Glendale officials say downtown campus on track for mid‑April substantial completion

City construction staff told the Glendale City Council at a Jan. 27 workshop that the Downtown Campus Reinvestment Project is nearing finishing work and remains on budget and schedule.

"We are approaching our last 90 to 120 days of effort on the project right now," Mr. Garcia said in the presentation, noting a target of mid‑April for substantial completion of the building and mid‑May for Murphy Park. Garcia said crews continue façade, hardscape and interior finish work, and that furniture installation is being done in parallel to accelerate move‑in.

Staff showed progress photos and described work on the glazed facade, plaza planting, stairways and an amphitheater bowl. Garcia said the contractor is completing concrete bench pours for permanent seating and finishing lawn grading. He estimated roughly 300 people can be accommodated in the hard bench seating and a further 400–450 on the lawn behind it, but cautioned the figure is a rough estimate pending final layout and event planning.

Council members focused questions on sequencing and schedule for lower‑level (basement/garden level) work, rooftop mechanical screening and the phasing of moves into the new building. Garcia said the contractor has been working top‑down through trades and that staff will provide additional lower‑level photographs in the next update. He said mockups of potential rooftop screening options have been studied but no physical screening had been installed and any later refinements would not delay building opening.

On move‑ins, staff said the plan is to phase occupants from late April through early June after the building reaches substantial completion, and that furniture deliveries for the 3rd floor were expected the first week of February. Council members asked staff to publish a clearer phasing schedule and voiced concern about council offices not having been available for multiple years.

The presentation closed with council members thanking staff for keeping the project on budget; councilors urged continued attention to timelines and to provide more detailed move‑in sequencing to avoid surprises for tenants and merchants.

Next steps: staff will include additional basement photos in the next update and publish a more detailed phasing and move‑in schedule for departments and occupants once it is finalized.