GOVERNOR
EASLEY SIGNS "GREEN SQUARE" LEGISLATION
August 5, 2005
For Immediate Release
Contact: Don Reuter (919) 715-4112
RALEIGH – Gov. Mike Easley today signed
into law Senate Bill 692,
clearing the way for the Green Square Project, an innovative
public-private partnership that will significantly expand the N.C.
Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh.
The legislation allows the state to sell most of a Raleigh city block to the State Employees Credit Union for $1. As part of the $100 million project, the credit union would finance and develop a four-story research center for the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, offices for about 615 employees of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources and new credit union offices for more than 300 workers.
The Green Square Project includes the construction of a new 60,000-square-foot State Employees' Credit Union financial services center, a 170,000-square-foot office building for DENR employees and a 95,000-square-foot Nature Research Center that engages the public in understanding scientific research on genetics, dinosaurs and the natural sciences.
The Friends of the Museum will conduct a private capital campaign to address the museum expansion. The city of Raleigh and Wake County have committed $6 million in hotel and meal taxes to the museum’s new research arm.
The project would face Jones Street and be connected to the natural sciences museum via a glassed-in skyway over Salisbury Street.
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, in downtown Raleigh, documents and interprets the natural history of the state of North Carolina through exhibits, research, collections, publications, and educational programming. Hours: Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sun., noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Visit the Museum on the web at www.naturalsciences.org. The Museum is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, William G. Ross Jr., Secretary.
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