The City and Borough of Juneau plans to move into a new City Hall by the end of this year. That means the current building could be up for sale in the coming months.
At a committee meeting Monday night, the Juneau Assembly moved forward with an ordinance that – if approved – would make the property located on Heritage Way in downtown Juneau available for purchase. The minimum bid would be $2.5 million.
This comes after years of push and pull between city administrators and Juneau voters over whether Juneau really needs a new City Hall.
At the meeting, most Assembly members supported putting some conditions on the sale to support community goals, such as year-round occupancy. But some cautioned that adding too many conditions may dissuade potential buyers. Assembly member Christine Woll said the city will need to balance values with recouping funds.
“This project to move City Hall has been very expensive, more expensive than we would have ever wanted, and the public is not happy about it,” she said. “So I do feel like we have a responsibility to get at least fair market value for this property.”
It’s unclear what the fair market value of the property is — the Assembly voted against paying to get it appraised. The $2.5 million minimum bid was determined with input from the city assessor. According to the city administration, it’s expected to cost $20.5 million to purchase, renovate and move into the new City Hall location.
City Manager Katie Koester said while the current building is in a prime location, it needs a lot of work.
“I think there’s definitely a good chance that someone who purchases would want to take down the building,” she said.
Juneau’s current City Hall building near Marine Park fits less than half of city employees and needs millions of dollars in maintenance and repairs. The city asked voters twice during recent municipal elections to approve bond debt to pay for the construction of a new City Hall, but they shot it down both times.
Then last fall, the Juneau Assembly greenlit the multimillion-dollar purchase of two floors of the Michael J. Burns building in the Flats neighborhood to become Juneau’s new City Hall location after renovations. Koester said the sale could take a while, but the intent is to finalize it by the time city staff move into the new location.
“We are working towards a deadline of moving into that building by the end of the calendar year,” she said. “Still probably a little optimistic, but that would be the goal.”
The Assembly plans to take public comment on the ordinance at a future meeting before voting. But they will also take up the topic again as a committee to discuss how they want to sell the building and any potential conditions they want added to the sale.
