College Park is moving forward with construction of a $47 million city hall development, the latest high-profile move to remake its main strip and become one of the country’s top-20 college towns.

With tenants such as Smoothie King, The Hair Cuttery (its new location coming soon to the Station at Riverdale Park), and Shanghai Cafe moved out, the city has started prepping for demolition on the site along Route 1 between Knox and Lehigh roads.

The new development will replace the old city hall, built in 1959, and a nearby strip mall with a more modern building centered around a public plaza.  The new city hall will consist of 38,000 square feet with an additional 45,000 square feet of office space for the University of Maryland and 7,000 square feet of retail on the ground level.

The city, which borrowed $12 million in the fall, is splitting the cost with the University of Maryland, which will house administrative staff in part of the building.

Designed by Baltimore’s Design Collective, the interior will be airy and modern, while the outside will be leafy and pedestrian-friendly. And when the new building is completed in 2022, the outdoor plaza will make this stretch of the Route 1 corridor much more walkable.