What on Earth Is Happening at Alexandria City Hall? Your Plain-English Guide to the $165.6 Million Makeover
Alexandria’s 155-year-old seat of government is closed, its familiar plaza is fenced off and its underground garage is gone for years. Here is what the City is rebuilding, why it says the work cannot wait, what it will cost and how residents can navigate Old Town until the dust settles.
ALEXANDRIA, VA—If you have walked down King Street lately, looked at the fortress of fencing around Market Square and wondered, “What on earth are they doing in there?”—this guide is for you.
The short answer: practically everything.
Alexandria is undertaking a top-to-bottom renovation of historic City Hall, removing its 1960s-era interior addition, replacing the deteriorating two-level underground Market Square garage, rebuilding the plaza above it, and overhauling systems that most visitors never see—pipes, wiring, heating, cooling, drainage, waterproofing, security, and accessibility.
The work affects far more than a government building. For generations, the 300 block of King Street has been Alexandria’s civic front porch: home to City Council, the farmers’ market, festivals, demonstrations, Christmas trees, celebrations, fountains, tourists, lunch crowds and the everyday business of local government.
Now that entire block is being taken apart and put back together while Old Town continues operating around it.
First: Why Is This Happening?
Because the building and the structures beneath Market Square have reached the point where patchwork repairs are no longer enough.
The City’s latest capital planning document describes “widespread plumbing and electrical failure,” aging heating and cooling equipment, structural deterioration in the garage, water leaking around the fountain and garage stairs, drainage problems, and malfunctioning plaza lighting. The plaza also lacks basics expected of a modern public space, including fully accessible entrances, adequate shade and seating, and built-in support for the farmers’ market.
This did not suddenly appear in 2026. The City identified the need to replace City Hall’s HVAC system in 2011. A 2015 facility assessment gave City Hall an F grade, or “poor,” and expanded the plan into a full renovation. The garage and Market Square repairs were added to the scope in 2016. By early 2025, the City reported that it had already spent more than $6 million on repairs and maintenance since 2011.
In plain English: Alexandria had been spending money to keep an old civic complex functioning, but many of the expensive parts were still failing.
Mayor Alyia Gaskins put the problem in unusually plain language in a July 2026 video message. The project, she said, had been “in the works for decades” because more than 60 years had passed since City Hall and Market Square received major upgrades.
“Those systems like our HVAC have run their useful life,” Gaskins said. “The fountain was leaking. Parts of the garage were crumbling, and there were areas of City Hall that were still not fully accessible to persons with disabilities.”
This Is Actually Three Major Projects at Once
The project is easiest to understand as three connected jobs.
1. Historic City Hall: The 1871 building will be preserved and restored, but its plumbing, electrical, HVAC, technology, security, and interior workspaces will be modernized. Public circulation and wayfinding should become easier, and community meeting space will be added or improved.
2. The 1960s addition: The infill structure built into City Hall’s former courtyard is being deconstructed. A new infill section will take its place, reconnecting the historic wings and creating a more visible, welcoming public entrance.
3. Market Square and its garage: The existing roughly 90,000-square-foot, two-level underground concrete garage will be demolished and replaced. The plaza above it will be rebuilt with better accessibility, drainage, seating, shade, and infrastructure for public events and the farmers’ market.
The overall City Hall building contains about 118,000 square feet. This is not a quick lobby refresh; it is major surgery on an occupied civic landmark—after first moving the occupants elsewhere.
What Is Staying—and What Is Going?
The historic 1871 exterior is staying. So is the clock tower that gives Alexandria City Hall its unmistakable silhouette.
The part going away is the much newer 1960-61 addition that filled the old courtyard and turned the building’s main orientation toward King Street. The plaza completed in 1967 was part of the Gadsby Commercial Urban Renewal Project. Residents are now seeing that mid-century layer—not the landmark’s 19th-century shell—dismantled.
The design team is led by LEO A DALY, with Alexandria firms Rust Orling Architecture and LandDesign contributing local expertise to Market Square. Grunley Construction is serving as construction manager.
When the design team was selected, City Manager James Parajon called it “an exciting first step in a long-awaited process.” He said City Hall and Market Square should reflect Alexandria’s history as well as “the commitment to equitable services that our community expects.”
How Old Is City Hall, Really?
The answer depends on whether you mean the building or the site.
The reconstruction has also prompted Alexandria to take a much deeper look at the human history of the ground being rebuilt. This was not a discovery made by a backhoe. As the City planned a new Market Square—and new historical interpretation for the finished plaza—Historic Alexandria commissioned extensive documentary research into the people whose lives unfolded there but were largely missing from the familiar story of City Hall.
