critics nicknamed it the "Taj Mahal" and said it was a waste of money when the city had none to spare.

North Las Vegas leaders decided to build a new city hall about five years ago, when the city was among the nation's fastest-growing and flush with cash.

Ever-increasing numbers of employees were crammed into the 45-year-old City Hall -- a short walk down Civic Center from the new one -- and its modular buildings. The old building leaked when it rained, suffered frequent power outages and contained asbestos, which ruled out the possibility of building stories atop it.

The new City Hall was meant to eventually house nearly 600 city staffers. Officials estimated that 350 employees from various city departments would move in upon completion, and they believed the building would fill up in future years as the city's remarkable growth continued.

As it turned out, only about 200 employees are housed there now. There are plenty of empty offices, and the city is trying to rent out up to an entire floor to an outside agency.

North Las Vegas was forced to cut or freeze hundreds of positions in recent years as its revenues plummeted. The city had difficulty balancing its 2012 budget, leading to worries about potential state takeover of the municipality.

City leaders even discussed selling the new City Hall, then leasing it back, as a way to save money. That idea proved impractical, with officials predicting the plan would cost the city more than it saved.

The city's original plan included razing the old City Hall and building a new police headquarters. But the city no longer has the money. The old building will instead be mothballed for now.

Tim Hacker, city manager, chose to look on the bright side.

It's no use second-guessing "a decision that was made four or five years ago," he said. "North Las Vegas residents need to look at this as an example of moving forward."

The city hopes the new City Hall will serve as a cornerstone of the city's downtown redevelopment, he said.

The building, which came in about $15u2007million under budget, is the city's first to achieve certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, a certification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. Solar panels provide more than 12 percent of the building's energy needs, Liu said.

Those who work in the new building hope it will be a harbinger of better times.

The city still has a long way to go "to get back to the boom times," Hacker said. "We will get there eventually."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.