The future Hall County government headquarters is about to get its first tenant.

County officials announced this week that the county's Elections Office will move to the old Liberty Mutual building on Browns Bridge Road early next month.

It will be the first county agency to occupy the new home base for the county government at 2875 Browns Bridge Road.

By the end of this summer, the building could house the county's commission and administration staff, tax, finance, human resources, planning and other departments, County Administrator Randy Knighton said.

The move is supposed to create a one-stop shop for county government needs.

It is also expected to save some departments money.

Currently, the Hall County Elections Office has to pay about $8,000 in monthly rent, Knighton said.

In a busy election year, local elections officials have a tight timeframe in which to move their operations.

Elections Supervisor Charlotte Sosebee said the office has to give the U.S. Department of Justice 90 days' notice before moving its operations.

There are also rules on who can transport voting equipment and state-sponsored servers used for counting votes.

Sosebee said the new space, on the bottom floor of the old Liberty Mutual building, will be comparable in size to the office's current setup.

In a county news release, Sosebee said the new space would be in a "more convenient, visible location at the corner of Browns Bridge and McEver roads."

"This is going to be a real improvement for our voters," she said in the county news release.

Commissioners, once shaky on their decision to purchase the old insurance company property, moved forward on the new design of the building in early December.

The county spent $6.1 million on the Liberty Mutual Building in August 2010 through a credit line that will be repaid using special purpose local option sales tax revenue.

They hesitated on making the move in June 2011, even considering selling the property, after estimates for the renovations came in between $5 and $8.5 million.

County documents show new projections for renovations are now at about $2.9 million.