During their Oct. 21 business meeting, the Orange County Board of Commissioners selected a design for the county’s future crisis diversion facility. The chosen design—the original scheme with simplified architectural features—includes all the components recommended by the Crisis Diversion Facility Subcommittee while saving the county approximately $1 million.

The 19,825-square-foot facility is estimated to cost $27.2 million and will include the following features:

• 12-bay Behavioral Health Urgent Care (BHUC) unit for individuals ages 4 and older with short-term triage, stabilization, assessment, and observation needs
• 16-bed Facility-Based Crisis (FBC) unit for adults requiring longer-term (more than 23 hours) care
• Community wing featuring a peer living room and resource center to support discharge and connect individuals with treatment and supportive services

Gilbane Building Company, the Construction Manager at Risk, provided a preliminary construction budget estimate of $25.7 million for the facility in July 2025. When additional costs for furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FFE), owner’s contingency, and commissioning services were added, the total budget estimate for the project increased to $28.2 million. To address the budget gap, the county asked CPL Architecture and Gilbane to identify options to reduce the facility’s scope while maintaining core functionality.

In April 2025, the Board of Commissioners approved the purchase and sale agreement for a five-acre parcel off Waterstone Drive in Hillsborough for $1.35 million to serve as the site for the new facility. Once complete, the crisis diversion facility will provide a supportive, therapeutic environment for individuals experiencing behavioral health crises — diverting them from emergency rooms and the criminal justice system.

Planning and design for the facility will be finalized later this year, with public engagement opportunities to follow. Groundbreaking is anticipated in 2026, and the facility is slated to open in 2027.

Background

In April 2019, more than 30 community stakeholders — including representatives from the criminal justice system, healthcare, behavioral health, and housing sectors — participated in an Orange County Sequential Intercept Mapping (SIM) workshop facilitated by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The SIM process identified the need for a crisis diversion facility as a critical gap in the county’s behavioral health and justice systems.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners approved a contract for a behavioral health crisis diversion facility in 2022, followed by authorization for design and construction in 2023 under the county’s Capital Investment Plan. In April 2025, the Board selected Gilbane Building Company as the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) for the project.

Once operational, the facility will play a key role in the county’s crisis continuum of care. It will ensure that individuals in behavioral health crisis receive appropriate, therapeutic intervention — whether brought in by first responders or arriving voluntarily. The county estimates approximately 365 behavioral health visits per month, supporting individuals before, during, and after crises.

For updates and additional information, visit www.orangecountync.gov/3168/Crisis-Diversion-Facility