Raleigh's planned 17-story public safety center already cleared one hurdle: getting funded as rising costs and shrinking revenue pinch the city's budget.

Now there's a new challenge: Finding enough temporary offices in one of the Triangle's most in-demand markets for 225 workers who will be displaced by the project.

Downtown Raleigh's office vacancy rate was 4.4 percent at the end of March -- the lowest it has been in seven years, data from Karnes Research show.

And none of the available space was big enough to house all those city workers under one roof, according to a Highwoods Properties market survey.

Competition for the scraps has allowed landlords to increase office rents to a record average of $20.25 per square foot.

The city doesn't have much time. It is scheduled to break ground early next year on the Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center at McDowell and Hargett streets.

The building will take the place of the 46-year-old police headquarters that stands on that spot.

The city likely will have to split up the divisions that occupy the building while leaders await the tower's completion in 2012.

The hunt for available space may even lead to the suburbs, says Julian Prosser, the assistant city manager heading the investigation. "We're looking at different options," he says. "They don't all require the same type of space or the same proximity to downtown."

Because of the scarcity, city officials aren't giving up any clues.

But there are a few suspects.

Among them: a 34,000-square-foot warehouse-turned-nightspot at 215 W. Cabarrus St.

The building is known for its most prominent former tenant, The Warehouse, a restaurant and nightclub that tried to transform the city's warehouse district; it sank into bankruptcy five years ago.

Raleigh investor Jim Anthony bought the building last year with hopes of reviving the building as a live-music or comedy venue.

No agreements have been made.

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Condo caution continues on the fringes of downtown Raleigh.

* York Properties has decided to press the pause button on One Eleven Seaboard, a 53-unit project that the Raleigh developer plans at Seaboard Station, off Peace Street near Capital Boulevard.

The city approved plans for the four-story mix of condos and shops last year. York was to begin building in the fall. But rising building costs and a slow market are causing the company to hold off indefinitely, says Smedes York, who is a partner in the project.

The developer is reimbursing deposits paid by those who were reserving units. "We felt like without a definite time table, we shouldn't continue to hold the reservations," York says.

* Raleigh developer Bobby Lewis is pulling plans to build as many as 42 condos on 1.1 acres next to the post office on Fairview Road, in Raleigh's Five Points neighborhood.

To build the four-story, 55,500-square-foot project, The Fairview, Lewis needed the support of neighbors to get the property rezoned. But there has been some pushback over the building's height.

Now Lewis is focusing on a development that could be built without rezoning. It could include mostly offices, but a few top-floor condos are possible, he says. Oh, and that plan, under the current zoning, could stand taller than the one the neighbors didn't dig.

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