City Hall Project FAQs

The current design includes an atrium and adjacent event space that total approximately 6,000 square feet for community gathering and rental. It will be supported by a catering kitchen.  The current design also includes a roof top terrace for public event use that will afford beautiful views of Brookhaven, Buckhead, and Stone Mountain.

The Brookhaven City Hall will be located at the corner of Peachtree Road and North Druid Hills Road on the existing long-term MARTA parking lot. The City of Brookhaven acquired the lot from MARTA in 2022 for the purposes of a permanent Brookhaven City Hall. Click this link for the lease–purchase agreement with MARTA.

Community engagement is a priority for the City of Brookhaven. Its first-ever Citywide Engagement Plan was approved by the City Council on Nov. 8, 2022, and guides community engagement for capital projects, planning efforts, policy development, daily operations, etc. Specific to the City Hall project, the public was engaged extensively during the City Centre Master Plan process to determine the general location of a City Hall.  For the building itself, there have been design charettes with stakeholders, public meetings with initial building massing, a visual preference survey, two virtual town hall events, and presence at several City events (Paint the Park, Light Up Brookhaven, MLK Dinner, etc.) Additional opportunities include the Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival on March 25 & 26, email comments on the project website at CityHallProject@BrookhavenGA.gov, and attending public meetings concerning discussion and approval of the development design on March 28.

The current budget for the Brookhaven City Hall totals $78 million. Of this amount, $60 million is for construction cost and $18 million for soft costs and contingency.

With a Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) project delivery vehicle, the pricing for construction is checked three different ways.

1. The design firm will price the design concept, but their pricing will not be refined because finer construction questions are not addressed in design. 
2. The CMAR firm will develop a detailed cost estimate based on the final design and it will be reviewed by the City’s Project Management firm. This will result in a GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price). The cost estimate will use standard industry pricing software that reflects current construction labor and material costs and will also have bids from local industry trade partners furthering enhancing the accuracy of the pricing.
3. Then, the CMAR firm will develop and issue bid packages for competitive procurement (i.e., site work, demolition, concrete, steel, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, etc.) to local trade partners, who with then be evaluated, and selected to be part of the GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price).

The Project Management firm will be heavily involved in reviewing bids received to ensure maximum competition. To the extent the bids come back below the cost estimate, the City saves against the GPM.  However, if any individual bid package comes in above the GMP, the CMAR gets to use any savings from other bid packages and any costs above the GMP are a burden of the CMAR firm.

The City Council selected Comprehensive Program Services (CPS) for project management. The project manager reports to the City Manager and will provide project updates to the Mayor and City Council as the project progresses.

Yes, value engineering will be employed throughout the entire process.  The construction manager at risk (CMAR) project procurement delivery method inherently enables value engineering because the CMAR firm works directly with the design firm in the initial stages of the project to have the most efficient and cost effective final solution.

In the past year, the construction cost index has increased 8.3%.  Costs estimates for the Brookhaven City Hall account for these near-term inflationary increases in the cost of construction and materials.

The presence of homeless persons is a common occurrence at transit stations everywhere. Being homeless is not a crime. Brookhaven will continue its efforts to assist the homeless toward emergency, transitional, and permanent housing.  These programs are funded and coordinated by DeKalb County Government. As with the current leased City Hall, it is a public building that provides public services.  However, City Hall is not designed to be a homeless or emergency shelter.

Indirectly. The City anticipates that the construction of the permanent Brookhaven City Hall will be a catalyst for redevelopment and investment within the entire City Centre area.