Royal Oak City Hall Construction: What You Need To Know

ROYAL OAK, MI — Construction is officially underway in Royal Oak for its new $12.2 million city hall. The work began Dec. 6 and has a new design city officials say will better serve citizens.

Here’s what you need to know about the massive project:

The new city hall comes with lots of advantages

The city says the new city hall will offer better navigation with a customer-friendly first floor, more and larger meeting spaces for higher participation from residents, it will be energy efficient to save money and protect the planet and will have modern technology like online applications at user-friendly kiosks. The new building will also be accessible to all, including those using wheelchairs or strollers.

Alternate parking is available

During construction, 186-parking spaces will be taken offline to make room for materials and equipment. The city has put together a guide to help visitors navigate alternative parking spaces in the vicinity. The guide can be downloaded at www.rethinkro.com. A brand new parking garage one block west of the construction site is scheduled to bring 581 parking spaces to the area in June 2019.

The farmers market is open for business

The Royal Oak Farmers Market will remain open during the construction. Market officials have been working on solutions to make the market user-friendly during the construction, including offering free valet parking and shopping carts.
Read more about the new valet service here.

The cityscape is changing

Once the new City Hall and police station (tentatively scheduled to begin construction in January) are completed, the old buildings will be torn down. Built nearly seven decades ago, these buildings were not designed for the kinds of uses the city needs today and in the future. The work required to renovate and fix numerous problems would be too extensive and expensive to repair, according to a study commissioned from Plante Moran CRESA.

A new downtown park will be built in its place.

You can learn more about the City Hall project, including reviewing the plans at www.rethinkro.com.

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