That research is recovering many stories connected to the market: enslaved and free Black Alexandrians who sold food, cleaned the Market House, lit its lamps, operated cookshops, built businesses and worked toward freedom. It also documents the sale and punishment of enslaved people in the square. The construction project is therefore changing more than the buildings and plaza; it is changing what Alexandria will tell the public about the site when it reopens.
One of the most powerful recovered stories is that of Sophia Browning Bell, an enslaved woman who walked to Alexandria’s market to sell vegetables from a small market garden. According to testimony examined in the Historic Alexandria study, she secretly saved $400 and entrusted it to a Methodist preacher, who used the money in 1801 to purchase her husband George Bell’s freedom. George later purchased Sophia’s freedom.
Market and government functions were assigned to this block when Alexandria was laid out in 1749. A three-story market house designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe opened on North Royal Street in 1817, with market stalls below and civic functions above. Latrobe is often called the father of American architecture and also worked on the U.S. Capitol.
Fire destroyed that town hall and market house on May 19, 1871. German-born architect Adolf Cluss designed the U-shaped replacement later that year. The earlier Latrobe-style clock tower was recreated in 1872 with roughly $8,000 raised through private donations.
Over time, the building housed far more than City offices. Its occupants included a Masonic lodge, courts, police and fire operations, the Alexandria Library and butcher stalls. The 1960s addition filled its center courtyard; another renovation beginning in 1981 connected old and new portions with elevators, stairs and corridors.
How Much Will It Cost?
The answer has changed as the scope has changed.
A February 2025 City presentation listed a $132 million project budget. The City’s proposed FY 2027-FY 2036 Capital Improvement Program, published in early 2026, later listed a total expenditure budget of approximately $165.6 million, with about $145.6 million in prior appropriations and another $20 million programmed over FY 2027 and FY 2028. Most of that financing is identified as general-obligation bonds.
That $165.6 million is the clearest current published all-in planning figure The Zebra found. It includes far more than the contractor’s building work: design, engineering, temporary facilities, project management, contingencies, and related capital costs also sit under the wider project umbrella. Grunley separately announced that it had been awarded an $85 million construction contract for the City Hall renovation. The two figures measure different things, but the City should make that distinction—and any later changes—easy for taxpayers to follow.
One important cost decision involved the garage. A basic $13 million repair was expected to buy fewer than 20 additional years and would not fully meet modern accessibility needs. City staff estimated that replacing the garage now would cost roughly $28 million, last 50 years or more, and avoid a much more expensive replacement after another round of repairs. In a 2025 budget memo, staff projected the repair-first route could total $106 million over 30 years, compared with $43 million for replacing the garage and plaza now.
That is the City’s central financial argument: spend more during this project rather than repair an obsolete garage and replace it anyway.
What Has Happened So Far?
City Hall closed for renovation on Jan. 12, 2026. Grunley mobilized at the site in late February.
The first months were largely invisible from outside the fence. Crews carried out environmental abatement, prepared the 1960s infill for interior demolition, and installed a temporary support system around the underground garage so the surrounding ground and structures remain stable while it is removed.
Then workers found additional asbestos in the 1960s south façade and the east and west interior courtyards. The City says the discovery extended the abatement work and project schedule by approximately 10 weeks.
As of September 2026, the City says hazardous-material removal in the area scheduled for deconstruction is complete. Residents should now see the 1960s addition come down piece by piece using a high-reach excavator. They should also expect more dump trucks, construction noise, continued fencing, and changing pedestrian routes.
The City now anticipates completion in fall 2028.
Can I Watch the Work?
Yes—and this may become one of Alexandria’s most irresistible online rabbit holes.
The City has installed a construction camera that refreshes every 10 minutes. Viewers can open the camera and use its time-lapse controls to watch the project change over hours, days, and months.
Watch the Alexandria City Hall construction camera and time-lapse here.
Where Did City Hall Go?
City government did not disappear; it scattered.
The mayor and City Council, City Manager, City Clerk, City Attorney, Planning & Zoning, and several other offices moved to 421 King Street. Finance and Housing moved to 100 N. Pitt Street. General Services, Information Technology Services, and the Department of Project Implementation moved to 2331 Mill Road. Code Administration permanently moved to 4850 Mark Center Drive. Transportation and Environmental Services functions were divided between AlexRenew and 2900 Business Center Drive.
Before making a trip, residents should consult the City’s City Hall relocation directory. City Council and many commission meetings are being held at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center, 4850 Mark Center Drive, although meeting locations should always be checked on the posted docket.
One more easily missed change: residents who previously voted at City Hall now vote at Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy, 530 S. St. Asaph Street. Early voting at 132 N. Royal Street is not affected.
