Franklin is not just swapping out an old City Hall. The city is tearing into an entire downtown block, turning the Square into a new civic campus with a three-story City Hall, a one-acre public park, wider sidewalks, more plaza space, underground parking, and fresh street-level shops.
City officials say the goal is twofold: give municipal staff a functional, modern home and turn the Square into a daily hangout spot that can also handle big festivals, markets, and everything in between.
One Block, Not Just One Building
The seven-part plan keeps City Hall on the Square but reshapes the entire block. The project calls for a new City Hall facing the Square, street-level commercial tenant space along Third Avenue South, an enlarged public plaza and a subgrade parking garage with roughly 200 spaces, according to the City of Franklin. Updated renderings and a short video walk residents through the plaza layout, the one-acre park and planned streetscape upgrades, and a clip on the city’s official Facebook page highlights the overall scope and schedule; the reel offers the quick-hit version.
Design, Park And Public Amenities
Designers working with the city have sketched out a roughly 90,000-square-foot, three-story building that steps down toward the eastern neighborhood and reserves about 5,000 square feet for commercial shell space, according to project materials. At the center of the master plan is an accessible pedestrian promenade and a one-acre park anchored by a fountain, intended to host both major events and low-key weekday use. Demolition and site work are complete, and crews have finished the first-floor concrete pour, per Tennessee Town & City.
Builder, Budget And Timeline
Skanska, the project’s general contractor, reports that it signed a roughly 53 million dollar contract to build the three-story hall and began site work in May 2025. Vertical construction is now underway. Local coverage notes that Franklin is eyeing a summer 2027 opening, with the City Hall piece of the redevelopment landing in the high tens of millions of dollars. For the company’s breakdown and broadcast coverage, see Skanska and WKRN.
What This Means For Downtown
City planners say the below-grade parking and larger plaza should ease the familiar downtown parking crunch during big events and create more space for vendors, outdoor dining, and community programming. Not everyone is sold, and some residents have questioned the overall size and price tag. The project replaces a block-long occupied by a 1970s-era mall and is intended to pull municipal offices back into closer contact with the historic Square. For more local context, see City Now Next and Tennessee Town & City.
How To Follow Progress
The city has put much of the project online, including renderings, work-session material,s and ways for residents to watch construction unfold in real time. Public webcams and the capital-projects dashboard track progress from home. For technical documents and contractor updates, residents can look to the designers’ project information and the builder’s formal release; live feeds are available at Cam 1 and Cam 2, and additional materials are posted by OHM Advisors and Skanska.
