New NC Education Campus is rising in Raleigh. What it means for state employees
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Construction is scheduled to finish by the end of 2027, with commissioning in early 2028.
- Project has guaranteed maximum price capped at $400 million unless changes are made.
- DPI, UNC System, Commerce and other agencies will move into the new Education Campus.
The new North Carolina Education Campus is rising on a downtown Raleigh city block as part of the state government complex.
The construction site is across from the giant globe of the Museum of Natural Sciences, and cranes have dotted the capital city’s skyline for several months.
But visuals for what it will look like have been closely guarded, until now, by the General Assembly, which has given the Legislative Services Office oversight of the major project. The News & Observer is the first to publish all the visuals for the project, provided by legislative services.
In addition to what it will look like for everyone who works, visits or lives downtown, we now know what this will mean for state employees who work downtown, too.
When the Education Campus will open
The plan is to finish construction by the end of 2027, then commission the campus — verifying its systems are working as intended — in early 2028, Legislative Services Officer Paul Coble told The N&O in an interview.
State employees would then begin moving into the building in 2028.
How much it will cost
The Education Campus is set to cost $400 million, allocated over multiple spending bills that became law under the current and past governors — and an amount that Coble says is unlikely to change.
“We have what we call a GMP — guaranteed maximum price. We negotiated guaranteed maximum price. ... We negotiated all the prices on everything, and set the price, set all the expenses. They’re all capped. And so unless we make a change, we want something new, like some amenity we didn’t include, then it’s going to come in at $400 million,” he said.
Coble said they ordered elevators and steel early, and avoided tariffs instilled by the Trump administration.
The construction project team is led by LS3P, with subcontractors Barnhill, Balfour Beatty and Metcon.
Metcon is building the Catawba Indian Nation’s casino in Kings Mountain and the N.C. Troopers Association’s museum in Raleigh, The N&O previously reported. Its CEO was identified as a “relevant party” in one of the federal subpoenas that demanded information on legislative spending but have not led to any charges.
Republican legislative leaders, who control the General Assembly and tasked Coble with the Education Campus project, are working on negotiating a budget after failing to reach a deal on a 2025-2026 spending bill.
Coble said that designs were signed off on by Republican Senate leader Phil Berger, and in the House, Rep. Dean Arp, one of the top budget writers. Former House Speaker Tim Moore also approved plans before he left office at the end of 2024. Arp is an engineer, while Berger and Moore are both lawyers.
What it means for other state government buildings
State agencies moving into the new complex are spread out over multiple buildings both downtown and elsewhere in Raleigh, some in rented office space.
- The Department of Public Instruction is currently housed in what is called the “Pink Palace” because of the pink exterior stone color, at 301 Wilmington St. in Raleigh. Central-office DPI employees will move a block away to the new campus.
- The Department of Commerce is also located in the old education building, so some of those employees will also move into the new Education Campus.
- UNC System office employees now work in leased space in The Dillon building downtown. They’ll relocate to the new campus, and rented space will no longer be needed.
- Community Colleges System offices are now in their own building on Caswell Square, which is adjacent to the new Education Campus. Staff will move over, and eventually some of the buildings on that square will be demolished.
The university system was based in Chapel Hill until legislative leaders decided to move it to Raleigh, with Berger saying having it “close to the seat of government” and sharing space with K-12 schools, community colleges and commerce will be beneficial “because all of them, at least in part, need to be focused on economic development,” The N&O reported.
Coble said the long-range plan is to renovate the old education building, where DPI and Commerce are now. Beyond that, eventually the Archdale Building, which is the tallest building facing Halifax Mall, will be demolished. It will not be replaced.
Another long-term plan is to construct a new building for the governor’s office, with an aim to make it an impressive location to take visiting dignitaries and business leaders considering bringing major economic development to North Carolina.
A previous state budget that was passed called for it to be built on an area of what is now the surface parking lot between the Executive Mansion and Museum of History. But that plan has been scrapped, and potential future sites include older state records buildings or the green space left by the demolition of the Bath Building, Coble told The N&O.
The Bath Building demolition was overseen by the Department of Administration.
How much space for each agency
Here’s the breakdown in square footage for each department’s floor space in the building:
- Department of Public Instruction: 60,637 square feet
- Community Colleges: 38,100 square feet
- UNC System: 37,365 square feet
- Commerce: 20,284 square feet
- NC State Education Assistance Authority: 12,394 square feet
Parking for state employees
There will also be an underground, two-level parking garage with more than 500 spaces. A final number has not been determined yet. Coble said the deck only goes two floors down because of the location of the water table under the construction site.
How state government power dynamics factor into new campus
The campus plan itself reflects political power dynamics. Rather than the project being overseen by the Department of Administration and State Construction Office within DOA, in 2022 oversight was given to the General Assembly.
And more specifically, the Legislative Services Office led by Paul Coble, who is a former Raleigh mayor and former Wake County commissioner.
Coble runs the Legislative Building and Legislative Office Building, a job he was hired to do by Berger and Moore. Those two leaders also gave him the task of overseeing the Education Campus project. Coble said that Berger and Arp have been the “driving force” behind the project.
Coble’s office, which has a staff of three, was also given oversight of the recent State Capitol dome and roof replacement — again by the legislature, which is controlled by Republicans. That project was completed in 2024. The roof and copper dome are now a shiny copper color, rather than the blue-green oxidization that occurred over time, and will again.
The Department of Administration is a Cabinet agency under the governor’s office, which is now held by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein and previously by Roy Cooper, also a Democrat.
The Administration Building was demolished to make way for the Education Campus, and the agency’s roughly 400 employees were relocated to the Albemarle Building, which is adjacent to the new campus.
In early 2023, Mark Edwards, chief deputy secretary of Administration, told The N&O the agency found out about the building’s demolition plan when everyone else did: when the budget came out. And he said the budget’s 2023 timeline for demolishing Administration was “dangerously aggressive.”
The building came down in 2024.
As far as the new campus, “State Construction has a (memorandum of understanding) with us to do some of the inspection work for us as we go along, because it’s got to fall under the state insurance program,” Coble said.
Coble said they put the project out for bid and chose LS3P to be the lead, from three proposals. It did not go through the Administration department’s bidding process. LS3P is based in the Southeast and has offices in Raleigh as well as Charlotte, Asheville, Greensboro, Wilmington and in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
The N&O asked State Auditor Dave Boliek, a Republican, if his office would look at Education Campus costs.
“It’s something that we’ll probably look at as the process continues. It’s a lot of money,” Boliek told The N&O in February.
The auditor’s office occupies several floors of the Albemarle Building, with windows overlooking the construction site.
This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "New NC Education Campus is rising in Raleigh. What it means for state employees."
