Why would Councilman Matheny want to finance and build a brand new building to relocate Guilford County School administrators, if there’s already plenty of available government owned office-space?

County Out of Money, Flush With Space

 

…The county is currently the proud owner of several empty buildings…

 

Over the last few years, Guilford County has purchased the BB&T building,…the Independence Building ,…and a giant 70,000-square-foot building in downtown High Point.

 

It owns an empty structure on Huffine Mill Road…as well as the Kindle Center and Kindle Cottage,…232 N. Edgeworth St. in Greensboro with a lot of vacant space and,…when current occupants move out of Evergreen Nursing Home…and out of the High Point Evergreen Home…– Guilford County will have two other empty buildings on its hands.

 

…the Greensboro and High Point courthouses have gotten, or will get soon, a little roomier.

 

…Some additional space has just opened up in the previously full Independence Building because the federal government's General Services Administration was renting office space there from the county, but that arrangement just ended.

 

…Over the last several years, as the county bought and built more office space, it looked like the number of county employees would keep growing as it had for years. But now that seems far from certain and the current administration has eliminated about 70 positions from Guilford County government in the last six months.

 

…Vice Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Steve Arnold said he knows what to do with the surplus space.

 

"We're going to sell off extra space," he said.

 

Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said that, sometime in the next few months, the county may begin putting some buildings up for sale.

 

Scott D. Yost

Rhino Tiimes, August 13, 2009