Assembly takes a step toward moving City Hall, a step away from new civic center
- Mark Sabbatini
- Sep 9
- 3 min read
Relocating municipal offices to Michael J. Burns Building on track despite rise in projected cost; mayor proposes redirecting $5M from civic center to flood mitigation
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Moving City Hall’s operations from the current aging building to a more modern office building is set to get a public hearing by the Juneau Assembly after members on Monday night voted to move the proposal forward despite a higher price tag than previously estimated.
Purchasing and renovating two floors of the three-story Michael J. Burns Building will initially cost up to about $18 million, depending on the amount of initial refurbishment work, City Manager Katie Koester told Assembly members during a Committee of the Whole meeting. That includes $10.2 million for the office space and up to $7.7 million for a full refurbishment — the latter being about $2.5 million more than projected earlier this year.
On the plus side, relocating will cost the city about $35.3 million during the initial 20-year period, compared to the $43.7 million cost of remaining in City Hall and continuing to lease space in some nearby buildings, Koester said. Furthermore the condition of many existing spaces is dismal.
"It was 83 degrees by the end of the day in my office this past week," she said, referring to her office at City Hall. In the nearby Marine View Building there were five leaks as of last Thursday and "we've got a couple more since then, including water exploding out of toilets on Friday. There's a wall that's rotten through, kind of because of a pinhole leak in the wall. It's just old plumbing that needs to be totally replaced."
The top floor of the Burns building is occupied primarily by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp, while the lower two floors were previously used by state government agencies. Koester said reconfiguring spaces on those two floors, replacing or repairing worn items such as carpeting, and modifying electrical and mechanical systems to meet city requirements would be part of a full refurbishment.
Koester, in a memo, also said a "status quo" move to the Burns space as it is would cost about $1.5 million, while a partial remodel with limited space configuration would cost about $4.5 million. In response to Assembly members asking if those options would be adequate for city staff needs and public meetings, she said "that's a difficult question to answer without additional design work."
"What I don't know is the details of how much (the full remodel) buys us in office space versus cubicle space, primarily because we do need to do a much more detailed space needs analysis," she said. "Who deserves their own office? Who has to have their own office for confidentiality reasons?"
The Assembly voted 6-2 — with Ella Adkison and Neil Steininger dissenting — to advance an ordinance authorizing the purchase process for the Burns building space to a public hearing before the full body at a future meeting. Members also unanimously approved a request for city staff to prepare a more detailed cost estimate of the full remodel option for further evaluation.
In a separate matter Monday night, the Assembly also took a step back on a proposed new downtown Capital Civic Center by initiating an effort to redirect $5 million set aside for the project to cover mitigation costs of glacial lake outburst floods in the Mendenhall Valley.
The center, seen as a combined replacement for Centennial Hall and the Juneau Arts and Culture Center, has a $60 million projected cost that backers hope will largely come from federal funds, grants from foundations and nonprofits, and other sources. The Assembly in 2023 authorized setting aside $5 million with the hope it would help secure additional federal funds. Using other local funds as well as some future cruise tax revenues for the center have been approved since.
Mayor Beth Weldon on Monday proposed city staff draft an ordinance authorizing the $5 million transfer, suggesting $1 million be directed toward maintenance costs resulting from this year’s record flood and $4 million for the next phase of installing HESCO barriers to protect properties near the Mendenhall River. She said the move shouldn‘t endanger the civic center’s long-term future since further support for the project can be provided if needed.
"I'm a big fan of this project so I'm not withdrawing my support by any stretch of the imagination, but a flood is immediate need, and we're talking big numbers and we need the money," she said. Since the Assembly has previously agreed to provide federal matching funds "I think that the civic center could still say that the Assembly is behind us."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
