Employees at Greenwood's Social Security office will have more room to work when their new building is completed.
The building is being constructed on Yalobusha Street.
Gary Mote, public affairs officer for the U.S. General Service Administration (GSA) in Atlanta, said he expected Greenwood employees to move into the new building in April 2007.
GSA's responsibilities include the transfer or disposal of government-owned real property.
The Social Security office has been housed at the federal building on Washington Street for at least 35 years, but it outgrew its space long ago, said Frances Lavelle, district manager.
The lease contract for the new building calls for 11,197 square feet of rentable space. The current office has about 4,500 square feet.
"We're very excited about having more room and having renovated new space," Lavelle said.
Lavelle said she did not expect the office to take on additional work, although it will have more room to expand in the future if needed. Rather, it just needed more space to handle the current workload.
Sixteen employees work at the Washington Street office, which handles more than $12 million a month in benefits.
Lavelle said she would like to add more employees but doesn't expect to do so in the near future because of federal budget concerns.
She has worked for Social Security for 29 years and has spent the last four of those as general manager in Greenwood. Even with the benefits of more space, she said she was disappointed to be leaving downtown, especially as its revitalization continues.
"We would've been proud to be part of it," she said.
The lease contract on the new building was awarded Feb. 8, with Jimmy Henderson as the lessor. The lease is for 10 years, but it is "firm" for only five, meaning that it could be canceled after the five-year mark.
The 10-year lease means building costs can be spread out over a longer period, Mote said.
