The UNC-owned property will be renovated and used as a home for the University's entire Administrative Information Services. The decision to renovate was made recently by Chancellor James Moeser and the Facilities Planning Committee.
The 55,000-square-foot property was once being considered for an employee-employer housing unit, which would have been a way for the University and the town of Chapel Hill to find affordable housing for their employees.
The employee-employer housing proposal failed to come to fruition because the state did not want to subsidize building houses in light of the state budget crunch, said Bob Knight, assistant vice chancellor for finance and administration.
The renovations, scheduled to begin in 2003, will be done in stages because the AIS, half of which is housed there now, needs to operate on a 24-hour-a-day basis, said Bruce Runberg, associate vice chancellor for facilities services.
Runberg said tearing down the existing structure and rebuilding it would cost UNC $10 million, whereas renovating it will only cost $8.7 million.
"It's not how much is being saved (in the long run) but more of a cost avoidance of $10 million," he said.
The $10 million expenditure would have stemmed from relocating the AIS elsewhere in the interim, Knight said.
Only half of the building is used by the AIS, and the other half houses services such as purchasing, contracts and grants, and several other financial groups.
These entities will be moved to the Giles F. Horney Building on Airport Road, leaving half the building free for renovation.