The Parking Question Everyone Is Asking
The Market Square garage is closed for the duration of construction, temporarily removing 180 parking spaces from the heart of Old Town. The City says bus frequency is not expected to increase specifically because of that loss. The replacement garage’s final space count is less clear in the readily available public summaries Zebra read, and has reached out to the city and architects for an answer.
Nearby public choices include the Courthouse Garage at 111 S. Pitt Street, North Union Street Garage at 220 N. Union Street, Thompson’s Alley Garage at 10 Thompson’s Alley and the Cameron and St. Asaph streets lot at 517 Cameron Street. Metered parking generally costs $2.75 per hour, though posted restrictions vary by block.
For Saturday farmers’ market customers, parking is free from 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Tavern Square garage, 418 Cameron Street, and the Courthouse Garage, 111 S. Pitt Street.
Construction workers are assigned parking at the Torpedo Factory garage on Union Street. Tour-bus loading and unloading has moved to the 400 block of King Street. The City says project trucks must follow an approved haul route; loads leaving with soil or debris must be covered, and a wheel-washing station is intended to reduce dirt tracked onto surrounding streets.
The free King Street Trolley and free DASH buses remain the easiest no-parking options from the King Street-Old Town Metro station.
What Is This Doing to Nearby Businesses?
The construction is not happening in an empty office district. Restaurants and shops beside Market Square are absorbing the loss of the garage, City Hall’s daily workforce and the normal pedestrian paths through the square.
In separate reporting by The Zebra, Hossein, the longtime host and owner at The Warehouse restaurant, said the restaurant had “never experienced a year like this one.” He said the combined loss of parking, City Hall activity and Market Square foot traffic has sharply hurt business. Carla Clarke of Today’s Cargo has asked the City to consider parking help, clearer signs, promotion and possible tax or fee relief for the businesses carrying the greatest disruption.
That economic effect belongs in any honest explanation of the renovation. The finished public project may improve the block for decades, but neighboring merchants must survive the construction years first. Read The Zebra’s recent article on the business impact here.
What Happens to the Farmers’ Market?
It stays open.
The Old Town Farmers’ Market has shifted next door to Tavern Square and onto the portion of North Royal Street between King and Cameron streets. The arrangement keeps the market within sight of its historic home, even though construction fencing, truck movement and the loss of the garage make the Saturday routine look different.
Will the New Garage Connect Directly to City Hall?
No. This is one of the FAQ answers residents may find surprising.
The current design does not include a covered passage directly from the garage into City Hall. An elevator will bring visitors from the garage to plaza level; from there, they will walk across the plaza to the building entrance.
Is the New City Hall Supposed to Be Greener?
Yes. Plans have studied geothermal wells, solar panels, a green roof, improved exterior insulation, high-performance building systems, stormwater controls, and reclaimed rainwater. The goal is to preserve the historic structure while making it operate more like a modern building.
The City’s Environmental Policy Commission supported a net-zero design and pursuit of LEED Platinum certification. Which sustainability features survive final pricing is an important point to watch.
What Will Market Square Feel Like When It Reopens?
The stated goal is a more useful civic space—not simply a prettier one.
Community feedback favored ground-floor multipurpose rooms for meetings and community events, a more legible City Hall entrance and improved public access. The redesigned plaza is intended to offer better seating, shade, universal access and event infrastructure while respecting the historic setting.
That balancing act has driven much of the design review: Alexandria wants to preserve the 1871 landmark, remove an awkward mid-century intervention and create a public building that does not feel mysterious to the public it serves.
Gaskins has said the renovated site should do more than acknowledge attractive architecture. She wants residents and visitors to encounter historic signage, interactive exhibits and places that explain “the full story of our community”—including the Market Square histories of slavery, emancipation, Reconstruction and Jim Crow that were largely invisible in the old plaza.
During City Council’s January 2026 review of the exterior design, Gaskins acknowledged disagreements over details but emphasized the larger result: “At the end of the day, this is a good project and a project that we should all be excited about.”
The Bottom Line
For the next two years, Alexandria’s civic heart will remain noisy, inconvenient and hidden behind fencing. Parking is tighter. Government offices are scattered. The farmers’ market has shifted. Businesses that once benefited from hundreds of City employees and visitors at 301 King Street are living through a long disruption.
But the project is not simply about polishing a historic façade. It is an attempt to solve decades of accumulating failures beneath, behind and inside one of Alexandria’s most recognizable landmarks—and to rebuild the public square above a garage the City says was no longer a sensible candidate for another temporary fix.
By fall 2028, if the current schedule holds, Alexandria should have a restored 19th-century landmark, a modern seat of government and a rebuilt Market Square designed for the next half-century. Until then, the construction camera may be the best seat in the house.
