Arapahoe County to reconfigure offices, reallocates $320,000 from CIP to add HR and finance workstations

Acting facilities leadership told the Arapahoe County Board of County Commissioners that the county needs to reconfigure existing office space to accommodate positions approved in the 2026 budget and to support a return-to-office objective.

Michelle Halstead, acting director of Facilities and Fleet Management, said staff have identified rooms that can be converted—including a conference room inside the IT suite and a small ground-floor conference room near HR—and proposed swapping a finance attorney's office to create six new finance workspaces and ten HR workspaces. "So what you'll see we're asking for ... is to capture some additional space, to facilitate these requests," Halstead said, describing the design and attachments included in the meeting materials.

Staff estimated tenant-improvement and construction costs at about $320,000 and said they would use project savings from a completed space study consolidation CIP project to fund the work. A finance representative said three existing finance positions currently have no assigned desks and that three of the six new finance workspaces will be occupied shortly after construction is complete.

Commissioners asked for visual clarification of the identified rooms; staff said many HR modifications could be done immediately with parts on hand, while some finance work would require bidding a general contractor. The board indicated support in the drop-in—chair reported five thumbs-up to proceed—and staff said they would go to bid and return a schedule for construction timing and contractor selection.

Staff told commissioners they expect incremental work to begin quickly and aim to complete major items by the end of the year pending contractor schedules and bidding timelines.