Construction Wraps on Largest Gov’t Office Complex in California History

Construction has been completed for the May Lee State Office Complex in Sacramento’s River District, where seven state agencies will start housing workers by the end of next month. At 1.25 million square feet, the complex is the largest state government office project in California’s history, the Sacramento Business Journal reported.

Juli Kawahata, California Department of General Services’ project director for the complex on Richards Boulevard, told the Business Journal the project came in at $1 billion. It broke ground in April 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic had both state and private-sector office employees working from home.

Although the complex was in the works well before the pandemic, she said, it would’ve still been planned even if it came after. “It still would’ve existed because we’re getting a lot of state employees out of privately leased space,” said Kawahata.

The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the Department of Health Care Access and Information, the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Civil Rights Department, the Department of Real Estate, the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation and the Commission on Teacher Credentialing will all move into the complex, named after California’s oldest and longest-serving state worker.

Rendering courtesy of ZGF.

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